By now, you’ve probably heard the news about Charles M. Schulz. You’ve heard about his illness and his decision to retire. You may also have read several tributes to the man affectionately known as "Sparky" to his friends.
I don’t know Charles Schulz. I’ve never met him, am unlikely to meet him, and do not have enough in common with him to call him "Sparky." I’ve felt his influence,however, and it’s due to that influence that I am moved to sit down with the latest version of Microsoft Word and write my feelings about the unfortunate news. Thanks to Charles Schulz, Charlie Brown was a part of my childhood and yours, and I don’t think any of us can repay him the favor.
Schulz is the most important newspaper cartoonist of our century. I don’t mean that he is the best – I prefer Al Capp and Bill Watterson – and I don’t mean that he is the most widely read, although he almost certainly is. Schulz redefined the medium mid-century and created a series of characters that have crept into our international collective consciousness. Charlie Brown and Snoopy and part of our lives in a way that other popular strip characters (such as Garfield or Hagar) are not. Peanuts is witty yet gentle, tolerant yet critical, heartbreaking yet reaffirming, psychological yet religious - and always humanistic.
Unlike so many of his contemporaries and followers, Schulz never adopted the "workshop" system of comic strip production. He didn’t use apprentices or gag writers. He avoided cheap topical humor. He never resorted to mean-spirited ridicule or demeaned his characters' values. He may have lent Charlie Brown’s likeness to an endless number of commercial products, but he never sold out Charlie Brown’s integrity. Schulz’ vision could be (and often was) parodied, but even the parodies retained an essential affection for the man and his comic strip. Schulz the Man is present behind every panel that Schulz the Cartoonist drew.
Peanuts changed the way that newspaper cartoons were drawn and written. Schulz introduced a natural minimalist style of drawing that truly was different from anything else in newspapers in the 1950s. His world was stylized without suffering from mannerism, a key difference between Schulz and the animated stylization of UPA. Most website visitors grew up in a world with Broom Hilda and BC and Calvin and Hobbes, so it might be difficult for some to realize and fully appreciate the impact Schultz had on comic strips. He shares the same status in comic strips as Jack Kirby does in comic books or Louis Armstrong does in jazz.
Naturally, not every by-product of Peanuts’ success was delightful. Too many comic strip artists substituted poor draftsmanship for minimalism, and too many comic strip writers emulated Schulz’ effortless knack for commercialism at the expense of developing their own identities. Any week’s worth of Garfield or Dilbert strips will prove the point. There were also times when Schulz himself stumbled, repeating earlier successes and falling into predictable patterns.
None of this detracts from Schulz’ success story. Every day for fifty years, Schulz greeted the world with a brand new Peanuts comic strip. He reaffirmed our faith in the underdog during decades when selfishness was championed. And he reminded us of the little pleasures in life at a time when our lives move faster than ever.
Discontinued comic strips seldom remain in the public’s consciousness for long, and it’s likely that in ten years Peanuts will suffer the same obscure fate as Krazy Kat and Little Nemo. That’s a shame. However, Peanuts contributed more than enough catch phrases and snatches of pop philosophy needed to save it from complete relegation to the nostalgia bin. Charlie Brown, and his friends Linus and Lucy, will live on through our shared memories for a very long time. Let’s cherish those early memories of having Peanuts read to us on Sunday mornings, and of seeing The Great Pumpkin Halloween special for the first time. In the end, although we may never have met Charles Schulz, we may not need to. He has already given us memories for the better.
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