Snoopy's creator, Charles Schulz, smiles while holding the book 40 Years of Life with Snoopy and four plush toys in Paris on January 23, 1990. (Associated Press photo/Michel Lipchitz)
And responds...(page 10)...
More news from the media world...
"Peanuts" is a Warm Puppy for Many Who Grew Up with Snoopy and the Gang
January 28, 2000
By Rich Davis
Evansville Courier & Press
If things had been different, we might be
saying "Happy retirement" to "Li’l Folks." That’s
what cartoonist Charles Schulz, a barber’s son
from St. Paul, Minn., called his first strip in 1947
when he sold it to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Good grief!
Luckily, the big folks at United Features Syndicate
didn’t care for that name when they syndicated
Schulz in seven newspapers in October 1950. So
we got "Peanuts."
Schulz wasn’t wild about the new name, and he
wanted to call his beagle character Sniffy.
AAAUGH!
Hang on, we got Snoopy because the name of
another comic strip dog was similar to Sniffy. See
how lucky we’ve been? And you were expecting
the worst.
For 50 years, we’ve grown up with these
endearing suburban kids and their
overimaginative dog. They taught us to cheer for
the underdog. To identify with Charlie Brown’s
goofs. To eat jellybeans at Thanksgiving. And that
happiness is a warm puppy.
Can you remember a time when Snoopy didn’t
dance for his supper, snatch Linus’ blanket or fly
against the Red Baron? When he wasn’t Joe Cool
in sunglasses or playing hockey with Woodstock
on a frozen birdbath?
Haven’t you always wanted to see inside his
doghouse (rumored to have a pool table and a
Van Gogh) and imagined what it would be like if
your pet was smart?
Can you remember when Charlie Brown wasn’t
pitching losing games, getting duped or feeding
kite-eating trees? When Schroeder wasn’t playing
Beethoven in Carnegie Hallway? When Linus
wasn’t waiting for the Great Pumpkin? Or Lucy
wasn’t jerking away the football and staffing her
psychiatrist’s booth, offering help for 5 cents.
We got our nickel’s worth, didn’t we?
Experts and amateurs alike have been analyzing
"Peanuts" since Schulz announced last month that
colon cancer was prompting him to retire. The last
new Sunday strip is Feb. 13. Since the last new
daily strip was Jan. 3, we have been running strips
from earlier years, beginning in 1974.
You’d have to be a blockhead to not understand
why people love these simply drawn kids with the
big, round heads. They’re two-dimensional,
unsentimental characters who share our fears,
hopes and dreams. They have hearts, courtesy of
their creator, who drew and wrote every "Peanuts"
without help. They’re his alter egos.
The strip, never schmaltzy, is intelligent and
low-key, even when making bold statements —
like in 1968 when Schulz introduced the black
character, Franklin, simply by having him and
Charlie playing together. And we never saw the
faces of adults who spoke in garble.
The strip "touches everyone very personally," says
Jeanne Greever, operations director for the
International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca
Rotan, Fla. Among its 160,000 pieces of
20th-century comic-strip art, the museum has a
"50 Years of Peanuts" exhibit, including artwork,
3-D sculptures, memorabilia and a doghouse.
"‘Peanuts,’ " she says, "is intuitive. It puts adult
problems in the child’s venue and makes it all very
clear. It’s hope and humor all in one. Charlie
Brown never succeeds, but he’s the total optimist.
It was the first comic strip that wasn’t an adventure
strip or serial strip. It was a human strip. They
weren’t stuck in some make-believe world that
isn’t relevant. Things that happened to them
happen to all of us."
Schulz told an interviewer in 1980: "Drama and
humor come from trouble and sadness and
mankind’s astounding ability to survive life and
unhappiness."
The strip brought joy to 90 million readers through
10 presidencies, and it will live on as newspapers
run the old strips as "Classic Peanuts."
Schulz has hinted there won’t be any grand finale
Feb. 13.
Trudy McConnell of Sebree, Ky., says she
"emulates Snoopy, the fearless follower of fantasy,
whose horizon knows no boundaries." In the final
panel, she’d like to see Snoopy publish his
memoirs or Schroeder ask Lucy out on a date,
amazing Lucy so much she’d let Charlie kick the
football. Or maybe Charlie could forget the little
red-haired girl and take Marcie out for a
marshmallow sundae, after winning his first
ballgame.
A favorite "Peanuts" story on TV involved the
Great Pumpkin. "It was full of substories for a night
of imagination," she notes. And the Christmas
episode in which Linus reads from the Book of
Luke "did more to touch hearts than any
modern-day cartoon has yet to do. Charlie’s care
for a broken, sad little tree speaks volumes to the
soul, as a parallel of the Savior’s care of poor,
broken mankind."
This newspaper got a piece of e-mail from an
Evansville dog, Snoopy Galster, whose "mom" is
Sharon Galster. He noted his parents read
"Peanuts," and "they know that Charles Schulz
views Snoopy’s world through human eyes."
