Snoopy vs. the Red Baron

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Members of the Toronto 50's senior hockey team Lee Macisaac, from left, Gord Slater, John Barry and Don George wait for the Zamboni to finish at the Senior World Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa. The Santa Rosa-based teams did well, with two teams winning gold medals in their respective divisions. [Photo by Kent Porter/The Santa Rosa Press Democrat]



These articles are arranged from the most recent down, so you'll always find the newest news about Charlie Brown and his friends toward the top; older articles will be located further down, or on previous pages.





Old pros

Hockey lovers defy their age to hit the ice, play out their dreams in seniors world tourney in Santa Rosa

July 22, 2007

By Bleys W. Rose
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

You would think a doctor would know better than, at the age of 50-something, to skate out on the ice, flail at a puck and tempt serious injury.

That would be a losing argument with Chris Barker, a family practice physician with Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.

"On ice, you fall and you don't have weight-bearing injuries, just bruises. You have a hockey stick for support, like a cane. And hockey players have lots of protection," says Barker, slapping at his body armor that makes him appear twice as large as he is.

Barker was one of many local stars among about 500 hockey players who played in the weeklong Snoopys Senior World Hockey Tournament that ended Saturday at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. At the end of his last game, several of his patients came by to congratulate him on his very sweaty performance on ice.

For 17 years, Barker has been playing on one of Santa Rosa's teams designed for people older than 40 who love to play hockey.

"Most guys started playing when they were young, but I didn't discover hockey until I was 39 and brought my kid to this rink," Barker said. "I played pond hockey near Chicago, but nothing serious."

Well, these guys who played on 52 teams in the Senior World Hockey Tournament were plenty serious.

Barker's team, the Santa Rosa Bombers, didn't do so well, but two other Santa Rosa-based teams did. The Red Barons won a gold medal in their division of 50-to-54-year-old players and the Redwood Giants shared a gold medal in their division of 40-to-44-year-old players.

Tournament organizer John Riley said the annual tournament sponsored for three decades by the late Santa Rosa cartoonist Charles Schulz has been a major force in giving aging hockey lovers the chance to play out their dreams on ice.

Riley said that when Schulz took over operation of the tournament and moved it to Santa Rosa, he gradually increased the competitive categories so that people in their early 40s played in one group, those 45 and older played in another, those 50 in another and so on.

The tourney had a division for hockey players older than 75, but not this year, Riley said.

"It is hard to field a team at that age," Riley said. "I think it is wonderful that we have men on these old-timers teams who were young kids playing in our league games at this rink."

This year, teams came from all across the country, with one making the trip from Austria.

Dave Potter, a member of the Indiana Irish Rovers, confessed that his team was largely composed of amateur hockey league players who gouged the ice at the Shark Tank in San Jose when the NHL Sharks weren't using it.

Potter said his team has had a great time playing in other tournaments on the senior circuit such as in Las Vegas and Vancouver, British Columbia.

He concedes the team doesn't have any connection with anybody from Indiana.

"We are a bunch of East Coast transplants who grew up playing hockey," said Potter, who has served 11 years on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and the California Coastal Commission. "For people in local government, this is the only place you get to hit somebody and feel OK about it."



The fair necessities

Old favorites -- including horse racing and the Hall of Flowers -- will be joined by a giant Harry Potter tent, destruction derbies, a variety of music and a Peanuts theme

July 15, 2007

By George Lauer
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Paeans to Peanuts, homages to Harry Potter, superhero celebrations, a Mexican-style rodeo, destruction derbies and an extra week of galloping thoroughbreds.

The 72nd edition of the Sonoma County Fair aims to have something for everybody during its two-week run beginning Tuesday.

More than 300,000 people are likely to pass through the gates and Jane Engdahl, the fair's special events coordinator, said they'll be greeted by the widest variety of attractions she can remember.

"We've been trying for years for the Peanuts connection to happen, and finally its happening this year," Engdahl said. "That should be a lot of fun."

The Sonoma County Fair, in conjunction with the Charles Schulz family and United Media, which syndicates the comic strip, celebrates Peanuts on Parade this year. The official theme -- Bee Cool featuring the fair's mascot Barnabee -- is tied to Snoopy's Joe Cool character in the legendary strip.

The Hall of Flowers, an award-winning extravaganza and one of the fair's featured attractions each year, will be all about Snoopy and his people.

Throughout the two-week fair, the black-nosed beagle, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and other characters will make periodic visits to the fairgrounds, which will be adorned with all kinds of Peanuts-obilia.

Snoopy and the gang share the stage with Harry Potter. The seventh and final book in J.K. Rowlings international best-seller series hits bookstores Saturday, right in the middle of the fair's run.

"We couldn't pass that up," Engdahl said.

So a 60-by-80-foot tent will host a Wizard Fest for the entire run of the fair with contests, demonstrations, games, readings and other activities planned daily.

Destruction derbies are scheduled Friday and Saturday this week. And the fair plans several one-day promotions, including Superheroes Day on the first Saturday.

Choosing the top entertainers this year depends on your age and your taste in music.

If you're in the 20-and-under demographic, the big attraction Thursday will be the high-energy Jonas Brothers -- Kevin, 19; Joseph, 17, and Nicholas, 14.

"I've been getting calls for weeks about the Jonas Brothers and the voices are all young females," Engdahl said. "As soon as I hear the voice, I know what they're going to ask before they ask it."

The answer for the past two weeks has been: Sorry, sold out.

For the grayer of hair, big names at the fair this year include Eddie Money on Wednesday and Melissa Manchester on July 26. For country music fans, the big show will be Blake Shelton on July 25.

"We were lucky to sign him before his name really took off," Engdahl said. "If we were trying to get him now, we probably couldn't afford him."

Shelton, with several songs and albums nominated for Country Music Association awards, was named Top New Male Artist by Billboard Magazine.

Two of the most popular days at the fair -- the Charreada (Mexican rodeo) and La Fiesta de Mariachi -- are scheduled July 22 and July 29, respectively.

The Charreada, traditionally the last Sunday of the fair and a major contributor to the largest single-day gate during the two-week run, moves up to the first weekend this year.

One of the top five county fairs in California as measured by attendance and revenue, and No. 1 in horse racing revenue, the Sonoma County Fair made a couple of scheduling changes this year to make room for an extended run of Wine Country Racing.

The fair begins a week earlier than in the past and horse racing will go on six days after the fair closes July 30.

Two years after building a turf track, the Sonoma County Fair teamed with the Solano County Fair to produce 23 days of Wine Country Racing -- the first week ending this weekend in Vallejo, followed by nearly three weeks in Santa Rosa.

The Solano County Fair was shortened this year as officials weigh the future of the Vallejo fairgrounds. The one-year experiment will help determine the future of horse racing outside the traditional fair dates.

"Vallejo's decision to shorten their fair and the uncertain future as to the development of their facilities makes this a win-win," Sonoma County fair manager Jim Moore said.

Horse racing and simulcast off-track betting are the fairs primary money makers so extending the run in Santa Rosa is expected to help the fair's bottom line.

In two weeks of horse racing at the Sonoma County Fair last year, the betting handle was $40.2 million, including on-track, off-track and advanced deposit wagering, a 4 percent drop from the previous year, according to the California Horse Racing Board.

Last year, the fair drew 370,000 people, but because everyone under 13 was admitted free, paid admission was 134,700, an 8 percent drop.

Fairgoers 12 and under will be admitted free this year.



Schulz's Youth [book review]

June 5, 2007

The Comics Reporter
www.comicsreporter.com

Publishing Information: About Comics, softcover, 296 pages, May 2007, $14.95

About Comics' Schulz's Youth makes a fine companion volume to both The Complete Peanuts and About's own 2004 collection of the It's Only A Game material. Although made up mostly of single-panel cartoons that were run in the Church of God (Anderson) magazine Youth, publisher and editor Nat Gertler has supplied three supplementary sections: illustrations from a youth convention, a series of illustrations and cartoons from the book Two-by-Fours and cartoons in the same vein as the Youth material that ran in Reach at the end of the 1960s. It's a nice suite of work.

In addition to seeing a looser version of Schulz's linework and coming face to face with the still-startling oddity of his teenager designs after years of immersion in the kids-only Peanuts, the great thing about Schulzs Youth is that the strip doesnt always work that well. It is a legitimate creative effort; it doesnt feel tossed off. If its casual work, its casual work from a cartoonist so skilled that theres not an underlying conceptual strength to the proceedings. In fact, the way Schulz settles on something of a main character and starts to restrict the areas in which he finds humor is the same winnowing process that all strips undergo, even panel features like the one presented here. Schulz grasps at a potentially interesting subject matter thats going to make this material inaccessible to a lot of people: reasonably pious kids struggling to honor their faith. The kids are still full of crap, like most teenagers, but the backbone of the feature takes their commitment seriously.

Schulz plays around with various approaches, and occasionally slips into straight-gag material -- my favorite is a kid who declines an officership by declaring himself too stupid to hold it -- but for the way to best explore the strips primary concern he tends towards jokes that show an unrealistic sense of how religion is applied to day to day living. This makes for some pretty obtuse humor, which isn't aided at all by what feels like a few overwritten captions. Still, there's something lovely about learning that Schulz took the work and the kids for whom it was intended seriously, but in terms of their being readers and fellow Christians.



