Karen White positions a football for her husband, Brent White, to kick December 19, 1999, in Poulsbo, Washington, in a scene reminiscent of Lucy and Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip. Through a family connection, Karen White became the original voice of Lucy in the first Peanuts television special. (The Associated Press photo/The (Bremerton) Sun/Laurence Chen)

And responds...(page 9)...

More news from the media world...

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NFL PAYS TRIBUTE TO CARTOONIST AS HIS STRIP ENDS

January 4, 2000

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- The National Football League joined a chorus of Charles Schulz admirers Monday with a commercial that featured Schulz's hero, Charlie Brown, missing his field goal as usual.

Schulz's final daily "Peanuts" strip ran Monday in newspapers around the world. The 77-year-old artist is retiring after nearly 50 years of drawing the comic strip to focus on his attempt to recover from colon cancer.

The NFL's commercial during the San Francisco-Atlanta game featured animated "Peanuts" characters playing a game of football. It culminated with Lucy pulling the football away as Charlie Brown tried to kick it.

After the cartoon ended, a message appeared, reading, "You're a good man, Charles Schulz."

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PAPERS RUNNING 'PEANUTS' COVERAGE AND REPEATS
More than 90% will use past installments of the comic

Tuesday, January 4, 2000

By Dave Astor

The appearance of the last original daily "Peanuts" strip yesterday sparked a huge outpouring of media coverage. But Charles Schulz's comic will not be leaving newspapers.

At least 90% of the 2,600-plus "Peanuts" clients will carry reruns starting today, according to Lisa Klem Wilson, vice president of sales and marketing at United Media.

She said the remaining 10% includes 21 papers who definitely dropped "Peanuts" and other clients that either are undecided or made a decision United is not aware of yet. Clients using the older strips -- which date back to 1974 -- say they will carry them anywhere from several weeks to indefinitely.

United's reaction to the large rerun usage? "We're delighted," said Wilson, adding that this and the extensive press coverage Schulz's retirement is receiving are an "amazing tribute" to "Peanuts" and its creator -- who ended his feature to focus on recovering from strokes and colon cancer.

One of the papers using reruns is the Houston Chronicle. "This is a very special situation because 'Peanuts' has had a longer, deeper impact on more generations of newspaper readers than any single feature," said Assistant Managing Editor Susan Bischoff.

One of the papers dropping the comic is The Anniston (Ala.) Star. "This is a whole new century and millennium. We're looking for something a little different," said Features Editor Catherine Downing, whose paper is choosing, with the help of readers, a "Peanuts" successor from about a dozen strips.

Sunday reruns begin Feb. 20, less than eight months before what would have been the 50th anniversary of "Peanuts" on Oct. 2, 2000.

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FOR SCHULZ, LOVE OF REAL RED-HAIRED GIRL LAUNCHED A THOUSAND STRIPS

January 4, 2000

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS -- Dear Charlie Brown, the real little red-haired girl never forgot you.

Her hair now gray, Donna Wold remembers Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz with fondness more than 50 years after she declined his marriage proposal. She went on to become the inspiration for the unrequited love of his cartoon alter ego.

Schulz, born in Minneapolis and raised in St. Paul, borrowed characters' names from old Minnesota friends Charlie Brown, Linus Maurer and Frieda Rich.

The last new daily "Peanuts" strip chronicling their exploits ran in newspapers on Monday, and their final appearance in Sunday newspapers is set for Feb. 13. After nearly 50 years, Schulz, 77, is discontinuing "Peanuts" due to his health.

While Charlie Brown and pals became known worldwide, perhaps Shulz's most touching tribute to the real-life group went unnamed.

When he returned from World War II and became an instructor at an art school in downtown Minneapolis, he quickly fell for a red-haired member of the accounting department.

"When he proposed, it was agonizing because I did love him at the time," said Wold, now 70. "It's terrible to be in love with more than one guy."

She turned Schulz down and instead married Allan Wold, an old friend she'd known since seventh grade and who had attended her family's church. He became a Minneapolis firefighter, and they raised four children.

In some ways, Schulz never got over her.