He’d like to see a reunion of Snoopy’s siblings
and for Pig Pen to take a bath, but he’s not
expecting Lucy to finally say something nice and
not take it back.
Linda Blackford of Browns, Ill., wants things to stay
as they are: "It just wouldn’t be right for Charlie to
kick the ball, have a perfect tree or Pig Pen to be
clean. ... We sort of identify with this because we
don’t always have that ‘perfect’ Christmas tree."
Cronkite to Host Charles Schulz Tribute on CBS
January 28, 2000
Newsday
Walter Cronkite will return to CBS in two
weeks for a tribute to Peanuts and its creator,
Charles Schulz.
Cronkite will anchor an hourlong CBS
Entertainment special, "Good Grief, Charlie
Brown: A Tribute to Charles Schulz," which
will air February 11 to coincide with the
publication of the final "Peanuts" Sunday
strip February 13.
Betsy West, vice president of prime time at
CBS News, said, "It's going to be a
celebration of what they (Peanuts and Schulz)
meant to our lives."
Cronkite, who will not interview Schulz,
agreed to do the hour "because he has a
relationship (with the cartoonist). It seemed
that it would be wonderful to have Walter
doing this," West said.
Peanuts specials have aired for more than 30
years on CBS.
Drawing to a Close
January 29, 2000
The Irish Times
Charles Schulz's cartoon strip, Peanuts,
continued for 50 years before its creator
recently hung up his pen. Fellow cartoonist
Martyn Turner reflects on the life of the great
animator - and their mutual friend.
It would be difficult to write about my brief encounter
with Charles Schulz, his place in the world, and
suchlike without writing about my friend Mark, who died
just before Christmas. Mark was Sparky's friend, too.
He's the reason I met Schulz, someone I never
expected to encounter.
Sparky is what the world of cartooning calls Charles
Schulz, the creator of Peanuts who announced his
retirement recently after drawing the strip for almost 50
years .
They both live/lived in Santa Rosa in California where
mountains meet the sea and the fault lines, and the
weather stays balmy all year round. Mark Cohen's
father was born in Dublin, so this is an Irish story.
A few years ago he came to Dublin and met the few
members of his wider family that are still part of the
dwindling Jewish community in Dublin. Mark's father
was a pawnbroker, an occupation which held little
attraction for Mark, who wanted to be a magician, a
cartoonist, a comedian or something like that. He was
all those things, in a small way, before he became a
real estate agent, in a bigger way, in order to make a
living and pay alimony.
When his father died, and left him money, he chose to
spend it in the most inappropriate way possible. That
is, the least attractive way possible from his father's
point of view. So, as he was a lifelong lover of cartoon
art (and his father wasn't), he set about accumulating
the largest collection of original Mad Magazine art
possible - which he immediately loaned out to any
gallery or institution who wanted to exhibit it.
His friend Sparky is also big on gestures. When he
moved from the frozen wastes of Minnesota to the
Californian coast and began making too much money
from Pea- nuts he spent it on building an ice rink in the
town. He still liked the ice, the hockey and the skating
- it was just the temperatures associated with ice that
were unappealing. Every December, he holds a
galacum-party at the ice rink. If you are a cartoonist,
you get in for free. Somewhere along the line, four or
five years ago, Sparky asked Mark to handle the sale
of some of his cartoon originals. Then a few other
cartoonists also looked for help and Mark made a
career where he was happiest - among cartoons and
cartoonists.
Coincidentally, around the same time Mark found he
was playing host to a bunch of cancer cells that were
growing things in his brain, neck and various other
points due south. He was given six months by the
medicos but lasted almost four years, much to the
disappointment of the medical insurers, much to the
delight of the rest of us.
Then, as Mark was on his last legs (actually off his legs
and flat on his back in bed), just before Christmas, his
pal Sparky discovered, during a check up, that he was
accommodating the same little beasts, albeit in a
smaller, and, hopefully, more treatable area. Thus, he
decided to retire to concentrate on regaining his health
full-time. What is it about the climate of Santa Rosa?
Charles Schulz is something of an icon in this
business. But he will be horrified to read that. When the
strip announced its retirement, gruesome, cynical
political cartoonists across America and Canada took
a day off from roasting George Bush jnr to draw a
tribute to Peanuts. On one of the cartoonists' websites
there is an open page where his colleagues can wish
him well. It has been inundated. There are many
cartoonists, but only one Sparky.
Why? Well first, I guess, there is the longevity of both
the artist and his creation. Second, there is the fact
that he has produced the strip, day-in and day-out, on his
own without the need of armies of assistant artists,
writers, colourists and the like who have become all too
common among successful strip cartoonists.
Third, he is an example of persistence and
determination, which are two of the most required
attributes for would-be cartoonists. The Beatles were
turned down by all other record labels before EMI took
them on. Schulz's strip, named in those days Li'l Folks,
did the rounds of papers and syndicates before
eventually finding a home. Which proves what I
suspected all along - that syndicates and newspapers
know nothing when it comes to cartoons. In my case
this has worked to my advantage.
