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Charles Schulz was the creator of “Peanuts” and 355 million people around the world read the tender and sage comic strip starring Charlie Brown. Mr. Schulz recognized his responsibility for his comic characters. He would tell friends “You control all these characters and the lives they live. You decide when they get up in the morning, when they’re going to fight with their friends, when they are going to lose the game. Is it not amazing how you have no control over your real life? Several years ago I enjoyed a program directed by Bill Moyers on the Old Testament. One of the commenters said, “I can control the day time. I cannot control the night!”

 

The lives of  “Peanuts” and Charles Schulz were completely intertwined. Mr. Shulz put his heart and soul into that strip. “Peanuts” reached readers in 75 countries, 2,600 papers, and 21 languages every day. Cartoonist Jules Feiffer said that the “Peanuts” characters endure because they were the first real children in the comic pages, ones with doubts and anxieties.

 

The cast of “Peanuts” included Charlie Brown, a wishy-washy boy with a tree-loving kite and a losing baseball team; Snoopy, an unflappable beagle with a fancy inner life; Lucy, a fussbudget with a football and a curbside psychiatric clinic; Linus, a philosophical blanket-carrier; and Schroeder, a virtuoso on the toy piano and Beethoven devotee.

 

“Peanuts” was based on repetition and predictability. As Mr. Schulz put it, “All the loves in the strip are unrequited; the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; The Great Pumpkin never comes.”

 

Philosophers, ministers, and psychological analysts examined the Peanuts characters. By 1999 there were 20,000 different new products each year adorned by “Peanuts.” Mr. Shultz was the leading figure in cartooning and licensing by the time of his death in February 2000.

 

Despite his success, he was a melancholy man who worried and was plagued by panic attacks. He said about cartooning:  “It will destroy you. It will break your heart.” He once said that his philosophy could be found in the Gospel of St Luke: “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, that that he should offend one of these little ones.”

 

Intertwined Lives: Complex “Peanuts” Personalities and Their Creator

 

Charlie Brown: First appeared Oct. 2, 1952. (As Mr. Schulz remembered the namesake, “He was a very bright young man with a lot of enthusiasm for life. I began to tease him about his love for parties and I used to say, “Here comes good ol’ Charlie Brown, now we can have a good time.”

 

Snoopy: Also known as World War I Flying Ace. First appeared Oct. 4, 1950 - Adopted by NASA, as a promotional stunt in 1968. Accomplishments: Walking on hind feet, thinking thoughts and sleeping on a pitched-roof doghouse. Charles Schulz said, “I do not recall how he got on top of the doghouse, but the first time he fell off, the strip ended with his saying, ‘Life is full of rude awakening.”

 

Lucy Van Pelt:  Also known as Fussbudget. First appeared on March 3, 1952. Accomplishments:  Pulled numerous footballs our from under Charlie Brown; ran curbside psychiatric clinic for five cents a visit.

 

Schroeder: First appearance, May 30, 1951. Accomplishments: Played Beethoven on toy piano with black keys painted on; fended off Lucy’s amorous overtures.