"I loved that little girl, but her mother convinced her I would never amount to anything," Schulz said in a 1997 Star Tribune interview. "You never get over your first love. More than having your cartoons rejected or three-putting the 18th green, the whole of you is rejected when a woman says: 'You're not worth it.' "

Wold thinks Schulz overestimated her mother's influence, but she has no regrets. She kept in contact with him over the years and has spoken with Schulz' wife, Jean, since the cartoonist's cancer diagnosis.

Wold has kept clippings over the years of strips that featured the little red-haired girl, including one signed by Schulz: "For Donna, with love, Sparky." She also still has sketches Schulz would leave at her desk at the art school where they met.

But her husband was skeptical.

"I really didn't believe that she was the inspiration for it until he came right out and said that she was and named her by name," he said. "Then it kind of really hit home, he really had felt bad about losing her."

The Wolds will celebrate their 50th anniversary next October, the month that "Peanuts" would have turned 50.

"I'm just wishing him the best of everything, a happy retirement and some good health so he can beat this whole thing. After all these years, he deserves that much," Wold said. "I guess it was such a good strip because we could all identify, now and then, with Charlie Brown."

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CARTOONISTS BID FAREWELL TO ONE OF THEIR OWN

January 4, 2000

Nando Media/The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- "AACK! I can't stand it!!" Cathy shouts Monday as she reads the last new daily "Peanuts" strip. In "Doonesbury," a drug-addled Zonker in a Charlie Brown-style zigzag shirt stretches out on Snoopy's doghouse.

Comic strip artists, political cartoonists and newspapers paid tribute the best way they knew how to a cancer-stricken Charles Schulz, whose last new daily "Peanuts" strip ran on Monday.

Many of the 2,600 newspapers that carry "Peanuts" ran the farewell strip on their front page.

"Cathy" artist Cathy Guisewite and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau inserted "Peanuts" in their comic strips. Jason, a character in the strip "Foxtrot," appeared as Pig Pen. The characters in "Jump Start" mentioned Schulz and Charlie Brown.

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, editorial cartoonist Dick Collier drew a picture of Charlie Brown lined up to kick a football held by a Dallas Cowboy. The caption: "News item: After a successful career in the comics, Charlie Brown is signed as the Dallas Cowboys' new field goal kicker."

Kirk Anderson of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press, drew a picture of Snoopy typing a story: "A shy local boy puts pen to paper, not knowing he will become the most successful and beloved cartoonist of all time.

"He raises the cartoon to high art; brings psychology, philosophy and theology into the comics; changes pop culture forever, gives the world characters as allegorical as Shakespeare's ..."

"I hope this has a happy ending!" Snoopy then thinks, his mouth a worried squiggle.

Similarly poignant farewells have come from all corners of the globe for Schulz, 77, who is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer diagnosed in November. He alone wrote, drew, colored and lettered "Peanuts" for nearly 50 years.

The final daily "Peanuts" strip had a drawing of Snoopy at his typewriter, but there was no gag, just a letter signed by Schulz. In it, he thanked editors and "the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans." He called the strip "the fulfillment of my childhood ambition."

Schulz's contract stipulates that no one else will ever draw the strip, which debuted Oct. 2, 1950, and reached an estimated 355 million readers daily in 75 countries.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote: "An era ends today."

"Good night, Charlie Brown," was the headline in Monday's Tampa Tribune, which also played the strip on the front page.

"He meant more to the public than just an artist who put out a funny strip," said Pat Mitchell, the Tribune's senior editor for presentation. "He had enough impact to warrant the front page."

One last new Sunday strip will run on Feb. 13. After that, United Feature Syndicate will reprint old "Peanuts" strips, beginning with ones from 1974, a year chosen in part because by then, all the major characters had been introduced.

"There are so many things I'm going to miss," Schulz told his hometown paper, the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa, on Sunday. "I've been thinking about this, and I think what I'm going to miss the most is Lucy holding the football and looking up and then the big bonk when Charlie comes down."

Schulz will be honored with a lifetime achievement award May 27 at the National Cartoonists Society convention in New York.

"We hope he'll recover health-wise to the point he can join us," said the group's spokesman, Chip Beck.