The Complete Peanuts: 1963-64 by Charles M. Schulz [book review]

The cartoonist hits his stride in these early 1960s strips

May 27, 2007

By Laurel Maury
The Los Angeles Times

There's something deeply comforting about the comic strip Peanuts. Charlie Brown and his friends are always a reliably affable blast from the past. But the strip's full power has been obscured in recent years by the endless specials, the pruned-down collections and the carefully selected classic Peanuts strips that are running in more than 2,400 newspapers around the world. So it's a treat to find that Charles M. Schulz's work, which is slowly being reprinted in its entirety in a series of hip, beautifully researched books, is so deeply nuanced, even raw, and extremely funny.

Charlie Brown is a fairly accomplished diplomat, a guy who has friends, enough wherewithal to run a baseball team, and a real dose of intelligence -- and he's still a loser. He hates himself for not having the nerve to speak to the little red-haired girl, then does a double take: Well, that isn't exactly true ("I hate myself for a lot of other reasons, too.") Peanuts is rife with that sort of gentle American existential angst. Snoopy lies awake at night thinking, To lie awake at night and think about life's problems is terrible ... But to lie awake and think about pizza is intolerable. Meanwhile, Linus wonders how hell ever develop character if he keeps getting everything he wants for Christmas.

The latest installment in the series from Fantagraphics Books reproduces the strips of 1963-64, the years when Peanuts hits its stride. Peppermint Patty and Woodstock have yet to arrive, but Schulz has perfected the one-two-three-Bang! timing of his jokes, and the cuteness of the earlier work has given way to something with more gravitas that doesn't deny the darkness in the world. Among the first of the Happiness is panels is Happiness is loving your enemies, showing Snoopy surrounded by adoring rabbits, which the Little Curly-Haired Girl wants him to hunt.

Peanuts also has mild Christian overtones that have been largely forgotten: Linus quotes scripture, and Charlie Brown calls Dial-A-Prayer to stop the rain falling on their ballgame. The strip also has its share of violence: Lucys idea of stopping a boy from crying is to hit him, and Snoopy perches atop his doghouse with a machine gun.

Peanuts has a lot to say about society, too. When Sally is asked whether she's upset that her friend Linus is going to miss out on Halloween because he's waiting for the Great Pumpkin, she replies: It doesn't bother me because it doesn't affect me. When Charlie Brown protests, Sally says: Horrors! What do you want me to do, get involved?! The strip also is occasionally mean. To get revenge against his sister Lucy, Linus builds a snowman likeness of her. "Youre going to get great satisfaction out of building a snow man that looks like me just so you can stand here and kick it!" says Lucy. Linus replies: "On the contrary! That would be crude ... Im just going to stand here and watch it slowly melt away!"

But Peanuts always stops short of direct social or political commentary. Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, is mentioned, but Schulz never refers to her stance on the environment. Nor is there any hint of President Kennedy's assassination in late November 1963, although the strip, which Schulz drew daily, is numbly unfunny for about a week. The closest Peanuts comes to political anger is with the all-but-forgotten character 5, a boy whose father has renamed him with a number because he believes that soon all people will be reduced to numbers. (5's sisters, 3 and 4, are the unnamed twins in the dance scenes of the first Peanuts Christmas special).

What these comic strips reveal is a sense of power and haplessness, of people who feel a bit lost with their new mid-century might and affluence, and Charlie Brown is the sensitive soul whos the most hapless of them all. Peanuts has a deep and beautiful sadness. Yes, it's a strip about a loser, but he's a loser in a world that's kind enough to let him almost thrive.



Coolest pooch in town

95 Snoopy statues in SR to cap three-year Peanuts on Parade

May 21, 2007

By Nathan Halverson
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

With their faces set in concentration, artists worked hard Sunday to put the finishing touches on 95 Snoopy statues expected to be placed in various locations in Santa Rosa this week.

"It's finally coming together," said Sebastopol artist Erin Ewart.

Ewart was part of a team of seven employees from Redwood Credit Union who worked on a Stay Cool-themed Snoopy at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Their Snoopy statue holds an iced beverage.

More than 100 artists started painting the statues Tuesday and worked long hours to finish by Sunday.

"We were here until midnight last night," Ewart said Sunday.

Each Snoopy is designed with a different theme, ranging from a pirate Snoopy to an Einstein Snoopy.

The 95 statues are expected to start appearing around the city Wednesday.

This is the third and final year of the fund-raiser dubbed Peanuts on Parade. Each year the event has been based on one character from the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles Schulz, who lived in Sonoma County from 1958 until his death in 2000. This years event is named Snoopy's Joe Cool Summer.

In the first year, 55 statues of Charlie Brown were created. And last year artists decorated 76 statues of the bird-character Woodstock.

The program already has raised more than $1.5 million to place the statues and other art around the city and to establish a $5,000 annual arts scholarship.

This year, some of the money will go toward making a bronze statue of Snoopy that will be placed at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in September.

Each statue is sponsored with a $5,000 donation, and for an extra $2,000, the sponsor gets to keep it. The rest -- about 15 this year -- are auctioned off in September.

On Sunday, hundreds of people filed through the fairgrounds to watch the Snoopy statues transformed from white figures into the eclectic mix of Snoopy personalities.

Julianne Celli, 9, of Windsor strolled through the collection Sunday with her mother.

"I think they are all wonderful," Julianne said. "They are all unique and wonderful."

She also said Snoopy was the coolest Peanuts character.

And that sentiment is why Snoopy was saved for the final year, said Craig Schulz, son of the famous cartoonist.

"We want to go out on a high note," he said. "And that is why we chose Snoopy."

The 15 Snoopy statues to be auctioned Sept. 22 are expected to help raise even more funds for the program. Past statues have sold for as much as $36,000.

"A lot of people waited a long time for Snoopy," Schulz said. "Snoopy is the most popular character."



Peanuts lives!

Sparky Schulz may be gone, but the world of Charlie Brown and Snoopy goes on and on

May 6, 2007

By Dan Taylor
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Good ol' Charlie Brown can't fly a kite, kick a football or win a baseball game. His daydreaming dog leads a better life than he does.

But Charlie and Snoopy, the beagle with multiple personalities, have done all right for themselves since their Peanuts comic strip first appeared in 1950.

For fans around the world, the characters still live, especially this summer in Sonoma County, where their creator, Charles M. Sparky Schulz, made his home from 1958 until his death in 2000.

The perennially popular Broadway musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, marks its 40th anniversary this year, and the Pacific Alliance Stage Company in Rohnert Park opened a new local revival Friday.

Santa Rosa celebrates a Joe Cool Summer, with artists decorating 95 statues of Snoopy in his college student persona, to be placed all over town starting next month.

And the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, visited by some 250,000 Peanuts fans since it opened five years ago, salutes Snoopy with a four-month exhibit opening May 16.

The lovable blockhead and his more-or-less faithful dog have never had it so good. Nearly six decades of the Peanuts comic strip and some 70 animated television specials have made them the stars of a global marketing and licensing empire, scoring $1.2 billion a year in worldwide retail sales. Seven years after Schulz's death, reprints from his catalog of 18,000 strips continue to run in 2,400 newspapers nationwide.

"I think it's because, as much as the culture has changed, basic human nature hasn't changed much," said Schulz's widow, Jean. "Sparky tapped into that in a big way. Charlie Brown is insecure and frustrated, and he can't seem to get it right, but he's always hopeful."

Douglas Giorgis of Walnut Creek, who plays the title role in the local production of You're Good Man, Charlie Brown, sees the character as a downtrodden survivor everyone can recognize and admire.

"What's most appealing about Charlie Brown is the fact that he's always trying so hard," Giorgis said. "Everything he does, he puts 100 percent into it. Most of the time, he fails, but he doesnt let that get him down."

In contrast, Snoopy can accomplish anything he wants without effort, said Michael Barr, who plays the irrepressible pooch in the show.

"Snoopy imagines himself as the World War I flying ace, or a fierce animal, but he's also very happy with being a domesticated dog," said the actor, who doubles as a drama teacher at St. Vincent de Paul High School in Petaluma.

The six-character musical, adapted from the comic strip by Clark Gesner, opened March 7, 1967, in New York's Greenwich Village and lasted for 1,597 performances. Gary Burghoff, later famous as Radar O'Reilly in both the film and television versions of M*A*S*H, originally played Charlie Brown.

"Almost everything works because almost everything is effortless," New York Times critic Walter Kerr wrote the day after the opening. "What makes these charmers tick, while you chuckle? They're not cute. They're not arch ... Instead, they drift with the breeze, skipping ever so lightly."

The show spawned six touring companies before moving in 1971 to Broadway, where it closed after just 32 performances. In 1999, a Broadway revival added two new songs and featured 23 new vignettes written by Schulz. The play's true success came from countless productions beyond New York.

"There are several hundred new stagings of the show every year, making it impossible to get an accurate count of how many thousands of productions have been mounted during the past four decades," said Melissa Menta, vice president of corporate communications for United Media, which oversees licensing and syndication for Peanuts.

"It is one of the most-produced musicals ever," Menta said by phone from New York.

On the live theater circuit, or taken to the streets as public art, the Peanuts characters always find a willing audience.

Starting with a public paint-off in mid-May, Joe Cool Summer will dot the Santa Rosa cityscape with Peanuts character statues for the third and last year of Peanuts on Parade.