And fourth, he is a regular guy, as they say over there,
who remains unaffected by his wealth and fame. He'll
let you buy him dinner, if you've been introduced, and
tell you a few jokes to take home with you. If anyone
wants to talk to him he could be found, same time,
every day, taking coffee in the same coffee shop, just
round the corner from his studio.
He has produced a stream of characters that have
become part of everyone's life. Whether you regularly
read Peanuts, or not, you will know Charlie Brown,
Snoopy, Linus, Woodstock, et al. The omnipresence of
the characters strangely doesn't breed contempt.
Watching the Snoopy balloon hovering over a televised
American golf tournament is often the most exciting
thing on offer. While other fads come and go, the
Peanuts crew sail on, relating in some way to
generation after generation. When the syndicate
announced that the strip would live on in re-runs, the
decision was welcomed. Nobody seemed to think that
50 years was enough.
For the last 30 years I have laid my head every night on
a Snoopy pillow - "curse these early morning hours" - in
the hope that, by osmosis, it will give me inspiration in
the morning. It is a little faded now, after a couple of
thousand washings, but has a couple of decades left in
it yet. So, I hope, does the artist.
St. Paul has proposal for tribute to Schulz
'Peanuts' statues would be erected
February 3, 2000
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul may go to the dogs this summer -- a bunch of Snoopys, perhaps the most famous canine in the world.
Mayor Norm Coleman previewed a proposal Wednesday that envisions a series of big fiberglass Snoopys -- maybe even Charlie Browns, Lucys and Linuses -- scattered throughout the Capital City this summer.
The creations -- patterned after Chicago's successful "Cows on Parade" promotion last year -- would be a tribute to one of the city's hometown heroes, cartoonist Charles Schulz, 77, who recently announced his retirement after nearly 50 years of giving the world daily doses of humor and wisdom from the "Peanuts" gang.
The statues, an enthusiastic Coleman said, could be painted and decorated by St. Paul's vast artist colony and then displayed for the summer. Later, the works could be auctioned to area businesses, with the proceeds going to charity. The statues could then be put on permanent display at area companies.
"This could be a very unique attraction for the city," Coleman said, noting that the statues could be spread across the city to mark famous or historic places. "They could draw a lot of people to our town."
Several people, he said, suggested "Peanuts" statues similar to the Chicago project, when St. Paul first put out a call for ideas in early January seeking ways his hometown could honor Schulz, who now lives in California.
"We got thousands of very creative suggestions, and this was among them," the mayor said.
In Chicago, about 300 fiberglass cows, painted with wild designs, were on display last summer, drawing widespread attention and national television coverage. The animal long has been a symbol of Chicago, famous for its stockyards and for Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which -- legend has it -- kicked over the lantern that started the 1871 fire that destroyed much of the city.
Coleman notes that there are plenty of details to work out for the St. Paul plan, such as financing the project and getting permission from United Feature Syndicate and Schulz's family for use of the copyrighted characters. More details will be announced at a Feb. 12 party being planned for the eve of the last "Peanuts" comic, he said. Details for the party are still being worked out.
"Peanuts" has been called the most popular comic strip ever, at one time appearing in 2,600 daily newspapers around the world. It has spawned numerous books, stuffed animals, movies, television specials, theme parks and untold amounts of "Peanuts" memorabilia.
Unfortunately, an early version of the strip in the late 1940s -- then called "Li'l Folks" -- is the only time the comic has appeared in the Pioneer Press. Schulz at the time did the comic for free, but when he decided he wanted $10 a week, editors dropped the strip. It was later syndicated by United Feature Syndicate, and the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune has exclusive publication rights in the Twin Cities.
Schulz, who drew the comic strip about six weeks in advance, announced his retirement late last year, after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. The last new daily comic ran Jan. 3, with reruns from earlier years now being used. The last new Sunday strip will appear Feb. 13.
Since the announcement, Coleman said, there has been an outpouring of concern from St. Paulites who want to honor Schulz. An 8-by-8-foot "get well" card, set up for the public to sign during the city's New Year's celebration, was covered with names, the mayor said. "There was no more room on it."
Coleman said he is releasing preliminary plans for a tribute now because he wanted to let the thousands of people who had called City Hall know that something was in the works.
The project, he said, could be completed, with statues up, by this summer.
Charles Schulz's retirement: Details set for Feb. 12 event outlining tribute
City officials will preview a possible hometown sculpture tribute to "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles Schulz at a Feb. 12 public party from noon to 3 p.m. in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul.
Schulz, 77, has stopped drawing the popular strip because of illness, and the last new "Peanuts" strip will appear Sunday, Feb. 13.
The Rice Park event is part of St. Paul's continuing effort to find an appropriate way to honor him.
Earlier this week, it was suggested that the city put up a number of decorated fiberglass statues of "Peanuts" characters for a summer project. The sculptures would later be sold to raise funds for charity and could be put on display permanently.
