Snoopy!
Charlie Brown!
Linus! Lucy! Woodstock!
We all recognize the characters of Peanuts, drawn by Charles Schulz, but how much do you know about the cartoonist’s life story?
A doodler from childhood, “Sparky” improved his techniques with a drawing course by mail during high school, delighting family and friends with his cartoons.
Returning to St. Paul after army service during World War II, Schulz worked at multiple jobs trying to get into the cartooning business.
Finally, a New York newspaper syndicate accepts his comic strip about little kids and a dog! Its original name was like another published comic, so the editors change it to “Peanuts.” Sparky hates the name, but is ecstatic that his work whose characters are named after his coworkers will be seen in newspapers across the US!
He rushes home to propose to lovely red-headed Donna – who says she’s decided to marry someone else… so Sparky threw himself into producing a daily comic strip.
Peanuts’ popularity grew as it appeared in more and more newspapers, then the Sunday color comic pages, then books. At age 32, Schulz won top cartoonist of the year!
His family grew, too, so he and Joyce and their five children moved to the warmer climate of southern California.
In 1960, Linus began the Legend of the Great Pumpkin, followed by Charlie Brown’s unrequited love for “the little red-headed girl” whom we never see, then “A Charlie Brown Christmas” animated television special.
Go with Snoopy to the moon, learn about Sparky’s family, and enjoy his enduring comic characters in this loving tribute, originally published in Japan with editorial supervision by Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates.
Who is your favorite Peanuts character?
**kmm
Book info: Charles M. Schulz: the creator of Snoopy and Peanuts (Manga Biographies series) / by Yuzuri Kukui; translated by Mari Marimoto. Udon Entertainment, 2024. [publisher site https://store.udonentertainment.com/collections/manga/products/manga-biographies-charles-m-schulz-the-creator-of-snoopy-and-peanuts] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.