PEANUTS!!! by Danielle Pritchett

The comic strip as an art form has been unfairly judged throughout the decades. Since it creation in 1892, the medium has been called "subversive trash", "overly juvenile" or "sub literature". The purpose of a comic strip, Schulz liked to say, was to make people laugh and to sell newspapers. Still in spite of himself, Schulz continued to uphold the comic genre as a mirror of American contemporary society, reflecting the highest of human dreams to the lowest of human fears. His work is often described in philosophical, religious and psychological contexts.

     Comic books were perceived to have been written for children. Newspaper comic strips were recognized as something that could be read by everyone. They were easy to decode and the words were added to make messages even easier to understand. The creation of Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced a new tradition in heroic storytelling. During WWII, comic books featured patriotic heroes led by Captain America. After the war, they dealt with animal stories, romance comics, crime and horror titles. Richard F. Outcault was influential in developing the early "kid strips" through his lovable "Yellow Kid" and "Buster Brown".

Other artists who contributed to the development of the "child strip" included Gene Byrnes and Perscy Crosby, whose characters, "Reg'lar Fellars" and "Skippy" were the comic strip equivalents of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Milt Caniff and Al Capp were considerable influences on the early works of Charles M. "Sparky" Schulz. But the man who influenced him the most was Roy Crane with his drawings of "Wash Tubbs" and "Captain Easy". Crane's hilarious style laid the groundwork for many cartoonists who followed him. When Schulz was old enough to read the newspaper funnies with his dad, he began to study the "Krazy Kat" strip by George Herriman. Schulz later admitted that a book collection of "Krazy Kat" cartoons published in the 1940s did much to inspire him to create a comic strip that went beyond the simple actions of ordinary children. James Swinnerton's "Little Jimmy" established the gentle child character who was later revived in 1950 by Schulz in "Li'l Folks",

a weekly cartoon he sold to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. This comic strip was later syndicated into its present form by United Feature Syndicate and renamed as "Peanuts".

     Schulz's innovative "Peanuts" comic strip was unlike anything previously published and earned its unequaled place in American culture as well as in comic history. In it, Schulz expanded the comic from one panel to a strip format. The new strip format was different from other "kid strips" of the time in that each strip dealt with only a brief incident and didn't have to be followed daily. (Schulz was aware that the readers' habits were changing). The four panel nature of "Peanuts freed Schulz from the group montage format of "Li'l Folks", and allowed him to grow as a storyteller. Instead of one-liner, single-panel gags, he could now develop situations for the characters that went from a to b, then c and d. Schulz was aware of the shrinking space available in newspapers and created a strip with four equal panels that a newspaper editor could reproduce in three different forms.He could run it horizontally, or he could drop one panel beneath another and run it vertically. Also he could drop the last two panels beneath the first two and run the strip in the form of a square.

Each of the panels on these "Peanuts" strips is drawn 5 1/2 inches high by 6 1/2 inches wide in the original. Schulz needed the large working space to be able to get the proper expressions and to make his lettering clear. "Peanuts" is greatly reduced in size for publication, and Schulz had to work exclusively with the pen and used the brush only to place the dark areas, such as on Snoopy's ears or Lucy's hair. The strip with its small size and matching name, was marketed as the flexible format for any newspaper. It significantly impacted the styles of other newspaper cartoonists and editors, thereby marking its valuable place in comic history.

     In the beginning, little attention was given to the insightful text and cute little drawings that Schulz created. It took several years for readers to grow attached to the "Peanuts" gang. But fifty years later, "Peanuts" has become one of the most popular and longest running comics of all time. Schulz created a total of 18,170 strips. However, it was not the comic strip that guaranteed Schulz's place in history. In 1965, Schulz's story "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was animated for television.

The show was a sensation and when it was replayed in 1969, fifty-five million viewers tuned in. On that one night, he reached a larger, more diverse audience than any other single popular artist in American history.

