Charles Monroe ‘Sparky’ Schulz (1922-2000) was an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip ‘Peanuts’ which gave us Snoopy, Charlie Brown and others. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of the modern era. Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, Spike, who ate unusual things, such as pins and tacks.
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.
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.
Schulz had a long association with ice sports, with both figure skating and ice hockey featuring prominently in his cartoons. He was also very active in senior ice-hockey tournaments.
Schulz was asked if, in his final Peanuts strip, Charlie Brown would finally get to kick the football after so many decades (one of the many recurring themes in Peanuts was Charlie Brown’s attempts to kick a football while Lucy was holding it, only to have Lucy pull it back at the last moment, causing him to fall on his back). His response, “Oh, no. Definitely not. I couldn’t have Charlie Brown kick that football; that would be a terrible disservice to him after nearly half a century.”
Charles M Schulz Museum, California https://schulzmuseum.org/
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