Charlie Brown and four other Peanuts characters were featured in a similar project from 2000 to 2004 in St. Paul, Minn., where Schulz grew up. The idea found a new home in Santa Rosa, where 56 Charlie figures were installed in 2005, followed by 76 Woodstocks last year.

"They found in St. Paul that the community support and sponsorship got worn out after the first three years, and they did it for five, so we decided three's a good number," said Pat Fruiht, city of Santa Rosa liaison for the project.

At the end of each summer, the statues are auctioned off. The program supports a $5,000 annual art scholarship. It also paid for a $225,000 bronze wall sculpture of Charlie Brown and his friend Linus, to be unveiled Sept. 23 at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.

The money raised this summer will be used either for a proposed permanent bronze Peanuts sculpture downtown or for more scholarships, Fruiht said.

To Jean Schulz, it's no surprise that Charlie, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang live on, year after year around the world -- in print, on the TV screen, onstage and in art displays.

"Once you get to know the characters," she said, "they seem to resonate with everyone on some level."



The Doctor is in

April 29, 2007

By Anastasiya Bolton
KUSA-TV News

BOULDER Fans of Charlie Brown may remember the booth where Lucy sat offering psychiatric advice for a nickel. Her sign said The Doctor is In. Well, the booth has come to life in Boulder.

Evan Ravitz has taken over Lucys seat, offering advice on the Pearl Street Mall.

I do like to help people, said Ravitz, a former street performer, who says hes been helping people on the mall for four years.

The three most common, (are) number one, relationship issues; number two, what do I do with my life, how do I find a job; three, health.

Ravitz said he doesnt have any professional qualifications to dispense advice on the mall, but he can listen and he has a lot of life experience.

I had a pretty dysfunctional family life a kid, he said. I read some Freud, some R.D. Lang. Im 54 years old. Ive seen a lot of things.

His advertising attracts a lot of looks and customers.

This is one of the most recognizable symbols in western civilization. Ninety percent of the people walk by, recognize, Oh, thats from Charlie Brown, so it puts a big smile on everyones face.

So why is Ravitz spending his weekends on the mall talking to people he doesnt know?

In America there is a service for everyone and I guess thats what Im doing, he said.

You can find Ravitz in his booth on the weekends in the shady part of the mall.



Snoopy To Help Local Anti-Smoking Initiative

April 23, 2007

By Fred Connors
The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register [West Virginia]

Dr. William Mercer is living a dream.

Its main players are a lovable dog named Snoopy -- and clean indoor air.

Mercer, who is medical director of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department, spearheaded implementation of the countys Clean Indoor Air Regulation in 2005 and has been active in its enforcement.

The smoking ban, as it is commonly called, is not Mercers only passion.

Since childhood, he has been an avid fan of the Peanuts cartoon characters created by Charles Schulz.

He became interested in the characters at age of 10 and at 14 years old he began drawing them. He sold the drawings for 5 cents each to fellow students at the former Warwood High School.

In 1970 he acquired a Snoopy Flying Ace banner. It was the first piece of a collection that would grow to several thousand figurines, flags, banners, statues and any other Snoopy items he could get his hands on.

Mercer started his medical practice in 1982. He opened an office in 1987 on 12th Street in Wheeling where the first Snoopy pediatrics room was offered. In 2001, all the Snoopy items would go on display at his third floor office at the former Wheeling Clinic. The walls in various exam rooms, hallways and other areas at his facility are covered with Snoopy paraphernalia.

This year, however, he carried his Snoopy obsession to a higher level by sponsoring a statue in the Peanuts on Parade program in Santa Rosa, Calif. The event will feature 100 statues of Snoopy wearing sunglasses. It is called Snoopys Joe Cool Summer.

Schulz lived in Santa Rosa for 50 years until his death at the age of 77 on Feb. 12, 2000.

As a tribute to Schulz, the city places 100 Peanuts character statues at various locations throughout the city. Each of the five and one half foot, 560-pound statues are hand painted in compliance with a pre-determined theme. They may be sponsored by a corporation or by individuals.

After being on display in the streets of Santa Rose from May 24 through Sept. 22, the statues are purchased by their sponsors or auctioned off to the public. Proceeds from the auction go toward art scholarships for Santa Rosa students and toward permanent bronze statues of the characters.

Mercer said this is the last year for the Peanuts on Parade program.

It started in 2000, the year Schulz died, Mercer said. For the first four years it was held in St. Paul, Minn., where he was born. It was moved to Santa Rosa in 2004.

Mercer contacted the Peanuts on Parade committee in December and, after receiving the criteria, he decided to sponsor a statue.

He said at first, I was going to have Joe Cool Snoopy as a tennis player but the idea struck to present Snoopy as Joe Too Cool To Smoke. I had several telephone conversations with Craig Schulz, Charles son. He said there could be no political statements but he thought it was a great idea for me to use the finished statue in Ohio County to promote no smoking by children.

Mercer toned down his message to Peanuts and People For Clean Air. A statue was born.

This is a dream. My love of the Peanuts cartoon characters and passion for clean indoor air are coming together to benefit elementary students of Ohio County.

A professional artist from Santa Rosa, Elizabeth Charpiot, came up with the final design. She will hand paint the actual statue during a paint off beginning May 16 and going 24 hours a day until all the statues are finished and ready for display on May 22.

Mercer said he, along with his three sons and a sons girlfriend, will attend the paint off and participate in the event.

When the program ends in September, Mercers statue will be shipped to Wheeling and begin making its rounds to area elementary schools to promote no smoking.

We will focus on fifth graders because that is the time a child is most apt to experiment with smoking, he said.

He said statistics show West Virginias youth smoking rate is one of the highest in the nation with 28.5 percent of high school students smoking compared to 26 percent of adults.

In West Virginia, 4,900 kids under the age of 18 become daily smokers every year, Mercer said.



Life with Peanuts

Covering the past with Security Blankets

March 22, 2007

By Carolyn Younger
The St. Helena Star [California]

Don Fraser -- who relishes a good story and knows how to tell one -- is looking for accounts from children and adults with treasured memories connected to the Peanuts gang.

Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Sally, Snoopy, et al, have become cultural icons since the Peanuts comic strip first flowed from the pen of their creator, the late Charles M. Sparky Schulz, in 1950.

Fraser, a friend of Schulz and for 35 years a licensee for Peanuts related clothing, and author Derrick Bang are compiling a book of anecdotes for a book they call, Security Blankets.

A glance around Frasers office on Library Lane and its clear that the 72-year-old entrepreneur and former Marine pilot could fill several Peanuts-related books all on his own.

Mementos and memories

Frasers dizzying array of mementos, plaques, cartoons, watercolors, photographs and embroidered and emblazoned clothing covers walls and vies for floor space in a converted five-room bungalow next to the Wine Train tracks.

Impressive as it is, the collection is meager compared to the lifetime of memories tucked in Frasers personal memory bank.

In the course of conversation -- interrupted briefly as a train rumbled past, shaking the house and tilting picture frames -- names of childhood friends and college and Marine buddies, both alive and long-gone, are recalled and honored with tales of shared escapades, projects and dreams, and in the telling seem as fresh as yesterday.

Frasers friendships span continents, decades and numerous business enterprises.

How it all began

A stint with an advertising firm in San Francisco led to Frasers idea of using Peanuts characters to revive sagging cookie and cake sales for one of the firms clients. Which led to a meeting with Peanuts creator Charles M. Sparky Schulz. Which led to the creation of miniature gold plated Snoopy-as-flying-ace pins to promote the ad campaign. That, in turn led to Fraser and Elliott Steinberg founding a company named for Steinbergs daughter, Aviva, and more little pins and tie tacks. When a cry went up for colorful pins, Fraser contacted a Berkeley friend, Robert Hsi, whose family ran a cloisonnŽ jewelry business in Taiwan. Then came toys.

But Fraser was ready to move on. His next idea arrived like a thunderbolt the day he and Schulz were playing tennis. Schulz was wearing a shirt with an alligator languishing at chest level.

I started giving him a bad time about the worlds greatest cartoonist wearing an alligator, Fraser recalled. That was all it took. Several months later he was in the mens clothing business. He dusted off a corporation he had founded in 1968 called Inetics, and then shelved when its initial purpose in life -- as a technology company started with Palo Alto neighbor Jim Rudolph -- ran its course.

As a youth growing up in rural Missouri, Frasers plans for the future didnt extend much past working in his familys shoe factory.

Toed the line at work

During World War II his father, a cutter in a shoe factory, and uncle, a shoe salesman, came up with the idea making wooden clogs, the only footwear then that didnt require ration stamps.

The shoes base was wood, the strap was upholstery webbing and when Fraser and his brother and sisters were old enough, it was their job to tack on the webbing and paint the clogs. From eighth grade through high school, Fraser also worked nights in the Fraser Shoe Company as a janitor. His original intention at the time, when he gave it any thought, was to continue in the family business after high school.

But some really good teachers opened my eyes to the fact that there is another world out there if you get an education, Fraser said.

He landed in the University of Missouri, took the mandatory ROTC program with the idea of becoming a Marine and having his college fees and tuition paid. He next set his sights on Northwestern University, where he switched his major from physics to business  (Reality set in, he said), and within days of graduation headed to Quantico, Va. for nine months of officer training. His next choice was flight school. He trained in T-34s, T-28s and F-9 Cougars and in 1958, joined the first squadron of F-8 Crusaders.

