Early life
Charles Monroe Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922, and grew up in Saint Paul. Throughout his youth, him and his father shared a Sunday morning ritual reading the funnies; Sparky was fascinated with strips like Skippy, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye. He always knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. He often drew his dog, Spike, doing crazy things, such as eating pins and tacks. In 1937, Schulz drew a picture of Spike and sent it to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and his drawing appeared in Robert Ripley's syndicated panel.
After serving in the United States Army in World War II, Shultz returned to Minnesota. In late 1945, he did the lettering for a Roman Catholic comic magazine, "Timeless Topics." In July 1946, he took a job at the school Art Instruction Inc. where he took a correspondence class before he was drafted. Here, he graded and reviewed students' work. He worked there for many years and developed his career.
Li'l Folks
Schulz's first group of regular cartoons, a weekly series of one-panel jokes called Li'l Folks. The comics would have children doing or saying things that were wiser beyond their years. This series was published from 1947-1950. This introduced the name Charlie Brown as a character and featured a dog similar to Snoopy.
Later, in 1950 Shultz introduced his idea of Li'l Folks as a 4-panel comic strip and selected a new name, Peanuts.
philosophy
Shultz had a very positive outlook on life. He often would say not to take things too seriously and it's the people who stick around and care are the most important. In his comics, he always kept things lighthearted, even if some of the characters weren't particularly happy.
Charles Shultz was able to create one of the most successful comic strips, if not the most successful. He did this by having fun with the characters and not taking things too seriously.
“Just thinking about a friend makes you want to do a happy dance, because a friend is someone who loves you in spite of your faults.”
Comics
A look at some of the Peanuts comics over the years.