This Day in History: November 26, 1922

"You cannot create humor from happiness" - Charles Schulz

Charles Schulz Schulz's lifelong relationship with comic strips began within days of his birth on November 26, 1922, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His uncle nicknamed him "Sparky" after he bought a horse named Sparky on the Barney Google strip when he was two days old, and he remained popular for the rest of his life. .

The son of Carl and Dena Schulz, his father was a barber like Charlie Brown. His desire to become a cartoonist began early, and his first drawing was of Popeye. An astute kindergarten teacher told the little boy, "Charles, one day you are going to be an artist."

It was one of the few shining moments in Schulz's academic career. He failed most of his classes, and his submitted cartoons were rejected from the yearbook. The only highlight was "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" receiving one of his paintings when he was 15, which gave him the impetus to take a correspondence course with an art-directing company after high school. "Then, in 1943, two things happened within a few days that would forever affect Schulz's life; his mother died of cancer at age 50, and he left to fight in World War II. He became the 20th A sergeant in the Armored Division has always been proud of his military service, but the double blow of his mother's death and the harsh reality of the war left him with lingering fears.

During his service, hid Did various scummy comics jobs, including lettering and merchandising. In addition, he taught at an art teaching company, where he fell for a pretty red-haired girl named Donna Johnson, who he proposed to. She rejected him for another man. Charles Schulz never got over her, and the little red-haired girl Charlie Brown longed for never got a major role in "Peanuts." After publishing his comic strips at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Schulz's first comic strip, Peanuts (a name he always hated), appeared in seven national newspapers from October 2, 1950 to 1956. , it was published in more than 100 papers, and the success of "Peanuts" and its cast of lovable and sophisticated children only continued to grow.

Schulz described "Peanuts" as a disappointment after all. , as he puts it, "All love is unrequited; all baseball games fail; all test scores are D-minus; the Great Pumpkin never comes; football is always pulled away." Even so, Charlie Brown and all the other characters showed admirable tenacity and resilience in the face of yet another stumbling block, which always keeps fans coming back for more. After all, how much of a comic strip can you say is truly authentic? Inspiring? ”

Charles Schulz devoted himself and his life to “Peanuts,” making it a complex and genuine joy that goes deeper than your average comic strip. Much more. "He kept saying, 'There's complexity in the world,'" said Schulz biographer David Michaelis, "and people who knew him kept saying there was complexity in his personality. '...Peanuts' teaches us The point is that contradictions and ambiguities are part of life, part of sweetness and happiness - to think of Charles Schulz as one thing and not another is to deprive him of the real man and genius he was. "

After discovering in November 1999 that he had colon cancer, Schultz announced last December that he would retire in early 2000. He died on February 12, 2000, the day before his final "Peanuts" strip was released.

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