     The "Peanuts" franchise was an incredible success. " A Charlie Brown Christmas" and other "Peanuts" classics became holiday regulars and winners of Emmy and Peabody awards. The "Peanuts" characters have appeared in marketing campaigns for MetLife and the Ford Falcon. In 1960, Hallmark began producing "Peanuts" greeting cards. Camp Snoopy began in Knotts Berry Farm and has become a common site at several theme parks. The "Snoopy" character has appeared in Holiday on Ice and in national museums. He was also featured in the Guinness Book of World Records after the comic strip sold to its 2000th newspaper in 1984. "Peanuts" has also appeared on the covers of Time, Saturday Review, Newsweek, and other major magazines. The strip has had a profound and lasting influence on the way people saw themselves and the world in the second half of the twentieth century. Charles Schulz went from artist and storyteller to a worldwide industry. He was the first newspaper cartoonist to receive this level of success. He was most proud of Charlie and Snoopy's involvement with the Apollo 10 Lunar Expedition in 1969. The command module for this mission was named "Charlie Brown" and the lunar module "Snoopy". When the lunar module successfully redocked with the command module, the report came back over the radio to mission control that "Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other". Of all the objects in the strip, Charles Schulz was the proudest of Linus's security blanket.

He said, "I may not have invented the term, but I like to think that I helped make it part of our language". At the peak of Schulz's popularity, "Peanuts" reached three hundred and fifty-five million readers and the merchandising of the brand created a franchise unlike any other comic. It is reported that Charles M. Schulz's income during his lifetime totaled more than $1.1 billion. Schulz died in 2000 and was posthumously given the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor given to a civilian. Throughout the history of the "Peanuts" strip, Charles Schulz drew each frame singlehandedly. He requested in his will that the "Peanuts" characters remain as authentic as possible and that no new comic strips based upon them be drawn by another artist.

     "Peanuts" permanently changed the post-war newspaper strip in other ways as well. While the majority of early "kid strips" had featured all male characters, Schulz changed the genre by stating as a major theme the battle of the sexes, in which the self-assertive Lucy continually challenges and beats the self-doubting Charlie Brown. In the early episodes, Lucy is presented as a forerunner of the women's movement while Charlie Brown becomes the symbol of the sensitive male of the 1960s.

 Schulz revived the dying "child strip" of the 1940s by introducing psychologically complicated characters in the unexpected form of children. We were introduced to Charlie Brown who fails in almost all he attempts to do, Lucy who represents female superiority and Snoopy, the super-realist and detached observer. "Peanuts" continually evolved with the turbulent years of the 60s. After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Schulz added Franklin, an African Americn character.

Franklin

Jose Peterson, a Mexican-Swedish boy was added along with Peppermint Patty, a sports-loving girl from a single parent household. The rock festival Woodstock served as the inspiration for the name chosen for Charlie Brown's feathered friend.

     No critical analysis of Schulz's work would be complete without re-emphasizing that the "Peanuts" strip was not written to be enjoyed by children. It was written for adults because adults have memories of what it was like to be a child and can experience the cartoon on a deeper level. Schulz's theory which he called '"removal of the lids" states that we are pretty much what we are going to be early in our lives. Our personalities are established by age 5 or 6. We are like boiling pots on a stove. When we are young the adults keep the lids on, but as we grow older, the lids pop off and our true characteristics come out. As we mature, we discover ways to protect ourselves and emerge from the positions of fear and anxiety that we are forced into as children. Reading "Peanuts" is a way of returning to childhood and yet not being exposed to its unpleasantness because we have learned to deal with the negative emotions we face in the adult world. Very little material used in the strip comes from observations of real children. Most comes from Schulz's own childhood memories. Because reading the "Peanuts" strip involves us so directly, we are deeply drawn into the emotions expressed by the children. The humor works to soften some of the disappointment and pain.

     In defense of some of his more heart rendering episodes, Schulz writes, "Some of my best ideas have come from a mood of sadness rather than a feeling of well-being. Pleasant things are not funny. You can't create humor out of happiness. There is nothing funny about the person who gets to kick the football. Drama and humor come from trouble and sadness and mankind's astounding ability to survive life's unhappiness". Why has Charlie Brown with all his failures become such a worldwide success? I think it is because Charlie Brown represents the basic feelings that we all share no matter how old we are. His fans can identify with his insecurities, anxieties and doubts simply because his daily struggles are often our own. Most people would admit that when everything seems to go wrong in their livs, they often feel just like him. 

