KINGSTON 2000
 
 
      Charles Schulz is both the brains and the brawn behind nearly 50 years of Peanuts comics.
He single-handedly designs, researches, writes, and draws every panel and strip that
appear in daily and Sunday newspapers around the world.
 
 
For Charles Schulz, military life provided both a welcomed change of pace and a shocking
confirmation that life would never be the same again.  It was in the service that Schulz developed the
confidence and work ethic that enable his success today.  He excelled as an infantryman, a staff
      sergeant, and the leader of a machine-gun squad.  For the most part, Schulz's artistic
aspirations were put on hold during his years in the service.  He did, however,
become known as the resident illustrator and he dutifully decorated soldiers' letters home
with cartoons of barracks life.
 
 
 
            Once back in Minn. following the war, it was "Timeless Topix," a small Roman Catholic
    magazine, that offered Schulz his first job in cartooning. The magazine hired him to letter already drawn comics.
Although the position offered him no creative opportunities, it did keep Schulz on track and helped him to hone his lettering skills.  Schulz took on a second job with his alma mater, Art Instruction Schools.
There, Schulz grew with the support of an artistic community. He practiced his drawing and met many
of the people who would inspire his future work (including a friend named Charlie Brown and a girl with red hair
who broke his heart).
 
  Buoyed by his success in the national magazine "The Saturday Evening Post", Schulz went on to land a weekly comic feature called "L'il Folks" in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  Marketing "L'il Folks" to syndicates around the    country, Schulz finally received a reply from Jim Freeman at United Feature Syndicate.  Freeman, a  well-respected editor with 30 years' experience, wisely suggested that Schulz expand the comic from one panel to a strip format. Schulz had already been toying with the idea and jumped at the chance to accommodate the syndicate.
 
The new strip format was different from other "kid strips" of the time in that each strip dealt with only a brief incident.  The result was a strip with only four panels and a concept that United Feature Syndicate fell in love with.
 
 
 
 The celebration was short-lived, however, when Schulz learned of the  syndicate's first major decision. Because of legal issues surrounding the name "L'il Folks" ("Little Folks" and "L'il Abner" already existed), the strip was renamed "PEANUTS."  This name made Schulz cringe. To this day, he feels the name connotes "insignificant" or "unimportant."
But the syndicate and the newspaper market loved the idea. The strip, with its small size and matching name, was marketed as the flexible format for any newspaper. The strip was touted as "The Greatest Little Sensation Since Tom Thumb." Little attention was given to its insightful text and endearing drawings.  But the comic's "foot" was in the door.
 It took several years for readers to grow attached to the PEANUTS gang. But nearly fifty years later, "PEANUTS" has grown into one of the longest running, most popular comics of all time.