The city-sponsored event will include several ice sculptures of "Peanuts" characters, as well as a "get well" card for the public to sign for Schulz, who was diagnosed last fall with colon cancer.
Mike Zipko, spokesman for Mayor Norm Coleman, said the card and letters of well-wishings from St. Paul schoolchildren will be sent to the Schulz family in California.
More details about the summer sculpture plan may be announced at the tribute. The plan apparently needs approval from Schulz and United Feature Syndicate for use of the copyright characters.
Goodbye to "Peanuts" from The Simpsons
February 4, 2000
Business Wire
KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- "How will we survive without peanuts?" Are these the words of a despondent Homer Simpson about the last Charles Schulz strip, or just an indication that he's hungry?
On Sunday, February 13, Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons" comic strip, will present a farewell to "Peanuts," whose last (new) Sunday comic appears that day in newspapers nationwide. Groening joins a host of other cartoonists from syndicates throughout the country who have dedicated daily and weekly strips to retiring cartoonist Charles Schulz. Other Universal Press Syndicate cartoonists planning February mentions of the retiring "Peanuts" include Cathy Guisewite of "Cathy," Tom Wilson of "Ziggy," Wiley Miller of "Non Sequitur" and Lennie Peterson of "The Big Picture."
Since "The Simpsons" appears only on Sundays, and in color, it was an easy decision to use February 13 as the date for the tribute, Groening says. "Peanuts" will continue in reruns.
"We wanted to mark the retirement of a great cartoonist whose character, Charlie Brown, has been a personal hero to me for many years," says Groening. Groening's cartoon strip, "The Simpsons," appears in almost 50 newspapers in North America with a readership of more than 10 million fans. The strip is produced by Groening's comic book company, Bongo Comics, and is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.
"Charlie Brown appeals to me as a lovable underachiever who is always a little depressed about his shortcomings. Bart Simpson, on the other hand, is too brainless to be depressed about himself," Groening says.
"Our hope was to develop an homage that was warm and humorous, but definitely had that `Simpson-esque' quality to it. Out of courtesy, we ran the idea by Charles Schulz's syndicate and they gave us their support," Groening adds.
"The Simpsons'" color tribute to "Peanuts" features Homer Simpson going out to his neighborhood bar, which is managed by bartender Moe. Every frame that shows Homer walking through the neighborhood has a little remembrance of "Peanuts."
For example, Bart misses a football, yanked away by Nelson, and makes the classic gasp, "Aaugh." Homer passes a booth where Lisa Simpson is dishing out blues music for a few cents. As Homer reaches Moe's place, an overwhelming urge for peanuts takes control of his temperament, but he is shocked to learn that Moe is no longer serving peanuts. "How will we survive without peanuts?" Homer laments. Moe's words of wisdom to savor the last few peanuts in the jar is lost on Homer, who stuffs his mouth full immediately.
The finishing line on the strip is a personal farewell to Schulz from Matt Groening and the entire staff of Bongo Comics.
"The Simpsons" comic strip started Sept. 5, 1999, and has steadily built a fan base among newspaper comic readers who also love the Fox television show. It has revolutionized some Sunday comic pages because of its bigger-than-normal comic strip size. "The Simpsons" is Groening's second comic strip. The comic strip "Life in Hell," which started in the Los Angeles Reader in 1980, now appears in alternative weeklies and dailies.
The Peanuts gallery
February 5, 2000
Compiled by Leigh-Ann Jackson, Blanca Madriz and Jeff Salamon
Cox News Service
AUSTIN, Texas -- When a strip has been around as long as Peanuts, and appeared in so many languages in so many media, it will touch a staggering variety of lives. Below, a diverse crew of people from many walks of life discuss Peanuts.
****
Over the last 26 years that I've been on television, (Peanuts) has given me more introductions to sermons than probably any single entity. I try to use up-to-date things to interest people in the messages, and Mr. Schulz -- being a Christian -- has been able to distill Christian theology into practical everyday living, and he does it not only in a humorous way, but in a manner that everyone will understand.
-- The Rev. Harold O'Chester is host of "Great Hills Baptist Church Hour" on KVUE-24
****
When my baby was born, he was all head. And it reminded me first off of Charlie Brown and how appealing the shape of his head is. Everybody loves babies, and I thought Charles Schulz drew Charlie's head that way on purpose to remind everyone of babies ... (One day we went to the ice skating rink he owns in Santa Rosa, Calif., and) we saw this white-haired gentlemen sit down by the fireplace at a table that had been marked 'reserved.' They brought him tea and a sugar cookie. I'd never seen Schulz before, but I knew it was him. I couldn't believe it. He just looked like a gentleman. He was very polite when I went over and talked to him. He invited my wife and me to sit down, and we talked to him for almost an hour. He's very polite, but he's also very sad and bitter. Schulz thinks that everyone has forgotten him. He said to me, `Editors don't even read my strips,' because they didn't notice a rerun he dedicated to his daughter on her birthday.