Memories take wing

Nearly 50 years later, models, paintings and photos of the straight-wing and swept-wing planes of his past fill his mini-museum. Each one reminds Fraser of a personal adventure or an old flying buddy. One of these was responsible for giving Fraser two early collections of Peanuts cartoons ... the same buddy was later shot down in Vietnam and spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in what came to be known as the Hanoi Hilton.

By then, Fraser had earned a masters degree in business from UC Berkeley and was holding down two jobs, one at Cutter Labs in Berkeley, the other renovating old San Francisco homes. The death of one of the partners in a flying accident ended the home renovation business, and Fraser moved on to a real estate research company, then to the San Francisco advertising firm, which, in turn, led to a friendship and business relationship with cartoonist Schulz and all the members of the Peanuts gang.

The friendship -- but not Frasers respect and admiration -- ended with Schulzs death from cancer in 2000. In 2005, United Features Syndicate didnt renew Frasers license, ending a business relationship of nearly 40 years.

On to new projects

But Fraser has moved on to other projects, not the least of which are the stories he and Davis Enterprise editor Bang are collecting for Security Blankets, to be published by Andrews McMeel.

In a group of people, there is always somebody who has a Peanuts story, he said. Which is why he has also started an oral history project talking to longtime Peanuts licensees around the world, people he sees as part of the Peanuts legacy. These individual stories will go into the archives of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.

Fraser, who has great faith in the enduring qualities of Schulz and his Peanuts characters, envisions researchers 100 years from now paging through the accounts and seeing how people were touched by this guy.

Perhaps the most daunting project ahead will be dismantling and redirecting a half-centurys worth of memorabilia; at months end, Fraser is shutting the doors of his museum/office.

Cleanup challenge ahead

It will be a challenge, he agreed, but thats the discipline I have to go through so my kids dont have to when Im no longer around here. At 72, you need to be serious about things like that, so as much as it is difficult, it is necessary.

More valuable to him are his family and the friendships hes forged.

Some people accumulate money, and Ive never been good at that, he added, but relationships Im good at. I love the people in my life.

To learn more about the Security Blankets project or to contribute a story, go online to www.peanutsstories.com.



The Schulz Museum: Ode to Comic Angst

February 28, 2007

By Michael Schuman
The Lowell Sun [Massachusetts]

SANTA ROSA, California -- Some Americans wait lifetimes to make pilgrimages to Gettysburg or Graceland. I made mine to Santa Rosa, California.

Peanuts creator Charles Sparky Schulz moved to Santa Rosa in 1973 and ever since then this city of 147,000 in California wine country north of San Francisco has been as associated with Schulz as with Chardonnay. And today it is the home of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, which opened in August 2002.

I dont recall exactly when I first fell in love with Peanuts, but it had to be shortly after I learned that when two vowels go walking the first does the talking. It was before the first Peanuts television special, before Snoopys first battle with the Red Baron, before the introduction of Peppermint Patty and Marcie, before Charlie Brown became a household name. If I had been a Boy Scout I would have earned a merit badge in Appreciation of Subtle Humor.

The opening of the Schulz museum was my main reason for journeying to wine country, since to me a glass full of wine will never measure up to a handful of Peanuts.

The museum is the centerpiece of Schulz land and the focal point for most visitors here. Actually, the real intent of the museums designers was to make sure Santa Rosa remained Schulz land, and not Schulzland. There would be no animatronic Snoopys, no help Linus find his blanket computer games, no virtual reality play catch with Peppermint Patty adventures. The emphasis here is on one thing: Sparky Schulzs work.

Schulzs son Craig says, In reality, it was Jeans (Charles Schulzs widow) personal vision of the museum. Her idea was to keep it pure and simple and dedicated only to my dads art, to be genuine to him. It is meant to satisfy the thirst of true comic fans and Peanuts fans.

While the upper floor of the two-story ode to comic angst is devoted to the man behind the comic strip, the ground floor is devoted to the strip itself, where it is treated not as pop culture but as art. Whether on walls or in display cases, nearly 50 years of original Schulz works are on view, arranged as rotating thematic exhibitions.

Those who think Peanuts is just for kids should spend some time taking in the sentiments expressed in those ubiquitous thought bubbles in the vintage strips on view.

Craig Schulz states, My dad never saw himself as writing towards kids. The strip was more geared towards adults.

A trip through the museum reminds visitors that Peanuts has always been cutting edge humor. Lucys psychiatric booth first appeared in the late 1950s when child psychology was a growing field. To social critics Schulz was mocking the experts by saying their high priced psychobabble was really worth five cents. In 1963, when credit cards and ZIP codes became parts of our lives, he introduced a character named 5, whose dad felt that we are all losing our identity anyway so we might as well call ourselves by numbers.

Even after the Peanuts characters had become stars of television specials and Camp Snoopy theme parks they were spewing satirical spunk on the comics page. Schulz was a deeply spiritual man, as evidenced by the many times he quoted the Bible in his strip. But he had little patience for those who claimed to have all the answers. In a 1976 strip Snoopy is seen writing a book on theology called, Has It Ever Occurred to You that You Might be Wrong? Schulz loved that punch line so much he used it again in 1980 when Linus concluded a Bible class by asking the teacher the same question.

Interestingly, Schulz never publicly admitted to making social statements in Peanuts. His good friend Cathy Guisewite, who draws the strip Cathy, said, When people saw all sorts of meanings in his work, he would always kind of roll his eyes and say he was just trying to make his deadline. But I saw him as writing from the heart and soul. He created something millions of people could respond to in different ways. The whole spectrum of humanity could see something different in what he wrote.

Two art works on display downstairs are not products of Schulzs hands, but have everything to do with his creations. On the south wall is a remarkable mural crafted by artist Yoshiteru Otani measuring 17 by 22 feet and made entirely of 3,588 existing Peanuts strips on small ceramic tiles. The dark shades in the tiles form an image of Lucy holding a football as Charlie Brown runs to kick it. Another Otani work, the wooden bas relief Morphing Snoopy, is displayed nearby and is itself a wonder of art. It weighs over 7,000 pounds and consists of 43 layers cut away to reveal Snoopys evolution, from Schulzs real-life boyhood dog to the modern day dancing Snoopy.

The second story is the place to obtain insight into the philosopher who always defined himself as simply a cartoonist. A timeline and family tree exhibit tell Schulzs professional and personal tales, and dont neglect to notice the comment from cousin Irving Swanson who said of the young man who seemed to do nothing but sit in his house and draw: That boy will never amount to anything.

The biggest stoplight on the second floor is a painted wall from the Schulzes early home in Colorado Springs, where they lived briefly in the early 1950s. Peanuts was in its infancy when Schulz painted toddler daughter Merediths bedroom wall. Subsequent occupants covered it, and present owners Mary and Stanley Travnicek had to remove four coats of paint to expose the images including a rubber duck, Tootles the train and the Saggy Baggy Elephant from Little Golden Books fame; alphabet letters, a little red door at the bottom and early images of Snoopy (on all fours), Charlie Brown and Patty. (Patty was one of the strips original four characters, as opposed to Peppermint Patty who would not be introduced until 1966.) A docent told us that Meredith recently came to the museum and confessed that all she remembered about the wall was the little red door. Where did it lead to, she wondered as a tot.

Schulzs wood-paneled studio is also reconstructed here. Aside from the famous -- to Schulz aficionados anyway -- drafting table with the worn spot where the cartoonist etched and drew for more than 20 years, is an eclectic collection of books: The Boy Scout Handbook, Beau Geste, The Herblock Gallery, The Great Gatsby, Wonderland by Joyce Carol Oates, a set of religious books, several volumes devoted to golf and even a few Peanuts books. His tastes in music were just as diverse; the albums stacked here feature the works of artists such as Nelson Eddy, Dave Brubeck, Buck Owens, Joan Sutherland, Brahms, Vivaldi, Handel. The closest thing to rock and roll is the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.

In the museum courtyard is a sculpture of Charlie Brown, once one of a series which dotted the streets of Minnesotas Twin Cities a few years back. While inspecting the statue look skyward. A sycamore tree holds in its leafy grasp a full sized, holographic red and blue kite, like the one Charlie Brown lost in so many kite-eating trees. At night the kite and string light up, as if to emphasize 50 years of frustration for Charlie Brown.

As the round headed kid would have said, Good grief!



Theyre a good band, Charlie Brown

Just ask any of the many fans who have made the Christmas Cartoon Trio a holiday must-see

December 8, 2006

Ryan Cormier
The News Journal [Wilmington, Delaware]

WEST CHESTER, PA. -- Jackie Browne is tucked behind his drum kit in the corner.

Jeff Knoettner's fingers are hovering over his keyboard.

And Rob Swanson? Well, his arms are wrapped around his stand-up bass.

Its Friday night at Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in West Chester, and this jazz trio is about to begin their two-hour performance.

A happy hour crowd is shuffling in just as the band starts up.

On this evening, folks wont be hearing Duke Ellingtons Caravan or their take on Have You Met Miss Jones.

Within seconds, nearly everyone recognizes the music familiar tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas, along with songs from other classic Christmas cartoon specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

What started out as a bar crowd has become a music crowd.

Beer drinkers are suddenly cheering mid-song after lengthy solos.

Little kids in the dining area are poking their heads around the corner, peaking into the bar with wide eyes.

