Li'l Folks

''Li'l Folks'', the first comic strip by ''Peanuts'' creator Charles M. Schulz, was a weekly panel that appeared mainly in Schulz's hometown paper, the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press'', from June 22, 1947, to January 22, 1950. As Schulz's first regular cartoon, ''Li'l Folks'' can be regarded as an embryonic version of ''Peanuts'', centered around children saying things beyond their years. Unlike ''Peanuts'', ''Li'l Folks'' did not feature any recurring characters, though several themes were carried over to the later strip, including: Beethoven's music (which was applied to ''Peanuts'' character Schroeder); dogs resembling Snoopy that appeared in most strips; and the name Charlie Brown."Charles M. Schulz: ''Li'l Beginnings''"
/ref>

Publication history

Schulz was 24 at the time he began drawing ''Li'l Folks'', and he was living with his father in a four-bedroom apartment above his father's barber shop. He earned $10 for each submission to the paper.

The first two installments of ''Li'l Folks'' ran June 8 and 15, 1947, in the ''Minneapolis Tribune''. It then moved to the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press''; ''Li'l Folks'' ran in the women's section of the paper.

In 1948, Schulz tried to have ''Li'l Folks'' syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association (a Scripps Company). He would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through.

Schulz quit two years into the strip after the editor turned down his requests for a pay increase and a move of ''Li'l Folks'' from the women's section to the comics pages.

Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate (also a Scripps Company) with ''Li'l Folks'', and the syndicate became interested. By this point, Schulz had redeveloped ''Li'l Folks'' with a four-panel strip format and a set cast of characters, rather than different nameless children for each page. The syndicate accepted the strip; however, the name ''Li'l Folks'' was too close to the names of two other comics of the time: Al Capp's ''Li'l Abner'' and a strip titled ''Little Folks''. To avoid confusion, the syndicate chose the name ''Peanuts'', after the peanut gallery featured in the ''Howdy Doody'' TV show. ''Peanuts'' made its first appearance on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers.

Characters and story

''Li'l Folks'' saw the first use of the name Charlie Brown on May 30, 1948, although Schulz applied the name in four gags to three different boys, as well as one buried in sand, during 1948–1949. One strip also featured a dog named Rover that looked much like Snoopy. Like most of ''Peanuts'', adult characters were not shown in the strip.

Collected editions

The newspaper never returned Schulz's original artwork, so he clipped each week's strip from the paper and placed it in his scrapbook, which eventually housed over 7,000 pieces of artwork.

In 2004, the complete run of the strip was collected by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center (Santa Rosa, California) in a book, ''Li'l Beginnings'', by Derrick Bang with a foreword by Jean Schulz. It is available from the Museum and distributed by Fantagraphics Books. The complete run of the strip was also included in the penultimate volume of '' The Complete Peanuts'', published in May 2016 by Fantagraphics Books.

References

{{Peanuts

American comic strips
1947 comics debuts
1950 comics endings
Charles M. Schulz
Child characters in comics
Comics about children
Gag cartoon comics
Comics characters introduced in 1947