Who Wrote the Peanuts Comic Strip?
Who Wrote the Peanuts Comic Strip? is a common question these days since it has been a long time since a new Peanuts strip was published (although Classic Peanuts are still published in many newspapers today).
Charles M. Schultz was the only author and illustrator of the Peanuts comic strip from its inception 1950 until his death in 2000. Not only is it remarkable that a 77 year old man dying of colon cancer could continue to work prolificly, but how is it possible for someone to sustain the same narrative for nearly 18,000 strips? So, it’s kind of a silly to ask the question Who Wrote the Peanuts Comic Strip? because the answer is so simple.
That being said, on another level, Who Wrote the Peanuts Comic Strip? could have a different, albeit, trite answer: You (or really the American public). What made Peanuts so sustaining was that Charles M. Schultz constantly evolved his characters and the narrative. While at the surface, the escapades of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and friends is really just a story about a kid who never seems to get his way. But, if you look a little deeper, there is a ton of social commentary embedded in the narrative:
- He commented about the Vietnam War by getting Snoopy caught up in a demonstration against the enlistment of dogs and tear-gassed with the rest of the crowd.
- He made Peppermint Patty’s independence and Franklin’s (the one African American character) integration with the rest of the “gang” non-issues
- The fact that we never see an adult’s face (and make them incomprehensible in the TV cartoons) demonstrate how adults just don’t “get” kids
At the end of the day, the answer to Who Wrote the Peanuts Comic Strip really only has one answer Charles M. Schultz. And the world (especially the comic strip world) has been somewhat silent without him.