-- David Collier's work will appear in the forthcoming "Comix 2000" collection from L'Association/Fantagraphics Books
****
I just think it's been the heart and soul of our newspapers for the past 50 years ... I was knocked out by it the first time I saw it as a kid and from that day, I just wanted to be a cartoonist. Now that I'm actually doing a strip, I'm even more knocked out because I've realized it's not the easiest job!
-- Patrick McDonnell's Mutts appears every Sunday in the Austin American-Statesman
****
My impression of Peanuts is that it is cross-cultural, cross-ethnic and cross-racial, because all of us grew up with little boys and little girls like Lucy and Charlie Brown and Linus. I was the Linus in my group; I had a mean older sister ... We'll miss Schulz. If you wanted to remember the way things were when you were a little boy or a little girl, Peanuts will give you a great way to remember.
-- Gus Garcia has never brought a security blanket to an Austin City Council meeting
****
When I was in fourth grade we were looking at a Peanuts strip in class in some Weekly Reader thing, and during the discussion of it the teacher, Mrs. Halpern, kept calling Shermie "Schroeder" by mistake, and it was driving me crazy.
I raised my hand to correct her (I was a know-it-all even then) and surprised myself and the class by vomiting all over my desk. The teacher then walked me to the bathroom and I threw up again on her red high-heeled shoes. It was those fat, short macaroni noodles from the school cafeteria that day.
My mom came to pick me up and yelled at me in the car for throwing up in front of "all those poor kids."
I never got to correct the mistake about Shermie.
Damn.
-- A collection of Tony Millionaire's comic strip Maakies will be published by Fantagraphics Books in May
****
Do you know who I love? I love Peppermint Patty. I love her Birkenstocks, I love that she's butch, I love that she's her own person. My middle name is Patty. I know I get accused of being a narcissist, but why else do we like art except that we feel a personal connection? If I was a Peanuts character, that's who I'd be. I could watch the Peanuts Christmas Special every year -- and I'm not big on the Hallmark cards or the sappy sentimental stuff -- but every year when they stand around the tree and they sing the song -- I could cry just remembering that... It just captures that thing in life that genuinely is so important to me. I never thought I had strong feelings about Peanuts, but I realize that they've literally been a part of my life, my whole life, ever since I could look at a newspaper. They're kind of like the Kennedys and if something happens to the Peanuts, like with Charles Schulz's retiring, that really impacts us all on some level.
-- Spike Gillespie is the author of "All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir" and producer for Oxygen Media
****
Mr. Lunch is based on our dog of the same name, but I do admit that Snoopy was somewhere in my subconscious. I remember at the time I started with Mr. Lunch, Snoopy was flying around on the blimp outside my studio window. I promised myself then to never let Mr. Lunch shill for some massive insurance concern.
-- J. Otto Seibold is the author of the Mr. Lunch children's book series
****
Charles Schulz and the Peanuts gang are as much a part of the American psyche as baseball, mom and apple pie. I count myself among the millions of Americans who will miss the humor and subtle brilliance of Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
-- Texas Lt. Gov. Rick Perry
Comic Strip Syndicates Rush to Replace Peanuts
February 7, 2000
By Patrick Riley
Fox News
When the last original Peanuts comic strip runs in newspapers on Sunday, fans may take an extra moment to savor Charlie Brown and Snoopy's final curtain call.
But comic strip syndicates won't be getting overly emotional. They'll be too busy jockeying for the giant hole that the retirement of Charles "Sparky" Schulz will open up on the world's comics pages.
"Within the syndication business, Sparky Schulz's departure is a real seismic jolt," says Jay Kennedy, comics editor at King Features. "It creates a lot of space that will need to be filled."
Until it ended its daily run last month, Peanuts was the world's most published strip, appearing in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Only three other strips are above the 2,000 mark; out of about 225 comic strips and panels in syndication.
(And less than 20 are in 1,000 or more papers; Dilbert, still growing, is in 1,900. The 40-year-old Family Circus is in about 1,500. Most languish in the hundreds or fewer.)
Since the typical paper carries only 20 to 30 strips, a vacancy creates intense competition. But what can possibly replace Peanuts, a strip whose characters have become icons?
Well, for the time being, Peanuts will replace Peanuts. United Features Syndicate is offering its clients reruns labeled "Peanuts Classics" beginning with the strips produced in 1974. About 90 percent of the newspapers are running them, said David Astor, who covers the syndicate industry for Editor and Publisher magazine.
Slowly, however, the legendary strip will fade from the funny pages — if not from TV specials, Met Life commercials and pillow cases.
"It will open up quite a few spots, and I'm sure we and our competitors will be trying to get those spots," said Lee Salem, editorial vice president at Universal Features Syndicate.
Dilbert replaced Calvin
During the last major strip shakeup, when Universal's Calvin and Hobbes ended with Bill Watterson's retirement in 1996, "there was indeed a lot of syndicates scurrying to get that spot," Salem recalls. United's Dilbert was just starting to catch on and was by far the most popular strip to fill the more than 2,000 vacancies. Others, such as For Better or For Worse and Fox Trot from Universal, also got a boost, Salem says.
