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The art of cartooning lost a great man when Charles Schulz passed away of colon cancer; ending a long and successful career which transformed society with his familiar characters - Snoopy, Lucy and the ever-loved Charlie Brown. Over the years they blended into our society, promoting causes and moving onto the television and movie screen until it was hard to remember a time without the lovable characters.
Charles Monroe Schulz was born on November 26 in Minneapolis. Early on in his life Charles received a nickname- "Sparky" from his uncle, who was a fan of Barney Google's horse "Sparkplug." Even then, the seeds were being planted for a career in cartooning.
When he was much older, during the Great Depression, his family had much trouble with money as did a majority of the population. After finishing high school, he completed a correspondence course given by an art school, his only art training at his father's insistence.
Drafted into the military in the closing days of World War II (1939-1945) Schulz served in Europe (where the idea for Snoopy being a Sopwith Camel pilot was born), then returned to the States, working in Saint Paul at his old school - the Art Institution Schools. Here he would meet the early Charlie Brown, and a red-haired girl, soon to evolve further into the familiar characters we know today.
In 1948 the Saturday Evening Post published some of his work, and then in 1950 the United Features Syndicate bought his "Li'l Folks". The title was already in use for another strip, so they retitled it "Peanuts." The first strip debuted on October 2, 1950 with "Peanuts" becoming one of the most popular comic strips in history, appearing in more than 2000 newspapers and translated into more than two dozen languages.
More characters were added as time went on, from Peppermint Patty to Schroder to one of the first African-American cartoon characters, Franklin. Set in the late sixties, Schulz insisted that the addition of Franklin had no higher meaning other than being a new character but he received angry letters denouncing the inclusion of Franklin in strips dealing with classrooms - the integration issue was still very much alive and well.
Over the years Snoopy grew to become a leading character in his own right, as well as Woodstock jumping from minor status to becoming the symbol for some movements in the sixties and for a generation to recognize later on.
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" was the first sortie into television for Schulz, and he worried about the transition. He had nothing to worry about; since the popular show is rerun every year and still garners high ratings, more than twenty years after it was first shown. Other specials followed, along with feature movies.
In December 1999, Charles Schulz was rushed to the hospital , diagnosed quickly as a blocked abdominal artery. But this would pale next to the discovery of the doctors in Santa Rosa that Sparky had colon cancer as well. So, Charles Schulz announced his retirement - his last daily strip was to be run on January 3, 2000 ; and his last Sunday strip would be printed February 14, 2000. As people prepared for the end of an era, Fate took charge of the situation. On the eve of the last Peanuts comic Charles Schulz died of a heart-attack in his sleep. It happened at approximately 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, February 13, 2000.
The world reacted with shock and dismay at the passing of such a great man so quickly. A large group of cartoonists dedicated all of their strips for a single day to Schulz in tribute, recognizing that without his leadership and creativity they would not be where they were that day.
The last daily and Sunday Peanuts strips were the basically the same thing - a fond farewell from Charles Schulz himself. "Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy...how can I ever forget them..."
Thanks to reruns of the familiar strips we won't forget the Peanuts gang for a long, long time - and their creator will live forever as long as Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang romp across our minds and our newspaper pages.
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