Charles M. Schulz

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists in history, and cited by many cartoonists as a major influence, including Jim Davis, Murray Ball, Bill Watterson, Matt Groening, and Dav Pilkey.

"''Peanuts'' pretty much defines the modern comic strip", states Watterson, "so even now it's hard to see it with fresh eyes. The clean, minimalist drawings, the sarcastic humor, the unflinching emotional honesty, the inner thoughts of a household pet, the serious treatment of children, the wild fantasies, the merchandising on an enormous scalein countless ways, Schulz blazed the wide trail that most every cartoonist since has tried to follow."

Early life and education

Charles Monroe Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922, and grew up in Saint Paul. He was the only child of Carl Schulz and Dena Halverson, and was of German and Norwegian descent. His uncle called him "Sparky" after the horse Spark Plug in Billy DeBeck's comic strip ''Barney Google'', which Schulz enjoyed reading.

Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, Spike, who ate unusual things, such as pins and tacks. In 1937, Schulz drew a picture of Spike and sent it to ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!''; his drawing appeared in Robert Ripley's syndicated panel, captioned, "A hunting dog that eats pins, tacks, and razor blades is owned by C. F. Schulz, St. Paul, Minn." and "Drawn by 'Sparky'" (C.F. was his father, Carl Fred Schulz).

Schulz attended Richards Gordon Elementary School in Saint Paul, where he skipped two half-grades. He became a shy, timid teenager, perhaps as a result of being the youngest in his class at Central High School. One well-known episode in his high school life was the rejection of his drawings by his high school yearbook, which he referred to in ''Peanuts'' years later, when he had Lucy ask Charlie Brown to sign a picture he drew of a horse, only to then say it was a prank. A five-foot-tall statue of Snoopy was placed in the school's main office 60 years later.

Military service and post-war positions

In February 1943, Schulz's mother Dena died after a long illness. At the time of her death, he had only recently been made aware that she suffered from cancer. Schulz had by all accounts been very close to his mother and her death had a significant effect on him.

Around the same time, Schulz was drafted into the United States Army. He served as a staff sergeant with the 20th Armored Division in Europe during World War II, as a squad leader on a .50 caliber machine gun team. His unit saw combat only at the very end of the war. Schulz said he had only one opportunity to fire his machine gun but forgot to load it, and that the German soldier he could have fired at willingly surrendered. Years later, Schulz proudly spoke of his wartime service. For being under fire he did receive the Combat Infantry Badge, of which he was very proud.

In late 1945, Schulz returned to Minnesota, where he did lettering for a Roman Catholic comic magazine, ''Timeless Topix.'' Before he was drafted, Schulz had taken a correspondence course from the school Art Instruction, Inc., and in July 1946 took a job at the school, where he reviewed and graded students' work. He worked at the school for several years as he developed his career as a comic creator.

Career

Schulz's first group of regular cartoons, a weekly series of one-panel jokes called '' Li’l Folks'', was published from June 1947 to January 1950 in the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press,'' with Schulz usually doing four one-panel drawings per issue. It was in ''Li'l Folks'' that Schulz first used the name Charlie Brown for a character, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys as well as one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In May 1948, Schulz sold his first one-panel drawing to ''The Saturday Evening Post''; within the next two years, a total of 17 untitled drawings by Schulz were published in the ''Post'', simultaneously with his work for the ''Pioneer Press''. Around the same time, he tried to have ''Li'l Folks'' syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association; Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. ''Li'l Folks'' was dropped from the ''Pioneer Press'' in January 1950.

Later that year, Schulz approached United Feature Syndicate with the one-panel series ''Li'l Folks'', and the syndicate became interested. By that time Schulz had also developed a comic strip, usually using four panels rather than one, and to Schulz's delight, the syndicate preferred that version. But to his consternation, the syndicate had to change the title for Schulz's strip for legal reasons and selected a new name, ''Peanuts''.

''Peanuts'' made its first appearance on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers. The weekly Sunday page debuted on January 6, 1952. After a slow start, ''Peanuts'' eventually became one of the most popular comic strips of all time, as well as one of the most influential. Schulz also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip, ''It's Only a Game'' (1957–59), but he abandoned it after the success of ''Peanuts''. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a gag cartoon, ''Young Pillars'', featuring teenagers, to ''Youth'', a publication associated with the Church of God.

In 1957 and 1961 he illustrated two volumes of Art Linkletter's ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'', and in 1964 a collection of letters, ''Dear President Johnson'', by Bill Adler.

''Peanuts''

At its height, ''Peanuts'' was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, in 21 languages. Over nearly 50 years, Schulz drew 17,897 published ''Peanuts'' strips. The strips, plus merchandise and product endorsements, produced revenues of more than $1 billion per year, with Schulz earning an estimated $30 million to $40 million annually. During the strip's run, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997 to celebrate his 75th birthday; reruns of the strip ran during his vacation, the only time that occurred during Schulz's life.

The first collection of ''Peanuts'' strips was published in July 1952 by Rinehart & Company. Many more books followed, greatly contributing to the strip's increasing popularity. In 2004, Fantagraphics began their ''Complete Peanuts'' series. ''Peanuts'' also proved popular in other media; the first animated TV special, ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'', aired in December 1965 and won an Emmy award. Numerous TV specials followed, the latest being ''Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown'' in 2011. Until his death, Schulz wrote or co-wrote the TV specials and carefully oversaw their production.

Charlie Brown, the principal character of ''Peanuts'', was named after a co-worker at Art Instruction Inc. Schulz drew much from his own life, some examples being:
* Like Charlie Brown's parents, Schulz's father was a barber and his mother a housewife.
* Like Charlie Brown, Schulz had often felt shy and withdrawn. In an interview with Charlie Rose in May 1997, Schulz observed, "I suppose there's a melancholy feeling in a lot of cartoonists, because cartooning, like all other humor, comes from bad things happening."
* Schulz reportedly had an intelligent dog when he was a boy. Although this dog was a pointer, not a beagle like Snoopy, family photos confirm a certain physical resemblance.
* References to Snoopy's brother Spike living outside of Needles, California, were influenced by the few years (1928–30) the Schulz family lived there; they moved to Needles to join other family members who had relocated from Minnesota to tend to an ill cousin.
* Schulz's inspiration for Charlie Brown's unrequited love for the Little Red-Haired Girl was Donna Mae Johnson, an Art Instruction Inc. accountant with whom he fell in love. When Schulz finally proposed to her in June 1950, shortly after he had made his first contract with his syndicate, she turned him down and married another man.
* Linus and Shermy were named for his good friends Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler, respectively.
* Peppermint Patty was inspired by Patricia Swanson, one of his cousins on his mother's side. Schulz devised the character's name when he saw peppermint candies in his house.

Influences

The Charles M. Schulz Museum counts Milton Caniff (''Terry and the Pirates'') and Bill Mauldin as key influences on Schulz's work. In his own strip, Schulz regularly described Snoopy's annual Veterans Day visits with Mauldin, including mention of Mauldin's World War II cartoons. Schulz also credited George Herriman (''Krazy Kat''), Roy Crane (''Wash Tubbs''), Elzie C. Segar (''Thimble Theatre