This time around, there may be no single strip waiting to explode. That, along with Peanuts' gradual attrition, could mean a smaller bump for a greater number of strips -- perhaps 15 or so -- but just as intense a competition.
Each syndicate has a sales team responsible for selling its strips. "We have six sales people on the road all the time talking to newspaper editors," says Salem.
Among Universal's 18 to 20 strips and panels, these salesmen will be pushing hardest to have Peanuts replaced with Fox Trot, which recently passed 1,000 papers and is, Salem says, "in a position to try to move into that ethereal realm of numbers."
King Feature's Kennedy is hopeful some of his newer strips will be picked up by more papers as well, including Mutts, Baby Blues and Zits, which he says is "the fastest growing new comic strip in the history of comics."
Yet these editors are not so circulation-driven as to ignore the fact that the end of good ol' Charlie Brown will be a big blow to the comics page. "I think anytime you lose a strip with the quality that Peanuts had, it's a loss for the industry," Salem says. "He was a giant in the industry. He was admired and emulated by many current cartoonists."
In fact, if it had its way, Peanuts' syndicate might choose to avoid this loss by putting the strip in the hands of a new cartoonist. Schulz, however, stipulated years ago that the strip would end with his departure.
That's not always the case.
Cartoonists Dead, Strips Still Alive
About 26 strips still in daily production were created by cartoonists who have long since passed on. Many wanted their work to outlive them. For some, that choice was made by the syndicate. Annie, still being published, was reportedly continued against its creator's wishes before his death in the 1970s.
Strips continuing without the original artist:
King Features
Apartment 3-G,
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith,
Blondie,
Hagar the Horrible,
Henry,
Hi and Lois,
Judge Parker,
Mark Trail,
Mary Worth,
Popeye,
Price Valiant,
Rex Morgan, MD,
Steve Roper and Mike Nomad,
The Better Half,
The Lockhorns, Bringing Up Father
United
Nancy, Tarzan, Alley Oop
Tribune
Annie,
Brenda Starr,
Dick Tracy,
Gasoline Alley,
Gil Thorp
Creators
Andy Capp,
Archie
L.A. Times Syndicate
Love Is...
Two of the most popular strips, Blondie and Hagar the Horrible, were passed down like a family store into the hands of their creators' sons, who both work with collaborators.
Other comics legends, still alive, have quietly jumped ship. Hank Ketcham turned over the writing and drawing of Dennis the Menace in 1994 to two of his assistants but continues to oversee the still popular panel. Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey) and Jim Davis (Garfield) have staffs helping produce their work, actually a tradition that dates to the early decades of the century-old art form when comics like Little Nemo and Krazy Kat took up an entire page.
This practice may be viewed by syndicates as keeping alive a beloved — and profitable — franchise, but to some it spells the death of the industry.
Wiley Miller, creator of the off-beat Non Sequitur, published in over 400 papers, says that in any other art form "it's called forgery."
"It's very profitable for the syndicates but it's bad for the art because it's taking up space and making it difficult for the new Hagars, the new Blondies, the new Andy Capps," says Miller.
See You in the Funny Pages?
Some would-be cartoonists might be turned off by the small amount of space comics are given in print (a problem the Internet solves) or dislike the rigors of a daily deadline, reasons Watterson, Gary Larson (The Far Side) and Berke Breathed (Bloom County and Outland) cited when they shocked fans by putting down their pens in their prime.
But there's no shortage of aspiring cartoonists vying to fill those vacancies. Each syndicate gets thousands of submissions a year and accept only a few at most.
Newspapers pay syndicates from an average of $15 to $20 a week per strip. Depending on the paper's size, this amount can be as little as $4 or as much as $100 a week. Syndicators split the fee 50-50 with the cartoonists.
Of the handful of new strips that debut each year, few become popular enough to spawn plush toys. About a third fail within a year and a half. Another third "plateaus and makes a cartoonist a living wage but not what people had hoped," Kennedy says.
Publication in 100 papers, while low, is considered "safe" from cancellation but "anything less than 50 is something — if it's not growing — you are concerned [about]," says Kennedy.
Yet comic strips remain popular. Surveys of newspaper readers routinely rank the comics page among the top three reasons they buy the paper — along with the front and sports pages.
A growing number of comics feature women and minorities, including The Boondocks, a topical, well drawn strip centered around a group of black kids, which is currently in almost 300 papers and stirring controversy and occasional censorship for its views.
All of which prompts Kennedy to disagree with Miller's stance that the industry is in decline. "There are more good comics out there than there have been in decades," he says.
The question is, are any of them good enough to replace Woodstock, Linus and Lucy?
Assembly declares Schulz day
February 8, 2000
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
California lawmakers declared Sunday as Charles M. Schulz Day, commemorating the Santa Rosa cartoonist on the occasion of the last original Peanuts comic strip.