"I think cartoon strips before 'Peanuts' made you look at the human condition, but they didn't necessarily make you look at yourself," Beck said. "With the 'Peanuts,' you felt like it was me, or maybe your sister. You could identify with their anxieties, their angst, their frustrations."hood ambition."

Schulz's contract stipulates that no one else will ever draw the strip.

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WOMAN WHO WAS LUCY'S FIRST TV VOICE SAYS IT WAS A NEIGHBORHOOD THING

January 5, 2000

The Associated Press

POULSBO, Washington -- Just like the kids Charles Schulz portrayed in "Peanuts," the children selected for his characters' TV voices were boys and girls from the neighborhood.

"They were all neighborhood people," said Karen White of Poulsbo, who was the original voice for Lucy, the little girl that spent decades heckling Charlie Brown.

She said the producer of the "Peanuts" television specials is her cousin, Lee Mendelson, and he drew on the children in Hillsborough, Calif., where White grew up.

"This was just something Lee would do; he calls up one day and says how would you like to be a voice for me?" White said Monday, the day Schulz' final daily "Peanuts" cartoon appeared in the strips.

"He used a lot of children. You do a couple of them (television specials) and then you grow up and get kicked out," she said, noting puberty took its toll on budding voice-actors. "I was a has-been at 11."

White had voice parts in "A Boy Named Charlie Brown," (1963) and "Charlie Brown's All Stars" (1966).

White, 44, who is married to wood carver Brent White, is director of the Ashley Gardens residential home for Alzheimer's patients, in Bremerton.

White said she was surprised at the reaction to Schulz' announcement last month that he was retiring for health reasons. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in November.

"I am awed at how big a deal (Peanuts) it is to everybody," she said.

She said the outpouring of concern for Schulz shows the influence his comic strip has had on the national psyche.

The "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" is recognized as a common name for a disappointing Yuletide twig, and Linus' "security blanket" is in the dictionary, she said.

"It's a pretty big impact on our life," she said of the strip, which began nearly 50 years ago.

White said she had seen Schulz only once as a child, and had lost touch with Mendelson.

Then her connection with "Peanuts" was renewed last year when her 15-year-old son, Patrick, interviewed Mendelson for a family history project.

Impressed with Brent White's carvings of carousel animals, Mendelson commissioned a carving of Snoopy the dog on a rocking stand. The family, including 14-year-old Brianna, drove to Santa Rosa, California, in October to present the carving to Schulz.

The Snoopy rocker is included in a "Peanuts" memorabilia gallery.

White said that while her "Peanuts" part was small and many years ago, she still gets occasional reminders of those times when a residual check pops up in the mail. She got two last year, one for $310 and another for $10.

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No retirement for Snoopy at NASA

January 7, 2000

By THOM MARSHALL
The San Francisco Chronicle

Considering Charles Schulz's retirement, this is an ideal time to get Al Chop to tell how he drafted Snoopy for a special NASA assignment.

It was back in the '60s, Chop said, just after the nation and the space program suffered the Apollo 1 disaster when three astronauts died in a fire on the launch pad.

A directive came out of Washington to appropriate NASA personnel, asking them to come up with suggestions for an incentive program to apply to the many thousands of contractors' employees who were vital to NASA projects, but who had no direct contact with the astronauts. Some way to show them some appreciation, to help them feel more a part of things.

Chop said he was, at the time, director of the public affairs office for the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. And, like an estimated 355 million other people in 75 countries, he was a fan and avid reader of Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. He especially liked the dog who often assumed a pilot's role atop the doghouse.

"Snoopy was a flier," Chop said. "No reason he couldn't become an astronaut, too."

A side job for "Peanuts" pup

Chop's idea was to use the famous hound's likeness on a pin to be presented to individual workers in the various companies in the aerospace industry who deserved recognition for outstanding accomplishments in their jobs. The Silver Snoopy Award, it would be called.

Officials liked the idea and gave Chop the go-ahead, so he flew to New York to seek permission from United Feature Syndicate to assign Snoopy to the task.

No. The syndicate fellow Chop had to ask explained that a huge number and wide variety of requests came from people, in organizations both private and government, who wanted Snoopy to perform some special work for them.But the Peanuts characters didn't moonlight.