And bartenders know they are in for a busy shift as the bar crowd keeps growing.

As some in the Wilmington area already know, the band playing is the Christmas Cartoon Trio, a group that has been spreading holiday cheer with its unique shows for 11 years.

A really cool vibe

Swanson, 39, of West Grove, Pa., came up with the idea for the Christmas cartoon act while talking with the owner of the former Bourbon Street Cafe in Newark.

After performing the cartoon show at that club for several years before it closed, the group moved its instantly popular act to Iron Hill in Newark. And as Iron Hill has expanded with locations in Wilmington, West Chester, Pa., Phoenixville, Pa., Media, Pa., and North Wales, Pa., so has the number of dates for the trio.

Its a great fit, says Kevin Finn, an Iron Hill co-owner. It adds a really cool vibe. It gets you in the spirit without overpowering you.

Swanson, Knoettner and Browne are local jazz musicians who play together on and off throughout the year. But when December rolls around, they spend a lot of time together. This year, the group is performing 15 shows in 20 days.

In December, we might as well be married, Swanson says.

The idea for a Christmas cartoon jazz trio may seem a bit odd for most, but not for jazz fans.

The classic score for A Charlie Brown Christmas was written by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. It includes well-known songs like Christmas Time is Here, The Christmas Song and Linus and Lucy, widely recognized as the Peanuts theme.

The original soundtrack, which has been remastered and repackaged this season, has never been out of print in its 41 years. With built-in sentimentality for the songs -- some of which have slowly morphed into jazz standards over the years -- the Cartoon Christmas Trio is a natural fit.

People have a real connection to this music, Swanson says.

Terry and Helen Collison drove up to West Chester from Wilmington to see the years first performance by the trio.

Like many of those who have seen the band before, the Collisons have helped spread word about the shows by telling family and friends.

On this night, they have friends coming down from Philadelphia to see what all the talk is about.

This is just great music. Its first class, says Terry, who has seen the show with his wife for the past five years. These are first-tier musicians in any city.

The Collisons bring their grandchildren to some of the shows, exposing them to live jazz. They make the music so accessible for kids, Helen says.

Yeah, Terry says, youll start to see kids gathering near the band, getting closer and closer.

Youre not going to outgrow this

A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in 1965.

Swanson and Knoettner, both 39, werent even born yet.

Browne, 52, was 11 when it first aired.

And a little Jackie Browne was right there in front of the television watching it, he remembers vividly.

When you were a kid, that was basically Christmas, says Browne, of Newport. That always kicked it off when it came on. Whats Christmas all about? Its for young and old. The show is the same at 11 as it is at 52. Forty years later, its the same. Youre not going to outgrow Santa Claus, and youre not going to outgrow this.

Minutes before he grabs his drumsticks to kick off this seasons slate of shows, Browne is in the Christmas spirit for the first time this year This is still what kicks Christmas off for me. Its this job. Now I feel like its Christmastime.

The group first performed in 1995 -- 30 years after A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired. They say the popularity of the songs have only increased in the years since the trios inception, helping to fuel their annual series of shows.

This music turns heads more than anything, says Knoettner, of Wilmington. It reaches people of all ages. Everybody can relate to it.

Swansons 8-year-old daughter, Aria, sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing at some of last years shows. And Iron Hills Finn watched as his twin 8-year-old daughters happily took in the trios show in West Chester.

Finn says hell play a jazz album at home and his daughters will pipe up, Dad, we dont want to hear jazz. But when it comes time for the Christmas trio, theyre all ears.

They dont even think of it as jazz, he says.

Last year, the trio drew about 100 people at the Iron Hill in Wilmington. And in Iron Hills smaller Newark restaurant, they can attract an overflow crowd.

When people come out to see us, they watch it like a concert, Browne says. They come to specifically watch the group.

In November, traffic on Swansons Web site begins to jump, thanks to fans looking for the Cartoon Christmas Trios schedule. At the same time, all three begin to get phone calls from family and friends wanting to know their performance schedule so they can plan their Christmas activities around the shows.

Like the original show, its part of their tradition, Browne says.


Scoring Charlie Brown

Sacramentos connection to the greatest Christmas special of all time

December 7, 2006

By Jonathan Kiefer

Sacramento News & Review

Everybody everywhere knows Vince Guaraldis A Charlie Brown Christmas is a seasonal essential. How cozily the late San Francisco jazz pixies piano-based trio tucks into that familiar mix of traditional and original tunes, as youd tuck your hands into woolen pockets, your chin into a scarf. As of last week, the albums namesake TV special has aired on CBS for 41 years in a row. By now, nobody would deny the just-rightness of Guaraldis elegantly melancholic music for the inaugural animated Peanuts cartoon -- and, by extension, for a precious and everlasting holiday mood.

Sacramentans in particular have good reason to give the albums new Fantasy Records enhanced-edition reissue a whirl. Purists will know that previous releases got the performance credits wrong, but theyre listed properly now (yes, thats actually bassist Fred Marshalls warm support and drummer Jerry Granellis light framework of rim clicks, brush work and cymbal bells). Mere adherents will appreciate four new, illuminating alternate takes. Everybody else can gloat about how Sacramento made Guaraldi famous in the first place.

Its right there on page one of the liner notes, by San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joel Selvin another passing reference to Guaraldis big break on Sacramento radio. Whats that about?

In 1962, before Charlie Brown, Guaraldis trio released Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, a spirited take on Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfás already spirited soundtrack to the Marcel Camus film. Naturally, Samba de Orpheus became the albums single, but the B-side proved more important. That was a tune called Cast Your Fate to the Wind, an original that Guaraldi had played in clubs for years, and the albums shortest track at just over three minutes. It was supposed to be an obscurity -- filler, as far as producers were concerned.

To some radio programmers in Sacramento, though, it was a discovery. Or so says the lore. Cast Your Fate to the Wind got some airplay here, the story goes, and listener support that eventually would tip Guaraldis career.

Some accounts hold that it happened accidentally, some say willfully, and there isnt even a consensus on which station was responsible. I do remember it being on our playlist, but do not remember it being a smash hit, recalled Les Thompson, a KXOA DJ during the early 60s who now lives in Carmichael. As I recall, it did fairly well here in Sacramento.

Just fairly well? Its been a long time and I really dont remember anything special, said another alleged Guaraldi advocate and former KROY programming director Buck Herring, who later relocated to Colorado, except that our group of DJs liked the sound and began to play it in rotation on the playlist. Nothing exotic, Im afraid.

Yet, if you ask A Charlie Brown Christmas producer Lee Mendelson about it, as SN&R did last week, hell tell you Its true. Those Sacramento disc jockeys were responsible for it all. Mendelson, who still lives and works in Burlingame, recalled that hed been intending a documentary about Peanuts creator Charles Schulz when he first got an earful of Guaraldis unlikely second single, and knew hed found his ideal composer. The documentary didnt work out, but that scrappy little Christmas special seems to have gotten by OK.

When I heard Cast Your Fate to the Wind, it had the adult quality of jazz but there was something childlike about it, too, Mendelson said. And Linus and Lucy is similar in tone. You can tell the same guy wrote it.

Sure enough. Try listening to the grace-note-lilted voicings and easy-swinging metrical frolic of Cast Your Fate to the Wind without bouncing back to A Charlie Brown Christmas. Childlike, yes, but not childish, nor even cartoonish -- which you cant say for most of todays popular Christmas treacle -- and thats part of Guaraldis longevity.

Its also thanks to Mendelson -- and to whoever brought the ideal composer to his attention. If no one wants to hog credit for that, it might be because of something Sacramentans have in common with good ol Charlie Brown modest, unpretentious good taste.


Out of the mouths of babes Linus offers the best message for every holiday season

December 5, 2006

By Ken Buday
The New Bern Sun Journal [North Carolina]

Its one of the best speeches I have ever heard. Yep, its right up there with I have a dream and Ask not what your country can do for you.

Technically, its not a speech, though. Its Linus Van Pelts reading of the account of the birth of Jesus in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I know what you are thinking How can I compare a comic strip character to real people of great thought and inspiration?

Well for me, I knew of Linus Van Pelt long before Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy. As a kid, I paid more attention to cartoons and who the Dodgers were playing than I did politics and social issues.

Plus, listening to Linus read the account of Jesus birth from the Bible was a lot more fun than hearing it in church.

Sometimes, its the messenger that makes all the difference.

So, last week when A Charlie Brown Christmas came on television, I made sure to grab my pillow, gather my daughter and sit on the floor with her to watch the show.

As she is 10 and growing up more every second and as her schedule is sometimes busier than mine, I figure I have to grab my moments when I can.

We had a great time, laughing when Snoopy imitates all the barnyard animals, dancing to Schroeders piano playing and singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

That Charlie Brown, Linus and the whole Peanuts gang offer such a great lesson in the show is an added bonus.

The amazing thing to me about A Charlie Brown Christmas is how timeless it is. The special first aired in 1965 -- the same year I was born, by the way -- and its the longest running cartoon special in television history.

Thats because its message remains so relevant -- though Im sure Lucy would be charging a lot more than a nickel today for her psychological advice.

The whole special is about avoiding the commercialism and materialism of Christmas and getting back to its true meaning -- the birth of Jesus.

I find it hard to believe there was a lot of commercialism associated with Christmas when the show first aired. I hear such wonderful stories all the time about the good old days.

