Charles M. Schulz
Charles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
“No matter what anyone says, it's much worse to be unloved than it is to be lost in the woods.""Sometimes, I think you've been lost in the woods all your life, Charlie Brown...”
“Peppermint Patty's team is short a glove, so I'm walking over to lend them mine.""You're kidding! Don't you think they're taking advantage of you?""No, I'm doing it because I want to do it.""What are you, some kind of mystic?!”
“Do you have your own room, Charlie Brown?""Oh, yes... I have a very nice room.""I hope you realize that you won't always have your own room... Someday you'll get drafted or something, and you'll have to leave your room forever!""Why do you tell me things like that?""It's on a list I've made up for you... I call it, Things You Might As Well Know!”
“Those dreams I have at night are going to drive me crazy. Last night I dreamed that little red-haired girl and I were eating lunch together... But she's gone... She's moved away, and I don't know where she lives, and she doesn't know I even exist, and I'll never see her again... And... I wish men cried...”
“What in the world is the matter with you?!""I'm a new feminist!”
“Hey, manager... Some kid must have left his glove here... It has his name on it... See? Right here... Willie Mays... He wrote his name on his glove, see? Poor kid... He's probably been looking all over for it... We should have a lost and found. I don't know any kid around here named Willie Mays, do you? How are we gonna get it back to him? He was pretty smart putting his name on his glove this way, though... It's funny, I just don't remember any kid by that name...""Look at your own glove.""What?""Look at your own glove... There's a name on it...""Babe Ruth... Well, I'll be! How in the world do you suppose I got her glove?!”
“I've learned all I need to know to live under a bed.”
“It's either the flu or love... The synptoms are the same.”
“Never give your heart to a blockhead.”
“I just don't know how to write a love letter. What can you say to a girl that shows you really like her?""How about, enclosed please find a cookie?”
“When you die, are you ever allowed to come back?""Only if you had your hand stamped...”
“Sometimes I wonder how you can stand being just a dog...""You play with the cards you're dealt... Whatever that means.”
“I gave up trying to understand people long ago. Now I let them try to understand me!”
“How can we lose when we're so sincere?”
“All right, team... This is our first game of the season... If we all show the right spirit, I think we can win this one. Let's try to encourage each other... Let's hear a little chatter out there, okay?""YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL, KID!”
“I want to know about life! I want some real answers...""Five.""Five?!""I thought that was a pretty good answer!”
“Sometimes, when you walk by the homeof the girl you love, you can see her standing by the window... She waves at you, and you wave back... But it's her grandmother...”
“Sometimes I lie awake ay night, and I wonder, "is life like golf or is it more like baseball?" Then a voice comes to me out of the dark that says, "try shuffleboard.”
“Hello? Oh, nothing... Just sort of hanging around... My brother? He's right here... He's reading... He's always reading... He has no life of his own, and he's a very boring person so he reads a lot... What's he reading? I don't know... She wants to know what you're reading...""How to survive living in the same family with an annoying sister.""Ivanhoe.”
“It's your money or you'll be wearing cement shoes - Peppermint Patty”
“Happiness is anyone and anything that's loved by you.”
“The early bird gets the worm but the late bird doesn't even get the late worm.”
“My anxieties have anxieties.”
“Mom put a note in my lunch again, I see... Dear son, I hope you will study hard in summer school... Do not look upon it as a punishment, but rather as a privilege... We are very proud of you, and want you to have a good education. This note will self-destruct in five seconds.”
“For a nothing, Charlie Brown, you're really something!”
“Goodbys always make my throat hurt... I need more hellos...”
“The hand that controls the supper dish rules the world!”
“I had to go to the school nurse yesterday because my stomach hurt...""You worry too much, Charlie Brown... No wonder your stomach hurts... You've got to stop all this silly worrying!""How do I stop?""That's your worry! Five cents, please!”
“I want to be liked... No, I want to be more than just liked... I want people to say, "that Charlie Brown is a great guy!" And when people are at parties, I want them to look for me, and when I finally arrive, I want them to say, "here comes good ol' Charlie Brown... Now everything will be all right!" I want to be a special person... I want to be needed... It's kind of hard to explain... Do you understand? I mean, do you know what I'm talking about?""Sure, I understand perfectly...""Well?""Forget it! Five cents, please!”
“Little brothers are the New York Mets of life!”
“Little brothers are the buck privates of life!”
“On a beautiful day like this it would be best to stay in bed so you wouldn't get up and spoil it!”
“One of Beethoven's favorite dishes was macaroni and cheese. The girl I marry must be able to make good macaroni and cheese...""How did Beethoven feel about cold cereal?”
“Your stupidity is appalling!""Most stupidity is!”
“Here I am flying high over enemy lines in my Sopwith Camel searching for the Red Baron. Who's that behind me? It's the Red Baron! He has me in his sights! Give my regards to Broadway.”
“What's this? That little red-haired girl dropped her pencil... Gee... It's got teeth marks all over it... She nibbles her pencil... She's human!”
“The rain washed away my pitcher's mound... I'm a pitcher without a mound... I'm a lost soul... I'm like a politician out of office.""Or a sailor without an ocean...""Or a boy without a girl...”
“I think I know what's wrong with you... Walk up onto that pitcher's mound... Does your stomach hurt now?""Yes! Ow! Ooo! Yes!""All right, now come down off the mound... There... Has it stopped hurting?""Yes... Yes, I think it has!""There's your trouble... Five cents, please!”
“Why are you standing here, Charlie Brown?""I'm waiting for that little red-haired girl to walk by... I'm going to say hello to her and ask her how she's enjoying her summer vacation, and just sort of talk to her... You know...""You'll never do it, Charlie Brown... You'll panic...""Besides that, she's already walked by!”
“Every night it's the same... I have supper in my red dish and drinking water in my yellow dish... Tonight I think I'll have my supper in the yellow dish and my drinking water in the red dish. Life is too short not to live it up a little!”
“What's that?""It looks like something from Linus... It is! He sent me a little birch-bark canoe from camp! He said he made it himself... Sometimes I think I don't deserve a nice brother like Linus...""I have often thought the same thing.""Dear Linus, please send me another canoe. The first one broke when I threw it at Charlie Brown.”
“Charlie Brown got hit with a line-drive!""Does anyone here know anything about first-aid?""It's probably not serious... Second or third-aid will do.”
“Dear Santa Claus, just a last note before you take off. I hope you have a nice trip. Don't forget to fasten your seat belt.”
“You know what I think my best quality is? I think I'm nice to have around. I'd hate it if I weren't around!”
“Never set your stomach for a jelly-bread sandwich until you're sure there's some jelly!”
“I think I'll go over and introduce myself to that little red-haired girl. I think I'll introduce myself, and then ask her to come over and sit next to me. I think I'll ask her to sit next to me here, and then I think I'll tell her how much I've always admired her... I think I'll flap my arms, and fly to the moon.”
“Schroeder, do you think I'm beautiful?""I think you're the most beautiful girl the world has ever known...""You hate me, don't you?”
“Why did you write "Charlie Brown is a blockhead" on the sidewalk?""Because I sincerely believe you are a blockhead! I have to write what I believe is true... It's my moral respolsibility!""Deep down I admire her integrity...”
“Wouldn't you like just for once to see Charlie Brown hit that ball?""No... I'm not prepared to have the world come to an end!”
“You try for a little happiness, and what do you get? A few memories and a fat stomach!”