Appearing in the daily and Sunday strips was considered pretty much a full-time job for all of them, the syndicate fellow explained.

Well, Chop replied, that sure came as a major disappointment. And it wasn't only because Snoopy's country needed him. He hated to see the cartoon dog miss a great opportunity. Said he wasn't in any position to make guarantees, but he felt if Snoopy had been allowed to join up with NASA, and if everything went according to plan, when astronauts went to the moon, Snoopy could have gone, too.

Chop, 84, retired many years ago and is living in California now. But he remembers like it was yesterday what happened next. Even over the telephone you could tell by the tone of his voice that just thinking about it delighted him.

He said you could see the effect that the notion of Snoopy going to the moon had on the syndicate fellow.

"His eyes just sparkled," Chop said.

And he wasted no time in calling Schulz about it, and Schulz seemed receptive. So then Chop flew out to see the cartoonist and discuss the program in detail.

A true pin-up hound

Not only did Schulz draw a picture of Snoopy in a manner suitable to the new moonlighting assignment, for reproduction as a pin, he also drew Snoopy for use on posters to promote the new incentive program.Chop said about 20,000 posters were distributed to the many NASA vendors and contractors and suppliers throughout This Great Land and beyond:

"Wherever there was a bulletin board and someone working on the project."

Snoopy became an important member of the NASA team. He went to the moon, too, just as Chop had predicted.

Schulz's final new Sunday strip will appear on Feb. 13. His final daily strip ran Monday in the Chronicle and about 2,600 other papers. The comic feature continues by re-running strips that first appeared in 1974.

A NASA official said Friday that Snoopy is expected to continue on with his role in the incentive program. Astronauts present the Silver Snoopy pins to aerospace workers who earn them. Several thousand have been distributed through the years.

"I think Schulz certainly deserves a lot of credit," Chop said.

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UNITED: HAPPINESS IS RERUN USAGE
Over 90% of 'Peanuts' clients buy past strips

January 10, 2000

by Dave Astor

At least 90% of the more than 2,600 newspapers publishing "Peanuts" prior to Charles Schulz's retirement are now carrying reruns of the comic.

That was the estimate from Lisa Klem Wilson, vice president of sales and marketing at United Media. She said the remaining 10% includes 21 papers whodefinitely dropped "Peanuts" and other clients that either are undecided or have made decisions without informing United yet.

United's reaction to the large rerun usage? "We're delighted," said Wilson, adding that this and the huge media coverage Schulz's retirement received are an "amazing tribute" to "Peanuts" and its creator.

Schulz, 77, who retired to focus on his recovery from strokes and colon cancer, saw his last original daily strip run Jan. 3 and repeats from 1974 start the next day. The last original Sunday strip will run Feb. 13 - less than eight months before what would have been the 50th anniversary of "Peanuts" on Oct. 2, 2000.

One paper using reruns is the Houston Chronicle. "This is a very special situation because 'Peanuts' has had a longer, deeper impact on more generations of newspaper readers than any single feature," said Assistant Managing Editor Susan Bischoff.

Also keeping "Peanuts" is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which just published the results of a fall comic survey that saw Schulz's creation finish first. "It's clear that 'Peanuts' continues to speak to people," said Allan Watson, assistant managing editor/arts and entertainment, adding that many Post-Gazette readers called to ask that the strip not be dropped.

Clients using reruns said they will carry them anywhere from several weeks to indefinitely. For instance, Gary Kiefer, managing editor/features at The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, said his paper will publish "Peanuts" at least until conducting a comic survey - probably next month - that will include a question about whether reruns should continue.

The Washington Post already solicited reader opinions via a note in the paper, according to Shirley Carswell, assistant managing editor for planning and administration. She said the Post plans to carry daily "Peanuts" reruns at least until the original Sunday strips finish in February, and then decide, after studying reader comments, what to do beyond that point.

Bischoff reported that the Chronicle will carry "Peanuts" through 2000 and maybe much longer.

Wilson said a number of clients told United they'll run "Peanuts" at least until 2001 in honor of what would have been Schulz's 50th-anniversary year. "It's a way to bridge the gap between having it and not having it," she added.

