Showing posts with label Charles Schulz. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2022

Biographies / Charles M Shulz

Charles M. Schulz

The American newspaper cartoonist Charles M. Schulz is world famous as the creator of 'Peanuts' (1950-2000). Preceded by his similar first feature 'Li'l Folks' (1947-1950), the 'Peanuts' series revolves around the unlucky boy Charlie Brown, his idiosyncratic dog Snoopy and a gang of other kids. Their daily antics and anxieties ran in over 2,600 newspapers, making it the most widespread comic strip on the planet. 'Peanuts' owes its success to its gentle comedy, humanity and psychological-philosophical themes. Its universe is filled solely with children and animals, used by Schulz as a satirical metaphor for the adult world. His characters express doubts and worries, suffer from bullying, depression and other emotional turmoils and wonder about life and their existence: complexities unprecedented in gag-a-day comics at the time. Schulz pulled it off with four daily panels, a simple graphic style and witty punchlines, touching both mainstream readers and intellectuals. The characters have appeared in animated films and on truckloads of merchandising, making Schulz one of the rare billionaire cartoonists. However, he kept his personal touch by creating every episode of his sophisticated newspaper comic singlehandedly over the course of 49 years. Together with Walt Disney and Hergé, Charles M. Schulz remains one of the most analyzed, referenced and influential cartoonists in the world.

My hero / Charles Schulz by Jenny Colgan

Charles Schulz

My hero Charles Schulz

BIOGRAPHY

by Jenny Colgan

'He combined artistic talent, a huge sense of being the underdog, a wry, bittersweet sense of humour, and an extraordinary work ethic'

Jenny Colgan
Saturday 17 July 2010 00.04 BST

Charl Schulz first noticed there was something unusual about his son Charles when he noticed him, aged two, drawing everything he passed with his finger in the condensation of the trolleybus window. Some gifts you're just born with. Charles "Sparky" Schulz combined artistic talent, a huge sense of being the underdog (which he retained well into his first $100m), a wry, bittersweet sense of humour, and an extraordinary work ethic.

Like many others I was raised on Peanuts and adored it. I grew up on Lucy never letting Charlie Brown get a kick of that ball; on kite-eating trees; Great Pumpkins; horrible summer camps; and dogs who get a lot of publishing rejection letters (a concept with which I was to become familiar). It gave me a vision of America – as pleasant and convivial, but with sharp undercurrents – that I am convinced remains accurate.

I didn't know then that Schulz had, in the face of threats and criticism, quietly integrated Charlie Brown's black friend Franklin into school. I didn't know he was one of the first people to mark VE Day (Snoopy always has a root beer with his army friend, Bill). I didn't even appreciate Schulz's mastery of line until much later – just look at his beautifully articulated raindrops. But I knew it was brilliant.

There was only onheir comic strips that day.

His work is touching, funny and sad. Like many overachievers, Schulz lost a parent early – his mother, just as he received his call-up papers; he was 17. She was from a stern Scandinavian family with whom he never felt at home and rarely saw in later life. In fact, he took just one thing from his European roots: the Norwegian term of endearment his mother used for him as a child – Snupie Charles Schulz. When he died in 2000, more than 100 cartoonists paid tribute to him in t

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