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'THE MOST INFLUENTIAL STRIP'
Cartoonists herald Schulz as a pioneer

Dec. 15, 1999

By John Beck
Santa Rosa Press Democrat Staff Writer

Triggering a unanimous "Good Grief!" around the world, Charles M. Schulz' decision to stop drawing "Peanuts" is more than just a loss to the millions of fans who have turned to the strip every morning for nearly 50 years.

It marks the end of a rare, original spirit on a daily cartoon page filled with peers who consider him an unparalleled pioneer in the funny papers business.

" 'Peanuts' is the single most influential strip," said "Cathy" cartoonist Cathy Guisewite. "He changed the whole nature of the comic pages, really. He was the first to make human vulnerabilities and emotions subject matter in a strip.

"Comic strips have now become voices for people and his was the first that voiced real insecurities and real feelings. It was the first strip I'm aware of that people really identified personally with the characters in the strip."

If there's any question of the strip's stature and impact on the genre, just ask his peers who were swamped with calls from the media Tuesday after Schulz announced his final original daily strip will run Jan. 3, and the final original Sunday strip Feb. 13.

"For 50 years, 'Peanuts' has shown us the way -- the uncontested gold standard for comics," "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau said in a written statement. "There is not a cartoonist alive who is not indebted to him, and all of us will miss his gentle and wholly original talent."

The fickle idiosyncrasies and personalities of Schulz's contemplative, bubble-headed "Peanuts" characters are so unforgettable they've became pop-culture archetypes.

Just as it's nearly impossible to consider a security blanket without thinking of Linus, it's also hard to imagine a field-goal kicker whiffing at a vanishing football without thinking of Lucy's timeless prank on Charlie Brown.

"Sparky has done something that no other cartoonist has done as well, which is he has developed these incredible themes -- the kite-eating tree, the Great Pumpkin, kicking the football, the security blanket, it just goes on and on," said "Luann" cartoonist Greg Evans. "I just wish I could think of one thing like that."

Almost every cartoonist working today was raised on "Peanuts" in his or her hometown newspaper.

"There's always a first in any occupation, like in music with each generation there's a guy who comes along and kicks off something new, and that's what Sparky is to me," said "B.C." creator Johnny Hart, who credits "Peanuts" with inspiring him to become a newspaper cartoonist.

"He's like the Babe Ruth. In music, it would have been Bing Crosby, and then along came Frank Sinatra. There's always one guy who is the standout guy, who did something in his profession that nobody had thought of doing before, or did it in an especially different way than they thought of doing it. That's the way I see Sparky and 'Peanuts.' "

The most famous cartoonist in the world, Schulz is syndicated in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. But "Peanuts" probed further than just mass appeal.

Having read the strip since she was a child, "Sylvia" creator Nicole Hollander has always identified with Lucy.

"I also always think of the guy with the little cloud over his head. It's very personal that in these little cartoon characters there were types that seemed so specific in fact that we knew people like that," she said.

"It wasn't a general, big, generic kind of thing, it was very specific. We all know people who carry their little cloud around with them."

A former art instructor in St. Paul, Minn., Schulz has remained approachable throughout his career, offering "Peanuts" as a blueprint for other aspiring cartoonists.

"He always told me that the key to a really good strip is that the characters should really have clear personalities," Guisewite said. "And his strip was a master example of that. When Lucy is there, you know only Lucy can say the Lucy line. And in most strips that isn't true."

Starting in seven papers in 1950 and spreading to 45 papers by the end of the first year, "Peanuts" has always remained at the forefront of an industry that prides itself on individuality and creativity.

"Before that there was a great deal of slapstick," said David Wiley Miller, who signs his cartoons Wiley, former Santa Rosa resident and creator of "Non Sequitur."

"There was a feeling that comics were thought to be just for kids or adventure. But he brought a different mindset that really led the way for more sophisticated humor getting on the comic page. It broke ground for 'Doonesbury,"Bloom County,"The Far Side' and 'Calvin and Hobbes.' "

Plugging away at the same strip for nearly 50 years is such a milestone it can only be compared to another feat of skill and endurance -- Cal Ripken's record of 2,632 consecutive baseball games played.

"He's always taken really, really great pride in the fact that every line that's ever been drawn, he did himself and that every gag he ever did was his own," said Hart, who like many other cartoonists, has hired others to write gags for his strips over the years.