Schulz's son, Monte Schulz, represented his father Monday when the Assembly gave final approval to the resolution. He received a framed copy of the resolution from Assemblyman Mike Honda, D-San Jose.
Schulz retired after a half-century cartooning career when he was diagnosed with cancer in December.
Assemblywoman Pat Wiggins, a Santa Rosa Democrat who proposed the honor, said Schulz was surprised.
"I don't think he realized the respect and admiration people have for his work,'' she said.
Santa Rosa is also looking for a way to honor the cartoonist. Possible tributes discussed in January by a special City Council subcommittee range from a statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy to naming a city street for the 77-year-old Schulz.
Broken hearts in the dugout
Feburary 8, 2000
By Chris Erskine
The Los Angeles Times
You have hair like Terry Bradshaw and a head shaped like a football helmet. Your kite doesn't fly. The baseball team seldom wins. The Valentine never arrives. For 50 years, you've worn the same shirt. But you never blame others for your problems.
You're a good man, Charlie Brown.
"Well, we're all set for the picnic," a Peanuts character says. "Here's the ice cream," says a second kid, opening a container of ice cream. "And here's the cake," another kid says, opening a cake box. Off to the side stands Charlie Brown, cupping something in his hands. "What are you holding in your hands, Charlie Brown?"
"Soup," he says.
When Charles Schulz was in kindergarten, a teacher spotted a sketch he'd done and told him that someday he'd be an artist. In high school, he took an art-school correspondence course. Cost his dad, a barber, 170 bucks. Schulz's first job was doing the lettering on comics drawn by other people. One day, he drew a cartoon of a young boy sitting on a curb and holding a baseball bat.
"Sparky, I think you should draw more of those little kids," another illustrator advised him. "They're pretty good."
"It's a high fly ball," several Peanuts characters yell. "Catch it, Charlie Brown!"
"Catch it, and the championship is ours!"
"Have you got it, Charlie Brown?"
"Don't miss it!"
"Get under it, Charlie Brown!"
"Isn't this exciting?"
"What if he drops it?"
"If he drops it, let's all kick him."
Schulz had five children of his own. They eventually grew up. But the Peanuts characters never did. They were stuck in the third grade forever. Smart. Cruel. Sensitive. Sweet. They faked their way through book reports. Lied about missing homework. Forgot their lines in school plays. All skills they could use later in life.
For third-graders, they acted a lot like adults.
"Oh, I won't pull the ball away, Charlie Brown," Lucy says. "I give you my bonded word."
"All right, I'll trust you," Charlie Brown says. "I have an underlying faith in human nature. I believe that people who want to change can do so. And I believe that they should be given the chance to prove themselves."
At the last second, of course, Lucy pulls the ball away, leaving Charlie flat on his back. "Aaugh!" he says.
"Charlie Brown, your faith in human nature is an inspiration to all young people," Lucy says.
This is how good Schulz's work is. It holds up in mere words. No drawings required. One moment, he'll be quoting Rudyard Kipling. Another, he's making fun of pop psychology. He also had a way of fast-forwarding a conversation, the way a witty novelist or screenwriter might, skipping the obvious response and jumping to something else unexpectedly.
Most of all, he found humor in the tiny, vulnerable moments we all experience. His comic strips had more humanity than most of today's movies. And he did it mostly with his words.
"Tonight is Halloween," Lucy tells Linus. "How come you're not sitting out in a pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin and making a total, complete and absolute fool of yourself?"
"You have a nice way of wording things," Linus says.
"Thank you," Lucy says. "I work them out on little slips of paper beforehand."
It is, in my mind, one of the longest creative bursts in American history. More than 18,000 comic strips, running daily for almost 50 years.
Like most Americans, I don't remember a time when there wasn't Peanuts. I don't remember a time when Charles Schulz wasn't at the top of the page. And on Sunday, this grand run ends. Due to his much-publicized illness, Schulz's last original comic strip appears this weekend, at the top of the comics page, where it has been forever.
"The bases are loaded again, and there's still nobody out," Schroeder tells Charlie Brown one spring day on the pitcher's mound.
"So what do you think?" Charlie Brown finally asks.
"We live in difficult times," Schroeder says.
So long, slugger.
"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Schulz?"
February 9, 2000
By Ross Atkin (with help from his son, Drew)
The Christian Science Monitor
Each year, when we visit relatives in Northern California, my wife, son, and I swing by the Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa. It's a chalet-like facility built by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. The son of a Minnesota barber, Mr. Schulz has always loved hockey and figure skating. The arena, in a sense, is his security blanket and the centerpiece of a small complex tucked into a modest, residential neighborhood. Schulz's studio is housed someplace on the premises, although it's not clear where.
For us, the real lure has always been the well-stocked Snoopy's Gallery & Gift Shop, where son Drew, a Peanuts fan, lingers an hour or more inspecting the array of licensed merchandise.
We've spent our share of money in the shop, too, but until two years ago we'd never seen the man whose cartoons generate an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion in worldwide retail sales each year.