Charlie Brown is almost always portrayed as a loser and the one who suffers most. All readers can empathize with him since everybody has had experiences that resulted in losing. We feel sorry for him because he is the person that everything bad seems to happen to. We love him all the more because he never seems to give up. We admire his perseverance and his eternal hope. We find him decent and worthy of our pity. 

     The "Peanuts" comic strip works for us because it allows us to bond with its characters. It is highly successful as a medium that deals with complicated thoughts and feeling in a very basic way (through simple design and the eyes of children). Although the characters are representative of American culture, the strip succeeds because its themes are universal. It is also very funny. What displeases me most about the "Peanuts" franchise has been the extent to which the brand has been marketed. What originally made the cartoon strip work was its subtle anger and cruelty. But every image of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang showed smiling faces on greeting cards, mugs, t-shirts, toothbrushes, watches and even blimps. There was no escaping the "cuteness" of the characters. It is unfortunate that Charles Schulz, the artist, has been unsuccessful in resisting the temptation to become Charles Schulz, the entrepreneur.

     Throughout its fifty years of publication, "Peanuts" has recycled over and over again the same themes in different circumstances. Charlie Brown's baseball team never wins a game, Sally always get D-minuses on her exams, the Great Pumpkin never shows, and the football always gets pulled away. And every time it is pulled away we are reminded our own infantile behavior when we were about Lucy's age. She can't help herself any more than we could. Since comic strips are not graphic novels, but rather singular incidents, there are no complex plots in this series. Each event is read independently of another, but they all relate specifically to the character's unique personality. Schulz has portrayed the concerns that all people have in dealing with love, rejection and personal failure. The theme of unrequited love affects most of the major characters (Charlie Brown for the little red-haired girl, Sally for Linus, Linus for his teacher, Lucy for Schroeder).

     Relationships are another important theme in the series. Snoopy and Charlie Brown are good friends although they sometimes are annoyed at each other. Charlie Brown has a slightly negative attitude towards Lucy because she’s always is mean to Linus. Sometimes however, it seems that he genuinely cares about her. Charlie's best friend in Linus. The two of them often support each other through troubled times. When Sally was born, Charlie adored his baby sister. As she got older, she started to annoy him. Charlie remains oblivious to the flirtations of Peppermint Patty and Marcie. The relationship between Schroeder and Lucy shows another side of her character. Lucy bosses Charlie Brown and Linus around, but she is quite docile in the presence of Schroeder.

     The "Peanuts" characters exist in an unrealistic world without adults. They are given important things to say and a very grown up vocabulary. They experience adult feelings and sometimes express their emotions in harsh terms. In the first ever "Peanuts" strip it was envy that prompted Shermy to say, "How I hate him" when referring to Charlie Brown. 

The words shock us but Schulz knew that children were capable of feeling intensely negative emotions too. Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy are the main characters surrounded by family and school friends. They are a reflection of the American pop culture of the times. Through their eyes we are no longer passive observers as we are allowed to experience the basic feelings that we all share. The darker themes of depression, anxiety, grief, rejection, failure and abandonment are more easily accepted by the reader because we hear everything spoken by children and delivered with Schulz's strong sense of humor. We do not take offense at learning negative things about ourselves because we believe that children and dogs are innocent and amusing, not serious and wise. The reoccurring elements of the "Peanuts" strip include the kite-eating tree, Schroeder's music, Linus's blanket, Lucy's psychiatry booth, Snoopy's doghouse, Woodstock, the Red Barron, Joe Cool, the baseball games, the football attempts, the Great Pumpkin, the Girl With The Red Hair. Schulz's genius was using these visuals over and over again within the context of the "Peanuts" world and keeping the series fresh and funny.

     Charlie Brown (the lovable loser) is an example of the neurotic personality. He suffers from depression and anxiety, which are often the result of being victimize by the other characters. He usually gets blamed when things go wrong and is constantly worrying about whether other people like him. Although he is plagued by self-doubt or by the hurtful actions of others, he maintains an endless determination and hope.