And even though Schulz has announced his retirement, there are those who still hold out hope that he will return to the drawing table.

Guisewite is sure that while Schulz continues to undergo cancer treatment and rehabilitate, he won't be able to stay away from the pen.

"He's going to be drawing like crazy," she said. "And he'll do it with self-imposed deadlines. I'm sure of it. I've gotta believe he's going to recover and then he'll be even farther ahead with work in the bank.

"He lives in four boxes. He thinks in four boxes. He'll keep doing it. I'm sure he will."

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'PEANUTS' A BUSINESS SUCCESS, TOO
Images abound around the world

Dec. 15, 1999

By Bleys W. Rose
Santa Rosa Press Democrat Staff Writer

Charles Schulz's simple cartoon sketches of kids and their darndest things have been parlayed into a multimillion-dollar "Peanuts" empire of commercials, programs and products that promises to continue flourishing.

Syndication of his comic enabled Schulz to get his strip into newspaper comic pages around the world. But it was his ability, unparalleled at the time, to franchise his characters that helped Schulz popularize his creations and wrap himself in a security blanket of royalties.

By selectively granting rights of duplication of his characters, Schulz reached an audience far beyond newspaper readers. Over the past few decades, the friends of Charlie Brown and Snoopy have become as ubiquitous in children's bedrooms as Mickey Mouse and Barbie.

About 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries across the world in 21 languages print his "Peanuts" comic strip, which he began drawing in 1950. Industry experts have called "Peanuts" the most popular comic strip in the world, bar none.

Schulz began drawing a comic strip after discharge from service in World War II. He sold several single-panel comics to The Saturday Evening Post and he began a weekly single-panel comic in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.

An editor at the Universal Feature Syndicate suggested to Schulz that he expand to a strip format, and it first appeared in 1950. He signed a five-year contract and settled upon the name "Peanuts," a name he said he hated.

By 1952, it was popular enough that Rinehart and Co. took the unusual step, for that time, of issuing a selection of the strips in a mass-market paperback.

The "Peanuts" characters became a marketing phenomenon under Schulz's Creative Associates long before the days of Furby, Pokemon and the Power Rangers.

Things took off in 1961 when a San Francisco housewife asked Schulz if she could create a "Peanuts" calendar.

The characters' images since have appeared on bedsheets, stationery, stuffed toys, games, books, stickers, videos and ads for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. In 1966, there was even a popular recording titled "Snoopy and the Red Baron" by a band called the Royal Guardsmen.

The 1965 CBS special "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which won an Emmy, is constantly featured on the holiday rerun schedule and other similar specials followed in the same vein. Later, a hit musical, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," became a stage play and was recorded. This story includes information from Staff Researcher Michele Van Hoeck, New York Times and Associated Press.

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GOOD GRIEF! CHARLES SCHULZ CALLS IT QUITS
Ailing cartoonist to retire after 50 years of drawing Charlie Brown, icon of the little guy.

Wednesday, December 15, 1999

By Martin Miller
The Los Angeles Times

*** SEE CORRECTION APPENDED ***

It seems Charlie Brown will never outwit Snoopy, never get the little redheaded girl and never kick that football. He won't get the chance.

Because of a continuing battle with colon cancer, "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz announced Tuesday that he will retire shortly after New Year's. One of the world's most widely read comics will have its last original daily strip appear Jan. 3 and its final Sunday release Feb. 13. Then United Feature Syndicate, which has distributed "Peanuts" for almost five decades, will reissue old strips at least through the end of 2000.

"I have always wanted to be a cartoonist and I feel very blessed to have been able to do what I love for almost 50 years," Schulz, 77, said in a retirement letter to readers, colleagues and friends. "Although I feel better following my surgery, I want to focus on my health and my family without the worry of a daily deadline."

Schulz's retirement ends a lifetime of cartooning that reached into virtually every facet of popular culture. In addition to daily appearances in 2,600 newspapers around the world, his cast of affable characters--Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and others--are everywhere: bedsheets, lunch boxes, greeting cards, amusement parks, management seminars, TV specials, musicals, movies and even an exhibit at the Louvre. Estimates are that the cartoon's franchise generates $1 billion in revenue each year.

"Peanuts," with its simple drawing style, gentle humor and universal themes, debuted in seven newspapers on Oct. 2, 1950. (The Times added the cartoon in 1965.) Since then, Charlie Brown and friends have helped children learn how to read and parents how to laugh, mostly at themselves.

