Snoopy was also an early character in the strip, first appearing in the third strip, which ran on October 4. Its first Sunday strip appeared January 6, 1952, in the half page format, which was the only complete format for the entire life of the Sunday strip.
Most of the other characters that eventually became the main characters of Peanuts did not appear until later:
- Schroeder (May 1951)
- Lucy (March 1952)
- Linus (September 1952)
- Pig Pen (July 1954)
- Sally (August 1959)
- “Peppermint” Patty (August 1966)
- Woodstock (introduced April 1967; given a name in June 1970)
- Franklin (July 1968)
- Marcie (July 1971)
Okay… So it’s technically not Charlie Brown’s birthday. Though we’re gonna celebrate like it is!!! Peanuts had its origin in Li’l Folks, a weekly panel comic that appeared in Schulz’s hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, from 1947 to 1950. He first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like the early 1950s version of Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post which published 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz. The first of these was of a boy sitting with his feet on an ottoman.
In 1948, Schulz 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 in early 1950. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best work from Li’l Folks. When his work was picked up by United Feature Syndicate, they decided to run the new comic strip he had been working on. This strip was similar in spirit to the panel comic, but it had a set cast of characters, rather than different nameless little folk for each page. 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 settled on the name Peanuts, after the peanut gallery featured in the Howdy Doody TV show. Peanuts was a title Schulz always disliked. In a 1987 interview, Schulz said of the title Peanuts: “It’s totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity—and I think my humor has dignity.” The periodic collections of the strips in paperback book form typically had either “Charlie Brown” or “Snoopy” in the title, not “Peanuts”, because of Schulz’s distaste for his strip’s title. From 11/28/66 to 1/4/87, the opening Sunday panels eventually typically read Peanuts, featuring Good Ol ‘ Charlie Brown. The final daily original
Peanuts comic strip was published on January 3, 2000.
Although the daily strips came to an end, five more original Sunday
Peanuts strips had yet to be published.
On February 13, 2000, the day following Schulz’s passing, the last ever
Peanuts strip ran in papers. The strip began with Charlie Brown answering the phone with someone on the end presumably asking for Snoopy. Charlie Brown responded with “No, I think he’s writing.” The bottom panel consisted of the final daily strip in its entirety, reprinted in color, and included various
Peanuts characters surrounding it. The very last strip consisted simply of Snoopy sitting at his typewriter in thought with a note from Schulz that read as follows:
Dear Friends,
I have been fortunate to draw Charlie Brown and his friends for almost fifty years. It has been the fulfillment of my childhood ambition. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to maintain the schedule demanded by a daily comic strip, My family does not wish “Peanuts” to be continued by anyone else, therefore I am announcing my retirement. I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy…how can I ever forget them…
Many other cartoonists paid tribute to
Peanuts and Schulz by homages in their own strips, appearing on February 13, 2000, or in the week beforehand.
After
Peanuts came to an end United Feature Syndicate began offering the newspapers that ran it a package of reprinted strips under the title
Classic Peanuts. The syndicate limited the choices to either strips from the 1960s or from the 1990s, although a newspaper was also given the option to carry both reprint packages if it desired. All Sunday strips in the package, however, come from the 1960s. Though it no longer maintains the “first billing” in as many newspapers as it enjoyed for much of its original run, the now
Classic Peanuts remains one of the most popular and widely syndicated strips today.]]]]> ]]>
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