Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for June 24, 2016

specially remote-controlled toy airplanes?

Obviously, he hasn’t met the kite-eating tree yet!

Is this his first time flying a kite? It’s low on altitude, but it’s definitely flying. What happened to Charlie Brown along the way? He wasn’t as wishy-washy or mistreated as he was later on. And he was much more successful in all of his attempts. Kinda makes you fearful of growing up, doesn’t it?

Especially crop dusters, I suppose.

Wow, he did it.

Charlie Brown kicked a bottle yesterday, and now he’s flying a kite! These are miracles! :)

His first (and possibly last) time getting a kite in the air.

…and trees, don’t forget the trees!

I can see that Schultz reflected his life in the later comic, and yes, people related to it more. It went from your average, everyday comic to something you could associate with life itself. It was still kinda depressing though how the main character suffer so much without deserving it, which is why I felt so happy when Charlie Brown had those rare wins.

Should be afraid of trees.

Schulz did have issues but he was a true genius—probably only Walt Kelly and Al Capp among comic strip artists also can legitimately be described as geniuses. (For me at least, what I’ve seen of “Krazy Kat” is repititious.) His comic strip started out as a rather generic kids strip, but once his strip caught up to his genius it became a legend. By the way the 1999-2000 Complete Peanuts book includes the precursor to “Peanuts”, “Li’l Folks”, which Schulz did for his local paper. Even back then Beethoven popped up a few times, and one character was named Charlie Brown—though he looked like Shermy in some cartoons and looked different in others. Most of the characters weren’t named, and the strips were one-panels. but several jokes made it into the early “Peanuts” themselves.

So am I Charlie Brown, so am I…

I personally like these 1950s strips rather than the later ones.

Ever prudent, Charlie Brown!