Snoopy exhibits an outgoing and daring personality. As Joe Cool, he is the life of the party. Schulz believed from experiences with his own dog and through observations in his neighborhood that dogs were smarter than their masters. He therefore gave Snoopy the ability to think, which made him smarter than any other cartoon dog. Letting Snoopy think and walk on his hind legs made him superior to even the kids in the strip.

Lucy has taunted Charlie Brown for fifty years. She is "crabby" and always complains about something. Typical portrayals of Lucy show her bossing her friends, mocking Charlie Brown, and being nasty to her brother. Her advice as a psychiatrist is usually uncaring, delivered by yelling and always misguided.

    

Linus is the smartest of the Peanuts characters. He often gives passionate speeches and is thought to add a religious overtone to the comic strip. Linus will forever be etched in the reader's mind as the little boy who carries around his security blanket. He often expresses the stress that his family puts on him. He talks frequently about his grandmother who hates his security blanket and to his mother who puts notes in his lunch to remind him to work harder at school.  

Schroeder

Schroeder is the most conscientious child, known best for his piano playing and love of Beethoven. He is disciplined and focused.

     Showing and telling are both important parts of Schulz's comic strips. It is the combination of image and text that causes the reader to evaluate the image in context of the text and the text in context of the image. According to Scott McCloud, comics use iconic images such as sparse representations of reality to allow the reader to inject himself into the narrative. The picture within each frame is simply a vehicle to visually attract our attention in order to bring us into a space that has very little information. We fill the empty space by bringing together the image and the text. Charlie Brown's "ordinary" face with its minimal feature, half-circles for ears and nose, dots for eyes, a line for a mouth would not be capable of delivering much information without the accompaniment of words that give expression to his feelings. However, it is this generic face that allows us all to identify with him and the problems he faces In "Peanuts" the words are necessary tools for communication. The words which are contained within Snoopy's bubbles help us to understand what he is thinking. We have very little to say about Woodstock because (in the absence of words) he communicates with us through a series of marks within his bubbles, which are too abstract for us to understand.

     Words and pictures are equally important in the "Peanuts" comic strips. The picture is not full of information and is not realistically drawn. When we read the words, we are drawn into the comic world and suddenly the character's situations and emotions are animated in our mind's eye. "Peanuts" is not an "action" comic. We have to rely on what the cartoon character tells us because the drawing does not give us much information. The world of the "Peanuts" characters emphasizes the invisible world of thoughts, feeling, emotions and relationships.

     Although Schulz is remembered for putting sophisticated words into the mouths of his little kids, his most important innovations were his visual techniques. When trying to understand what Linus says, it is important to notice that his hair is always standing on end. The very first "Peanuts" strip featured large white space and big funny faces. It invited the reader right into the frame and contrasted sharply from the drawings of Krazy Kat and Popeye. The faces of the characters in these series were too small to display much emotion, so the text had to add humor and make the emotional connection. By drawing characters with large uncluttered heads, Schulz was able to increase the number of facial expressions that could be used in his comics, thereby adding new information to his strip. Schulz believed that design plays an important part in any comic drawing All elements within the frame were important. When drawing a brick wall he tried to make it more interesting by varying the size and colors of the bricks. He frequently added a corner of a house or a corner of a garage into the panel to break up the squares into pleasing areas.

     The art throughout Schulz's comics is more towards the cartoon side of the spectrum than the "realistic". 

The fact that his characters' heads are equal to the size of their entire bodies prevented them from doing some of the more realistic things that a more normal style of cartooning would allow. For example, how could his kids ever reach above their heads. The concept of a dog who is capable of thinking and typing takes us beyond the realm of the real world. As the "Peanuts" strip developed it took on a greater degree of sophistication. It also took on a greater abstraction. Schultz was unhappy with the way he had originally drawn Woodstock. When he reduced the character to a few lines, he was happier with the result. The simplistic faces of Schulz's characters allow the reader to recognize the expression that is on the character's  face. There is no confusion and the meaning of the cartoon is easier to understand. Therefore, the simply drawn characters in "Peanuts" appeal to a very  inclusive audience. Its messages become more universal.