"He's in the rich tradition of the little man. His characters survive because they refuse to give up, no matter how many insults and pressures," said M. Thomas Inge, a humanities professor at Virginia's Randolph-Macon College who is editing a book on Schulz that is due out in October. "He's Charlie Brown and he believes no matter how many times that football gets pulled away, that this time he's going to kick it."

Schulz's decision was met with understandable disappointment by his loyal readers, estimated at 355 million worldwide, who read the strip in 21 languages.

"It will be lonely," said Andrea Podley of Bellingham, Wash., founder of the Peanuts Collectors Club. "But I try not to look at this as a loss. I've gained so much in my life because a man named Charles M. Schulz was born. We owe him a huge debt of thanks."

A man of modest origins, Schulz would have seemed unlikely to achieve international acclaim. He was born in St. Paul, Minn., on Nov. 26, 1922, the son of a barber and a homemaker. Nicknamed "Sparky," the young Schulz showed an early enthusiasm for comic strips and vowed that he would create one some day.

In 1947, by then a World War II veteran, he got his first break when he sold a cartoon feature called "Li'l Folks" to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In 1950, he moved to New York City with a new comic strip that featured characters named Charlie Brown and Linus--who were art teachers Schulz knew in his St. Paul days.

United Feature Syndicate bought the strip and named it "Peanuts"--against the wishes of Schulz, who felt the title trivialized the strip. He urged the syndicate to at least include the name of his hero, Charlie Brown, but "What could a young unknown from St. Paul say?" Schulz later commented.

The strip went on to become one of the most successful comics in history, spawning 1,400 books, 50 animated television specials, four feature films and a Broadway musical.

It also brought Schulz a host of honors, including two Reuben awards from the National Cartoonists Society, five Emmy and two Peabody awards, and the rank of Commander of Arts and Letters from the French government for excellence in the arts.

Pop culture observers say the "Peanuts" appeal is rooted in its simple, funny and often profound messages. The characters' foibles--from Linus' security blanket to Lucy's impatience--are instantly recognizable, they say.

But perhaps the most endearing of all is the strip's main character, Charlie Brown, the perpetual loser in the zigzag sweater.

"As a youngster, I didn't realize how many Charlie Browns there were in the world," Schulz said. "I thought I was the only one. Now I realize that Charlie Brown's goofs are familiar to everybody, adults and children alike."

In spite of his fame, Schulz maintained a natural humility and fierce independence, according to friends and colleagues. A stickler for deadlines, he always worked six weeks ahead of schedule and 20 years ago drew three months' worth of cartoons in advance before he underwent heart bypass surgery. His syndicate contract includes a stipulation that no one else will ever draw "Peanuts."

In his spare time, Schulz liked to play tennis, golf and ice hockey, which he played until fairly recently at the rink he had built near his studio and home in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Early last month, Schulz was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery for a blocked artery. During that operation, doctors found that he had colon cancer.

"He called me and said, 'This is it,' " said Lynn Johnston, a longtime friend and the cartoonist of "For Better or for Worse." "He was really shaken by the [cancer]. He said, 'I haven't smoked, I led a pretty healthy life, I led an active life and I don't understand it.' "

Those who have visited with Schulz since his surgery and cancer treatments say he seems to be doing well, recuperating with the help of his wife, Jeannie, and his five children.

"He's up and walking around," said Amy Lago, executive editor of comic art for the United Feature Syndicate. "I saw him and he looked just fine to me."

Such reports bolster the spirits of fans and friends who are holding out hope that Schulz will recover and revive the beloved strip. Fellow cartoonist Mell Lazarus endured a similar health crisis 14 months ago when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but continued his comic "Momma."

"I know what he's facing, and it's terrifying," said Lazarus, past president of the National Cartoonists Society and a Schulz friend for 42 years. "But with medicine today, you can survive it.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to come back in a few months," added the Woodland Hills resident. "But until then there's going to be a big empty space to fill."

---- START OF CORRECTION ----
For the Record;
Los Angeles Times Thursday, December 16, 1999
Home Edition; PART A; Metro Desk;
1 inches; 34 words;
Type of Material: Correction
'Peanuts'--In a story Wednesday, The Times incorrectly reported the year this newspaper began running Charles Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts." The Sunday "Peanuts" began running in March 1955 and the daily version began in January 1962.
---- END CORRECTION TEXT ----

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