But, apparently Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, sensed what was going on and what was coming in the future. Turns out the Christmas play, decorating the house, getting presents and finding the perfect aluminum Christmas tree dont matter.

And, Linus, the smart, innocent kid who carries a blanket, puts it all into the proper perspective at the end of the show.

Its a message we should all remember this and every holiday season.


Real meaning of Christmas

November 29, 2006

By Tom Purcell
The Contra-Costa Times [California]

GOOD GRIEF.

It has been 41 years since the A Charlie Brown Christmas special first aired. It was broadcast again last night, and the show holds more power over me now than it did when I was a kid.

I think I know why.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Americans, bolstered by stability and prosperity, married young and had large families. In my neighborhood, we had six kids, the Kreigers five, the Gillens four, the Greenaways four and so on.

The design was simple then for many folks Many men and women believed that when they married, they became one under God. They believed their role was to sacrifice for their children, so their children could have better lives than they.

Their mission was to teach their kids good values and to provide them with an excellent education. Thats why so many moved into our neighborhood. It was located a few blocks from St. Germaines Catholic Church and School.

It was a traditional time, to be sure. Most of the dads went off to work while most of the moms kept an eye on both kids and neighborhood.

And although life for adults certainly had its limitations and challenges, there was no better time to be a kid. Especially during Christmas.

At Catholic school, we kicked off Christmas preparations one month before the big day. We put up decorations, sold items to raise money for the needy and practiced for Christmas concerts (we sang real Christmas songs, too, such as Silent Night and Hark the Herald Angels Sing).

We were just as busy at home. My mother was a master at building suspense. She played Mitch Millers Christmas albums on the stereo most nights after dinner and whistled to the tunes as we hung decorations and talked over what to get for one another. She celebrated the mystery of giving and taught us that being kind and helping others were the best things we could give.

Silly as it may sound today, the TV Christmas specials were a real event in our home. We all packed into the family room and plugged in the tree. We turned off all the lamps so that the Christmas lights would shine bright. Then wed wait with great anticipation for the specials.

Every year I laughed out loud when the Grinchs dog, massive antlers strapped to his tiny head, jumped up on the back of the sleigh, causing the Grinch to grimace. In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Abominable Snowman terrified me, but I was always relieved when he turned out a lovable fuzz ball.

But the granddaddy of them all was the A Charlie Brown Christmas special, a show that captured half the viewing audience when it first ran on Dec. 9, 1965. As it goes, Charlie Brown is depressed because everyone around him fails to see the true meaning of Christmas. Lucy complains that she doesnt want stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes for Christmas, but real estate.

To resolve his depression, Charlie Brown throws himself into work as the director of the Christmas play. But that soon falls apart, too.

Distraught, he follows a light in the east and finds his way to a Christmas tree lot. The only tree he can find is a small sickly one.

When he brings it back, the others mock him. But then Linus comes to the rescue. Linus tells Charlie Brown he knows the real meaning of Christmas. He tells the story of Christs birth.

Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men, he says, quoting from the Bible.

Suddenly, the other characters are transformed. They become compassionate and concerned. They decorate the tree and transform it into a thing of beauty. They wish Charlie Brown a Merry Christmas and sing a Christmas carol.

This show holds tremendous power over me still because it brings back powerful childhood memories -- memories of security and love and anticipation for Christmas morning.

But I love it for another reason. Despite Christmas being based on the birth of Christ, a historical figure, and that the shows innocence, simplicity and honesty still make it a ratings winner, it would never be made today.

Good grief.


Behind Vince Guaraldis Timeless Holiday Soundtrack

November 28, 2006

Felix Contreras
Morning Edition, National Public Radio

On Tuesday night, ABC airs what is now a holiday tradition the animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired on CBS in 1965. The shows jazzy soundtrack is a familiar holiday staple, too -- but Vince Guaraldis classic score almost never made it on the air.

Lee Mendelson first paired Guaraldis music with the Peanuts comic-strip characters for a television documentary about artist Charles Schulz and his pioneering strip.

Excited by the results in the documentary, Mendelson, Schulz and animator Bill Melendez set to work on a Christmas special that featured more of Guaraldis music. But the network hated both the special and the music.

CBS didnt think jazz fit properly, Mendelson recalls. The network also wanted professional child actors to do the voices of the characters, not the untrained youngsters Mendelson recruited.

He says the network also objected to the adult themes; they didnt think the topics of materialism and faith were appropriate for children.

Despite their concerns and after a few cosmetic changes, CBS aired the program. It was a hit.

Mendelson and Melendez went on to do 50 Charlie Brown specials, the most recent being last years Hes a Bully, Charlie Brown.

Guaraldi collaborated on 17 shows before he died suddenly at age 43 in 1976 -- too early to see his songs become modern symbols of the holiday.

Guaraldis soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas has never been out of print since it was released 41 years ago. This year, it has been re-released with bonus alternate takes of the classic songs.


Good Grief, Its Great Here!

November 15, 2006

By JAmy Brown
The Santa Barbara Independent [California]

NUTS FOR PEANUTS If you ask Montecito resident Jill Schulz what Charlie Brown would say about Montecito, she is quick to respond, Only my father (Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz) can put words in Charlie Browns mouth. But gregarious PR maven Mo McFadden, a woman with few limitations, chimes right in Hed say, Good Grief ... its great here!

Its clear that Jill agrees with that sentiment, no matter who says it. The daughter of the creator of the famous Snoopy cartoon strip moved to Montecito eight years ago with her husband Aaron Transki. The couple lives in Riven Rock with their two children and, after almost a decade here, Jills enthusiasm about Montecito has not waned.

When we first came here, we were looking to rent. We drove everywhere and when we got to Montecito and saw the trees we said, This is beautiful, this is home, Jill recalled. She says as a child she used to play on the beach at the Miramar Hotel while her father attended the S.B. Writers Conference. I love the sense of community Ive found in Montecito and the diverse backgrounds. There is the great common denominator -- we all want to be here! That alone makes for a great community!

I am so happy here that I wanted to give something back, she said. To that end, Jill will produce a special engagement of Its Christmas Snoopy! On Ice. This fully costumed, opulent skating extravaganza has been performed in Santa Rosa, near where her father lived, for nearly 25 years, but this is the first performance in Santa Barbara. The ice show, benefiting DAWG (the Dog Adoption Welfare Group), will debut on December 1 and 2 at the Arlington Theater and run for four performances.

The production will, of course, feature the worlds most famous beagle and VIP ticket holders will get a personal introduction. Jills creation will also showcase a cast of champion ice skaters, performing Olympic skating routines choreographed by Karen Kresge. To accommodate the short-run show, the Arlington stage will be transformed into an ice rink complete with falling snow -- which might, in itself, be worth the price of admission.

According to Jill, the Schulz family has had a long tradition with ice shows. One time, after putting on the Santa Rosa show, Charles Schulz commented, The thing I enjoy most of all, even more than drawing cartoons, is putting together an ice show.

Jill carries on that ice-interest legacy. She joined the Ice Follies at 21, skating with pros like Peggy Fleming, and was featured in Holiday on Ice at the Radio City Music Hall. A move to L.A. took her off the ice and onto rollerblades. She toured the world with Team Rollerblade, choreographing and directing roller skate events. It was in that venue that Jill learned how to produce full-scale events, and now she says she is excited about sharing that talent with Santa Barbara.

I am hoping this show will be the first of many annual holiday performances, because Id love to make this an tradition. Id love to have Snoopy to be synonymous with Santa Barbara! Tickets are available through the Arlington ticket office, by calling 963-4408, or by visiting snoopyiceshow.com.


The universal appeal of Sparky

November 8, 2006

The Greensboro News-Record [North Carolina]

WINSTON-SALEM -- The gut-busting guffaw came from around the corner, past Charles Schulzs umpteenth panel about Charlie Browns pining for that nameless little red-haired girl.

It came from the Rev. Kenneth Robinson, a retired Moravian minister. He stood there with his wife Grace and their 12-year-old grandson, Jesse, soaking in the simple pen-and-ink scribbles he once talked about in his sermons.

Robinson is retired now. Still, Peanuts makes him laugh. He needs that.

Dont we all.

Its refreshing, especially the way life is today, said Robinson, 79. It takes you away from reality and helps you dream a little bit. You dont think about violence ... you dont think about problems with diversity. Here you have people having a good time with one another and that reflects back on all of us.

Thats easy to see inside the Charlotte and Philip Hanes Art Gallery, the 3,500-square-foot space at Wake Forest University thats home to the largest-ever exhibit on the East Coast of Peanuts.

Stand there long enough -- I swear, 30 minutes tops -- and youll hear someone lose it. At first, its unsettling. I mean, arent art galleries supposed to be as quiet as a cemetery? Not this one during Charles M. Schulz His World in Art & Objects.

Turn a corner, and youll see someone inches away from one of the exhibits 46 panels, reading every word. Walk upstairs, and youll find someone peering into glass cases, looking at a Snoopy phone, a Snoopy astronaut, a Snoopy book, even a Snoopy purse.

Or just listen. From a television downstairs comes the intoxicating solo piano of Vince Guaraldi, the soundtrack of every Peanuts cartoon, followed by the voices Charlie Brown and Linus, Lucy and Schroeder, Pigpen and Sally.

Its the soundtrack of our childhood, the audio signature of a comic strip once read by 355 million readers in 2,600 newspapers worldwide, created by a barbers son called Sparky, who learned about cartooning through a correspondence course.