Bischoff said only two syndicates contacted the Chronicle to try to sell strips replacing "Peanuts," and that these contacts were very "cautious and respectful" because of Schulz's unique stature in the comics world.

But some papers are dropping "Peanuts."

"This is a whole new century and millennium. We're looking for something a little different," said Catherine Downing, features editor of The Anniston (Ala.) Star, which, with reader help, is choosing a "Peanuts" successor from about a dozen strips.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of Little Rock is replacing the daily "Peanuts" with "Luann" (Greg Evans/United) and the Sunday "Peanuts" with "Zits" (Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott/King Features Syndicate). Deputy Editor Frank Fellone said the paper likes both strips and that Schulz's retirement gave it a chance to bring back "Luann" after that comic was dropped following the 1991 demise of the Arkansas Gazette as a separate entity.

Why not continue "Peanuts"? "Because they're reruns," replied Fellone. "We want fresh material every day."

The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville will carry daily "Peanuts" reruns until original Sunday strips end Feb. 13 and then switch to "Grand Avenue" by Steve Breen of United.

" 'Peanuts' is wonderful, and there are a lot of fans, but it's an expensive strip to rerun," said Times-Union Features Editor Belinda Hulin.

More than 90% of the papers using reruns are being charged full price, according to United, with many of the others receiving discounts of 15% to 20%. Wilson said a lot of papers getting rate reductions are longtime "Peanuts" clients in major markets who were paying significantly more than other clients.

Other dailies dropping "Peanuts" include the Altoona (Pa.) Mirror, which is replacing it with "Baby Blues" by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott of King; the Greensboro, N.C., News & Record, which is using "FoxTrot" by Bill Amend of Universal Press Syndicate; and the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which is carrying reruns for a few weeks while it picks a "Peanuts" successor. Also, The Arizona Daily Star of Tucson is testing "Get Fuzzy" by Darby Conley of United as a possible "Peanuts" replacement and waiting for reader reaction, according to Features Editor Debbie Kornmiller, who said the paper ran Schulz's strip in Spanish prior to discontinuing it.

Among the papers carrying "Peanuts" reruns for the time being or indefinitely, according to a random phone sampling, are The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the Press of Atlantic City, N.J.; the Bloomington, Ind., Herald-Times; The Hartford (Conn.) Courant; The Indianapolis Star; The Ledger of Lakeland, Fla.; the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times; and The News Journal of Wilmington, Del.

Many papers ran pages of "Peanuts" coverage Jan. 3, and a number of comics offered tributes to Schulz. Among them were "FoxTrot," "Cathy" by Cathy Guisewite of Universal, "Doonesbury" by Garry Trudeau of Universal, "Jump Start" by Robb Armstrong of United, and "The Norm" by Michael Jantze of King.

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LET'S HONOR 'PEANUTS' CREATOR SCHULZ

January 10, 2000

By Jim Caple
The Saint Paul Pioneer Press

Although Peanuts is carried in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries and translated into 21 languages, the sad irony is Charlie Brown and Snoopy don't appear in Charles Schulz's hometown paper because our rival across the river owns the local rights.

With Schulz retiring because of colon cancer, however, there aren't any new Peanuts strips anywhere else, either. Original daily strips ended their nearly 50-year run last week, and the last new Sunday strip will run Feb. 13. Then it's all reprints. For loyal readers worldwide, it's like waking up without boxscores in the summer.

Meanwhile, in St. Paul, Erich Mische, Mayor Norm Coleman's director for strategic initiatives, said fans have sent in plenty of ideas for a city tribute to Schulz and his work.

"Everyone who calls in is 35, 45, 55 and older. They aren't kids, and that's not because kids don't read the strip but because (older people) know we're going to lose something,'' Mische said. "We took it for granted that because these kids never got older in the strip, the guy drawing them never got older. . . .

"People don't make the distinction between Schulz and his characters. In many people's minds, these are his children.''

Mische said the city has apprised the Schulz family of the tribute possibilities, and it is supportive. The only questions are picking the proper tribute and funding it.

Mische said one idea is to designate Schulz's childhood home, the brick O'Gara's building on the corner of Selby and Snelling, a significant city site. That's a good first step. When I moved here from Washington state, that building seemed reassuringly familiar when I drove by it one day. Then I realized it was the old Schulz home and barbershop I had seen pictured in a Peanuts book, and I suddenly felt more at home in my new city.