Where was Mr. Schulz? Did he ever come into the shop? We decided to ask.
"He walked through the parking lot not five minutes ago," the sales clerk informed us.
"Arrrghhhh!" we groaned.
But wait: All hope wasn't lost. Schulz, we learned, often eats breakfast next door, in the ice arena's coffee shop, The Warm Puppy. Although he reportedly doesn't welcome interruptions, if he's done eating and isn't chatting with friends, he might be approachable.
Drew had just purchased a collection of Peanuts comics at a used-book shop in Petaluma, California, and the thought of getting Schulz to autograph it was too good to ignore. So we rose early the next day and drove cross-town in hopes of catching the world-famous cartoonist.
How difficult could it possibly be to approach a regular guy with a small request, especially with a young boy wearing a Snoopy baseball cap at one's side? To chronicle the hoped-for encounter, I carried a point-and-shoot camera.
As we approached the service counter, I noticed Schulz sitting alone, only crumbs left on his plate, reading the morning paper at a table with fresh flowers and a "Reserved" sign.
I tapped Drew on the shoulder and whispered, "There he is. Let's go before he leaves."
Sheepishly I began, "Um, excuse me Mr. Schulz, but, uh, this is my son and, um, he's a really big fan of yours, and he was wondering if, um, you could autograph his book."
Schulz lowered his paper and, looking less than thrilled, said, "OK," before asking us where we were from.
I fumbled for a pen as he opened the book.
"What's this?" he asked, pointing to a mysterious inscription, "To Helen from Charlie, Xmas 1968," scrawled across the page he was about to sign.
"Oh, we got it at a used-book store," I said, "but it's a first edition."
"Well, you could have gotten a new one," Schulz said, without smiling.
Unfortunately, our blue-ink pen was low on ink and the end page was blue, forcing Schulz to bear down mightily to add his own inscription: "For Drew, Best Wishes, Charles M. Schulz."
We thanked him, and then stepped to the counter to order breakfast.
Over pancakes, it dawned on me that I'd forgotten to ask Schulz if I could get his picture with Drew.
"I don't think we'd better interrupt him again," I told my 10-year-old apologetically.
We continued to eat when suddenly a voice from behind us said, "Pretty amazing, huh?
We turned around to discover Schulz standing at our table, looking out at the young figure skaters practicing.
I stood up and we chatted for several minutes about the skill of the skaters and the beauty of the arena. Schulz was comfortable until I said, "We forgot to ask earlier if we could get a picture."
"Good grief," his facial expression seemed to say. Nonetheless, after telling him he didn't have to move, I got the coveted photographic proof of our meeting, using the last exposure.
Or had I?
A week later, back home in Boston, we picked up our vacation pictures and -- Yikes! -- there was no shot of Schulz. The camera had malfunctioned.
Disappointment quickly yielded to amusement, though, when we realized that this was a Charlie Brown moment.
Perfect.
"Peanuts" will rerun in two sizes
And St. Paul, Minn., may erect Snoopy statues
February 10, 2000
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Reruns of "Peanuts" will be available in two sizes starting Feb. 28. And "Peanuts" characters may be available in statue sizes this summer in St. Paul, Minn.
When daily reruns began Jan. 4, newspapers were offered strips from 1974 ... a time when "Peanuts" had a smaller format. Some papers ran an elongated version at first, and many others have been surrounding the comic with extra white space (E&P Interactive, Jan. 17).
As of Feb. 28, papers will have the option of either continuing the 1974 reruns or using bigger "Peanuts" strips from the 1980s.
"There's about a 1/2-inch difference in depth," notes Lisa Klem Wilson, vice president for sales and marketing at United Media.
Wilson says clients will be sent, at no extra charge, both "Peanuts" versions to choose from. She added that papers using Reed Brennan Media Associates to paginate their comics can tell RBMA which size they want.
Wilson says it's too early to tell how many papers will switch to the bigger size.
More than 90 percent of the 2,600-plus clients buying "Peanuts" at the time of Charles Schulz's December retirement announcement are carrying the reruns.
One is The Washington Post, which asked readers whether it should use the reruns or a new comic. Nearly 80 percent of the 2,000 readers who called or wrote wanted to keep "Peanuts."
Meanwhile, St. Paul -- where Schulz grew up -- may erect statues of Snoopy and possibly other "Peanuts" characters.
St. Paul Pioneer Press staff writer Karl Karlson reported that the fiberglass creations, patterned after the cow statues appearing last year in Chicago, would be decorated by St. Paul artists and displayed this summer. Later, the statues might be auctioned to area businesses, with proceeds going to charity.
Also, California lawmakers declared Feb. 13 "Charles M. Schulz Day" to mark the appearance of the last original Sunday "Peanuts" strip, reported The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, where Schulz, 77, now lives.
And several organizations may honor "Peanuts" at their 2000 meetings. For instance, the American Society of Newspaper Editors could have a video tribute at its April 11-14 convention in Washington, according to ASNE member and Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader President/Publisher Tim Kelly.