Over a half century, until his death six years ago at age 77, Schulz used his comic strip to help us see our naiveté, our insecurities and our need for child-like wonder, with the help of a kite-eating tree, the Great Pumpkin or another catastrophic kickoff.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

He has a way to leave things open and allowed for a lot of personal review, gallery director Victor Faccinto said. Thats what the best art does.

Pop culture as fine art may be hard for some to stomach. But theres no denying that folks have taken to Wake Forests new exhibit like, well, Snoopy after the Red Baron.

The month-long exhibit, which closes Wednesday, has drawn nearly 2,000 people -- a 600 percent increase in what the gallery usually expects.

Faccinto has had to hire a full-time security guard, talk on local TV and deal with packed seminars, particularly the one nearly two weeks ago when more than 130 people, some spilling into the hallway, showed up to see Schulzs widow, Jeannie.

The response has shown Faccinto the power of Peanuts. But Steve Turner knew that all along.

Turner, a retired biochemist from Winston-Salem, helped put together the exhibit. He included comic strips and kitschy memorabilia from his own personal collection he started nearly 40 years ago.

Once he read it, first at age 9, he couldnt get the stories, the artwork -- or the lifelong lessons -- out of his mind.

This is not a panacea to the problems of the world, said Turner, 63, but its a little oasis. Like Shakespeares plays, theres something here for everyone.

Turner has seen an 82-year-old retiree bring in his sons stuffed Peanuts figures and heard a young girl spot our ubiquitous black-eared dog and yell, Snooooooopy!

But who can blame them? Through simple circles and lines, Schulz created a mirror of how we live. And you know, we like what we see.


Look out, Red Baron, Snoopys on the warpath

November 7, 2006

Erick Wong
The San Francisco Chronicle

SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON FLIGHT COMBAT GAME.
NAMCO BANDAI FOR PS2, PSP AND PC, $29.99; ESRB RATING E10+

Take a look at most of the Peanuts games released over the years, and youll probably find that most of them revolve around Snoopy. A bunch of depressed schoolchildren arent much to hang a video game on, after all, but the possibilities are endless when youre dealing with a dog who thinks hes anything from a vulture to big man on campus. Yet Snoopy vs. the Red Baron gets carried away from its simplistic title with an increasingly bizarre military campaign, much to the detriment of its source material, though not necessarily the game itself.

Part of the charm of the World War I Flying Ace strips was that the Red Baron remained unseen, and the point of view focused on Snoopy, balanced atop of his doghouse, facing right in grim determination. Even the sequence during the television special Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown stayed within this formula of showing the action strictly from the side, relying instead on flashes of color in the background and a tightly framed loop-the-loop to animate the dogfight.

Still, there has to be something to fight, and in lieu of mowing down troops in the trenches, the game throws out a number of increasingly bizarre war machines that really dont make much sense in the context of the strip. Noncanonical filler is a staple of licensed games, but here theres such a rich history from which to draw that its hard not to be disappointed by the deviations.

I can accept a cartoon beagle piloting an actual Sopwith Camel (disappointingly, the flying doghouse makes only a brief appearance during training mode) with weapons upgrades such as the potato launcher or 10-gauge pumpkin that use spuds and squash as ammo. I can even accept some of the Peanuts cast in supporting roles, like having Lucy as general, Linus as military intelligence and Charlie Brown as janitor. Theres a sense of silly charm and internal logic here that somehow fits into the daydreams of a quixotic dog.

Im relatively certain, however, that the concept of steampunk never made it into the Peanuts strip, which makes swooping down on a giant walking robotic driller or shooting unmanned helicopter drones out of the sky seem terribly generic, like a B-level Sly Cooper or Ratchet and Clank. Its as if they just dropped Snoopy and the Peanuts crew into an already-existing game.

Despite the incongruity, the developers at least have a firm grasp on details The child voice actors sound unpolished, bird talk is used to relay some important plot points, drinking root beer restores your health, a jazzy piano score shows up between missions, and Snoopys occasional muffled peals of laughter are spot-on and disarmingly delightful.

The game also controls surprisingly well, with the Sopwith Camel able to maneuver up and around seaside cliffs and dense forests with the help of airbrakes and rolls that make dive-bombing and dogfighting alike nimble experiences. Automatic rolls and 180-degree turns executed at the push of a button (and limited by a slowly recharging stunt meter) also add to the amount of control.

Strange, then, that the game itself doesnt require much precision to succeed; its a childrens game, after all. Hit the ground or any other solid object and youll just bounce off with a small reduction in the life meter. Run too low, and a root beer icon conveniently appears with the next vanquished enemy. Its a fun time for kids, but for everyone else, theres very little incentive to become the flying ace that Snoopy believed himself to be.

In fact, the closest point of reference for this game isnt the comic strip itself but rather the Camp Snoopy amusement parks where the world-famous beagle and friends likenesses are paired up with kiddie-themed carnival rides. Theres almost no connection to the original comic strip, but its fun to imagine a world in which unnaturally prescient children control hot-air balloons and roller coasters. Tossing the same children into the logistics of trench warfare and naval blockades is an extension of the same concept, but one thats stretched awfully thin -- even for an imaginative beagle.


Youre A Good Man, Charles Schulz

Scott Gummer
HallofFameMagazine.com

Like every American kid born in the last half-century, I grew up on Peanuts. Charlie Brown and the gang offered a daily dose of laughter and levity, even though I had nary a care in the world. However, my connection ran deeper than most of the boys and girls who read Peanuts while stuffing their faces with cereal because I knew the man behind the gang, Charles Schulz.

I knew Schulz in the way that kids grow to know people in their parents circle. He and his wife, Jean, were friends with my folks in my hometown of Santa Rosa, California, the wine country burgh that Schulz, a Minnesota native, adopted in the late 1950s.

Two years after his death from cancer in 2000 at age 77, the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in Santa Rosa. The first time I took my own gang, ages 15, 11, 9, and 5, I discovered a timeless wonder that continues to span the ages. I also discovered a desire to return without the kids so that I might take a longer, deeper look at the meaning of Peanuts.

What sticks with me about Charles Schulz was his modesty. He was rich beyond the wildest of dreams in every regard -- fortune, fame, adulation, respect -- and yet he exuded zero ego. He did not understand the fuss he created, which continues to rake in $35 million annually, ranking Schulz second only to Elvis on Forbes list of the richest celebrities in Heaven. Schulz would not fit the definition of a modern celebrity, for he was not only exceptionally talented but also alarmingly humble. He was the anti-Trump.

The understated design of the Schulz Museum reflects the Tao of Schulz. The building and the exhibits it houses are physically simplistic, just as the comic strip itself. Therein lies the genius of Peanuts. The austerity of Schulzs drawing, his clean lines and crisp lettering, open up an uncluttered space in which Schulzs simpleton children experience the most complex of human emotions insecurity, frustration, longing, aspiration, friendship, kindness, and happiness, which Schulz so brilliantly defined when he wrote, Happiness is a warm puppy.

The downstairs of the 27,000 square foot museum includes a gallery displaying more than 100 original strips (updated every few months), a 100-seat theater that shows Peanuts movies and related programs including a fascinating 1997 interview with Schulz by Charlie Rose, and two exquisite pieces by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani a 7,000 lbs. Morphing Snoopy sculpture, and a 17 x 22 Charlie Brown and Lucy mural composed of Peanuts strips on 3,588 ceramic tiles.

There is also an exhibit hall, and on the recent afternoon I revisited the museum alone, I was treated to Woodstock Small is Beautiful, which runs through October 23. Contemplating Woodstocks relationship with Snoopy it struck me that I had never questioned how or why a dog and a bird could be the closest of friends. Instead, as I suspect Schulz intended, I had only ever seen the purity of the friendship.

Upstairs there are biographical exhibits and mementos that chronicle Schulzs life and career; a vintage photo from his fathers barbershop; the wall from his daughters nursery on which Schulz painted a mural in 1951; a kite-eating tree and birdbath in the courtyard; memorabilia from Snoopys Senior World Hockey Tournament. (The museum is located next door to the world-class ice arena that Schulz built for the town in 1969. An avid hockey player, he hosted and participated in the annual 64-team tournament, now in its 36th year.)

The one piece of memorabilia I found most compelling was Schulzs sketchbook from his stint in the military. Drafted at age 20 in 1943, Schulz served as a machine gun squad leader in Germany, France and Austria. Later he would write, tellingly, The Army taught me all I needed to know about loneliness.

I poked my head in the educational center, where docents were teaching kids, and even a few older kids at heart, how to draw cartoons. I lingered longest in Schulzs studio, meticulously reassembled in the museum. Schulz conceived and crafted every strip solo, for the same reason, he explained in a looping video, that Arnold Palmer doesnt have people hit his 9-irons. Knowing firsthand the feeling of being one man alone in a room with a blank page to fill, I felt the most profound respect and admiration for a man who touched millions by touching nerves deep in our innermost child.

A visit to the Schulz Museum is not only a trip through time but also, and more so, a trip through ones self. Sparky, as Schulzs friends called him, would likely scoff at such retrospection. As his quote on the gallery wall reads, Cartooning is still just drawing funny pictures.