Others have suggested naming streets after Schulz and his characters, or even the new hockey arena.

The best idea fans suggested though, is commissioning a series of Peanuts statues throughout the city at appropriate landmarks.

A reader wrote to suggest, among other things, a statue of Snoopy and Woodstock playing hockey on a birdbath and Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown in Rice Park (although I think the birdbath would work better at the hockey arena). Mische said someone suggested Schroeder playing the piano in front of the Ordway.

I love this idea. Other fitting statues would be:

Charlie Brown standing on the mound in front of Midway Stadium.

Snoopy as the World War I flying ace atop his doghouse at the airport.

Linus sitting in the pumpkin patch at the farmer's market.

Peppermint Patty sitting at her desk in front of Schulz's alma mater, Central High School.

The Peanuts gang lined up at the Children's Museum.

Not only would the statues serve as warm tributes, they would help identify the city's cultural, historic and public sites, becoming fun tourist stops on their own (Chicago did something similar with lifesize fiberglass cows). Who knows, perhaps people would drive from Minneapolis to see them and discover our city.

Mische said funding methods haven't been discussed but he has heard from enough fans and businesses that he believes there will be sufficient money for some sort of tribute. He said they'll have a better sense of what's doable in a couple of weeks.

"I think Mr. Schulz is pleased that people in St. Paul want to recognize him,'' he said.

Let's get this done. Schulz turned the disappointments and frustrations from his St. Paul youth into immeasurable joy for millions on a daily basis for half a century. The least we can do is say thank you.

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Feeling Snoopy-Deprived? Go Online

January 13, 2000

By Erika Milvy
The Los Angeles Times

After remaining children for nearly 50 years, the precocious posse known as the Peanuts gang has been put to bed. Worse than any Y2K catastrophe, the beginning of January ushered in the end of the Peanuts comic strip as creator Charles M. Schulz retired. But while fans savor classic strips about Charlie Brown in the daily newspaper, wired devotees can go online for an even bigger fix of the chronically depressed blockhead and his pint-sized tormentors.

"Good ol' Charlie Brown ... how I hate him!" Shermy pronounced in the first Peanuts strip. This strip can be viewed at the Official Peanuts Homepage (http://www.peanuts.com/). The site offers gads of content for the insatiable Peanuts nut. Here you can glean a plethora of information about Schulz and the strip's history, as well as a timeline of pivotal events and personal profiles of Snoopy, Linus, Sally and all the other members of the peanut gallery. Here you can see the strip in which each character first appeared -- and, in the case of Charlie Brown, you can also see the strips in which he is called wishy-washy for the first time (1952), the first time his kite is eaten by a tree (1956) and the first time he is called blockhead (1958).

Other firsts? Peppermint Patty's first D minus (1973), the first time Linus gets his blanket washed (1955), Snoopy's first attempt to sleep on top of his doghouse (1958).

If you need to know more minutiae about Schulz and Peanuts, The Peanuts FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a stupefying collection of trivia. Here you can get to the important questions: What was the baseball team's lineup? When is Snoopy's birthday? The file, available at the newsgroup alt.comics.peanuts or at www.peanutscollectorclub.com/peantfaq.txt, lists each and every book, movie and TV special, along with every instance of adult sightings, every instance of a punch line that was repeated and every item ever mentioned in the strip as being inside Snoopy's doghouse (a ping pong table, a pool table, bunk beds, a Van Gogh painting, a whirlpool).

"Like the bus occupied by the Spice Girls in the film `Spice World,' Snoopy's doghouse seems to have a whole lot more space inside than can be justified by its small exterior appearance," writes the meticulous Derrick Bang, author of the FAQ.

If you're more into action than facts, pop by Shockwave's cartoon corner, where you can catch a host of Snoopy filmlets wherein the singular beagle shoots hoops (and accidentally flattens the hapless Woodstock) and engages in other escapades including dancing atop Schroeder's piano (at www.shockwave.com/bin/shockwave/main/navcontent.jsp?menu=cartoons/peanuts).