Art & Heart Wake Forest exhibit captures the evolution of a legendary cartoonist

November 5, 2006

By Tim Clodfelter
The Winston-Salem Journal [North Carolina]

Not many art exhibits inspire laughter. But in the case of Charles Schulz His World in Art and Objects, its darned near impossible not to chuckle.

And thats a good thing. For 50 years and over the course of 17,896 daily and Sunday comic strips, Schulz entertained audiences worldwide. His strip, Peanuts, is widely regarded as one of the finest strips in comics history. Even six years after Schulzs death, when the Winston-Salem Journal replaced Peanuts, there were objections from readers not ready to let it go.

The Schulz exhibit is at the Scales Fine Arts Center on Wake Forest University campus through Nov. 15. The exhibit includes 46 original strips, other pieces of art inspired by Schulzs work, and an impressive collection of Peanuts memorabilia.

Outside the gallery are display cases with samples of Peanuts toys and an amusing illustration of Lucy, the strips cantankerous lead female, in Mona Lisa garb as The Mona Lucy.

Visitors walking into the gallery are greeted by a television screen playing an A&E Biography episode about Schulzs life. Then comes a selection of black and white photos showing Schulzs childhood, including pictures of his boyhood dog, Spike, the inspiration for Snoopy.

Then come samples of an early one-panel comic strip that Schulz drew, Lil Folks by Sparky. That was Schulzs pen name when he started in the comics business, and it was his nickname among friends, family and his fellow cartoonists for his whole life. The prototypes of the Peanuts gang are here, including a cute (though silent) beagle that would later become Snoopy.

These are followed by many original strips from the collection of Stephen R. Turner, a local Peanuts enthusiast.

Peanuts is a strip that I knew from when I was probably 10 years old or so in the early 50s, Turner said. My uncle had purchased the first reprint books that came out for a dollar. Over the years, I became an art collector, and some of the dealers also had Peanuts originals. I guess there was a nostalgic thing about that, so I picked them up one or two a year.

The 46 original illustrations in the exhibit are from Turners collection, as is much of the memorabilia. Some art is on loan from the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in California, and from other fans.

People are very delighted to see this material, Turner said. It brings back memories from their childhood.

Some of the strips have yellowed with age; a few are autographed across the artwork; but all are remarkable for their clean lines and Schulzs confident style. Though the characters are largely recognizable from the start, they evolved over time. Snoopy, in particular, transformed over the years, changing from a cute four-legged puppy who acted like a real dog to an anthropomorphic, bipedal prankster.

A close look at the strips reveals little mistakes -- smudges, lines bleeding into word balloons, and so on -- that add to the charm of the strips. Schulz drew his strips out in faint pencil marks before going back over them with ink pens; his pencil marks were so light that he often didnt bother to erase them, and a few are still visible on these vintage strips.

The original strips are surprisingly large, early ones as much as 23 inches wide, later ones narrowing to 19 inches, which allows a close look at the details that were compressed when the strips were shrunk to run in a newspaper. As the strip developed, Schulzs work grew more streamlined. The backgrounds, rarely elaborate, became virtually nonexistent; the focus was on the expressive characters.

Schulz could do remarkable work with just a circle, a few lines and some squiggles to convey his characters emotions. And they were often his emotions as well, according to his widow, Jeannie Schulz. When he was drawing a smile he was thinking a smile, she said. When he was drawing Lucy with her mouth open screaming at somebody, he was feeling that emotion as he was inking on the paper.

One wall in the exhibit explains the 12 Devices Schulz often incorporated into his strips, such as football, baseball, the kite-eating tree, the Great Pumpkin, Linus blanket and more. Art inspired by Peanuts, including a quilt and paintings, hang nearby. Most impressive is Hollywood Hound Dog, a 10-foot wide painting of a blue (in color and emotion) Snoopy by artist Tom Everhart.

Upstairs in the exhibit hall is merchandise including toys, lunch boxes, record albums, posters, books, nesting dolls, Pez dispensers, original animation cells and more. They show how quickly and thoroughly the Peanuts characters became cultural icons.

Visiting the exhibit late on a Wednesday afternoon, I was alone at first, apart from the staff sitting behind the front desk. The exhibit was intriguing, but something was missing. Then a voice came from outside the exhibit hall, a mother telling her daughter Look, theres Lucy!

A little girl, 9 or 10 years old, ran into the hall, enchanted by banners that showed the Peanuts characters. The room seemed to come to life.

That sense of childhood wonder is what elevated Peanuts from a pleasant joke of the day to an American institution.

Charles M. Schulz His World in Art and Objects will run through Nov. 15 at Wake Forest Universitys Charlotte and Philip Hanes Art Gallery in the Scales Fine Arts Center. Admission is free. At 730 p.m. on Nov. 14, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, the author of Good Grief The Story of Charles M. Schulz, will give a lecture on Schulzs life in Room 102 of the center.


Charles Schulz's widow says he might have ended some things, but couldn't

November 5, 2006

By Tim Clodfelter
The Winston-Salem Journal [North Carolina]

Jeannie Schulz thinks that her husband, Peanuts creator Charles Sparky Schulz, would have been proud to see his work on display in an art gallery.

He made such a thing of saying they dont even consider my work art, with a little bit of -- I dont want to say bitterness, but self-realization, she said. But in the six years since Sparkys been gone, cartoon art has popped up (as a recognized art form).

Schulzs art has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and the Louvre. Now theres a display at the Scales Fine Art Center on the Wake Forest campus.

Jeannie Schulz visited Wake Forest last week to see the exhibit and talk about her husbands work. The reception was held in a room that seated 100 people and had an overflow crowd of about 30 more people.

A few days before her visit, she spoke by phone from her home in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Cartooning, she said, is another way of communicating, another way of people putting their ideas on paper and other people then get something from it -- pleasure, a story, an impact.

Schulzs cast of characters -- Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder and the rest -- became some of the most recognizable characters in American popular culture. From the daily comic strips, they jumped to television, movies and the stage. They became so ingrained in American society that, in 1969, the Apollo 10 command and lunar modules were dubbed Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

Schulz long dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, but he had a self-deprecating way of looking at his own work, according to Jeannie Schulz.

He didnt want to make more of what he did than what it was, she said. He drew a comic strip. He said, If thats all I am ever known for, thats enough for me. Because thats all I wanted to do from the time I was a teenager. And if its not art, that doesnt matter to me.

Charles Schulz was born and raised in Minnesota. He got his nickname Sparky from an uncle, after the cartoon horse Spark Plug in the Barney Google comic strip.

After serving in the Army from 1943 to 1945, he went to work for an art-instruction school in Minneapolis. He developed a single-panel cartoon called Lil Folks that ran in a St. Paul newspaper, followed by single-panel cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post. Peanuts, a strip version of Lil Folks, made its debut on Oct. 2, 1950, and ran until Feb. 13, 2000 -- one day after Schulz died of cancer and a heart attack.

He had announced his retirement months before the final strip. His decision to retire was necessitated by his declining health.

The cancer isnt what made him not able to draw the strip any more, Jeannie Schulz said. He also had a blockage of the abdominal aorta. When he had surgery for that, he had a series of small strokes, so that he actually couldnt draw anymore. He went from drawing every day to realizing that whatever he had done was it.

That, in part, explains why Charlie Brown never got to kick the football that was forever being snatched away by Lucy. Or why Snoopy never beat the Red Baron in his imaginary air battles. Or why other characters who forever aspired to greater things never quite fulfilled their dreams.

Had he lived another few years, been drawing the strip and realized he had a limited time, he might have ended it, she said. He drew one day and couldnt draw the next. That might have been good, though, because it saved him the angst of saying to himself Should I let him kick the football?

Jeannie and Charles Schulz met in the early 1970s, when she took her daughter to an ice-skating arena that he and his first wife had built. They married in 1973.

You didnt give him ideas, he took them, she said of her husbands work. He took whatever he could use from a conversation or a situation. You have to, to get a strip done every day, seven days a week.

One example came from a nickname she gave her husband. I used to call him my sweet babboo, and then he picked it up from me, she recalled. Soon, the character Sally was using that nickname for her reluctant sweetheart Linus. When he started using it in the comic strip, I stopped. I felt like I was copying him.

Jeannie and Craig Schulz, one of Charles Schulzs children from his first marriage, oversee the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa. The museum has about 8,000 original strips out of the nearly 18,000 that were produced over the strips almost 50-year run. Every single strip was drawn, inked and lettered by Schulz.

Schulz was determined that the strip be entirely his work, an unusual position in a business where ghost artists draw many strips. He never sold out, Jeannie Schulz said. He could have taken the easy way out. Nobody would have cared, nobody would have criticized him. He was so adamant that it had to be his work. Otherwise it wouldnt have the value that it had to him.

In his later years, Schulz gave his children the choice whether the strip would continue with a different artist or end with his retirement. They said No, no, no, no one else can draw your comic strip, she said.

After Schulzs death in 2000, newspapers continued running Peanuts in reruns of old strips. The Winston-Salem Journal dropped the strip in May 2006, replacing it with a new strip.

Jeannie said that she feels that her husband would have had two schools of thought about that decision. There is the fact that theres very limited space in the comics pages, and for anybody new to get in, someone else has to leave, she said. Thats just a fact of life.

Heres what I think he would say, but I dont know for sure Yep, I think its valid, young cartoonists should have a shot.

But, on the other hand, she said, He was proud of his creation and that people were still getting pleasure and joy from the comic strip.


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