When Schulz penned his last daily strip, cartoonists around the country paid tribute to him in their own cartoons.In Doonsbury, (available at http://www.comics.com), a bummed-out Zonker, in a Charlie Brown-style zigzag shirt, stretches out on Snoopy's doghouse. "AACK! I can't stand it!!" shouted Cathy in her strip. For more wistful tributes by the nation's editorial cartoonists, check out www.cagle.com/news/peanuts.

Perhaps nicest of all was a cartoon that appeared in Schulz's hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where, in 1947, Schulz first published a strip called "Li'l Folks." A precursor to Peanuts, the strip appeared in the Sunday women's section for two years, but when Schulz requested a raise and better placement, his editor declined and Schulz, Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy moved on to make cartoon history.

Kirk Anderson, the paper's current editorial cartoonist, recently published a strip that shows Snoopy typing on his doghouse. Snoopy writes: "A shy local boy puts pen to paper, not knowing he will become the most successful and beloved cartoonist of all time. He raises the cartoon to high art; brings psychology, philosophy and theology into the comics; changes pop culture forever, gives the world characters as allegorical as Shakespeare's."

"I hope this has a happy ending!" Snoopy then thinks, a little nervously.

You can see this cartoon at www.cagle.com/news/peanuts/p9.asp.

For those inartistic types eager to pay tribute to Schulz, you can sign the electronic get well card at the National Cartoonists Society Web site (www.reuben.org/schulz.asp). So far, 38,724 people have signed the card, wishing the artist luck with his battle with colon cancer.

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SANTA ROSA LOOKS AT WAYS TO HONOR SCHULZ

January 19, 2000

By Mike McCoy
Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Concerned about the gravity of Charles M. Schulz's health, Santa Rosa leaders Tuesday said they'll move quickly to honor the cartoonist whose "Peanuts'' characters helped put the city on the worldwide map.

Possible tributes discussed by a special City Council subcommittee Tuesday range from a statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy to naming a city street for the 77-year-old Schulz, who recently ended his 50-year career drawing the daily comic strip that appeared in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries.

Schulz last month said it was becoming too difficult to balance his cartoon career with his battle against colon cancer. He had surgery in November and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Mayor Janet Condron said some of the proposals for honoring Schulz, including ideas from the First Night organization and Sonoma County Cultural Arts Council, have been in the works for a year in anticipation of Schulz' 50th year drawing "Peanuts.''

"But with the potential gravity of the situation, we are stepping up the process,'' she said.

Details of Schulz's health have been closely guarded. Schulz looked frail a month after his emergency surgery, but he reportedly is doing better now as he waits for a second round of chemotherapy to begin.

Condron, serving on a special committee with councilwomen Sharon Wright and Marsha Vas Dupre to find an appropriate avenue to honor Schulz, said the panel hopes to come up with several possible tributes to recommend to the full council within the next few weeks.

Among the ideas discussed Tuesday were:

Statue -- A 4-foot bronze statute of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The statue would cost about $150,000.

Street name -- Renaming a street for Schulz or one of his characters. Possibilities include Sonoma Avenue or West Steele Lane, which runs in front of Schulz' Redwood Empire Ice Arena.

Kennedy Center -- Urge the White House to honor Schulz with a Kennedy Center award for lifetime achievement in the arts.

Parade -- Have Schulz or one of his characters be grand marshal of this year's Rose Parade.

City Manager Ken Blackman said any tribute should be cleared through Schulz first. "It would be tragic to put up something he didn't approve of,'' Blackman said.

After talking with Schulz's wife, Jean, Condron said the cartoonist is interested in the statue "but he is not as interested in a street being named for him."

Condron earlier said the Kennedy Center honor is clearly one Schulz would cherish. "That is something he wants,'' she told the subcommittee, noting the White House-sponsored award has never been bestowed upon a cartoonist.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, has said he will nominate Schulz for the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, Congress' highest civilian award, by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, construction is expected to begin this spring on a 17,000-square-foot museum Schulz plans to build to showcase his half-century of work. The project, expected to take 18 months to complete, will be near his ice arena.

All PEANUTS characters pictured are copyrighted © by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. They are used here with permission. They may not be reproduced by any means in any form.