Peanuts by Charles Schulz for November 19, 2011

I’m guessing that is NOT bluebird of happiness.

Snoopy should have warned the bird.

The bird flipped himself.

He’s gone right over the edge this time!

Ruined your exit-line, birdbrain.

The bluebird of crabbiness?

Watch your step. That last one is a doozy.

Karma! :)

Are we to assume that it is not good to complain so much that things can become worse?

Yesterday, a couple of Calvin and Hobbes posters asked how Peanuts got its name, so I’m posting some information on that here.Charles Schulz originally wrote a 1-panel strip called “Li’l Folks.” When he sold his strip to United Feature Syndicate as a 4-panel version, he proposed the name “Li’l Folk.” He shortened the name because there had been a strip with the name “Little Folks” drawn by another cartoonist previously. But the Syndicate felt that the two names were still too similar, so Schulz proposed the name “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown.”United Feature Syndicate wanted something shorter that they felt would market well. They drew up a list of ten names and then chose the name “Peanuts,” which they chose over Schulz’s objections. Schulz felt that readers would think that “Peanuts” was the name of one of the characters, and he was right. There was a lot of confusion over this initially.While Charles Schulz was alive, I don’t recall ever reading an explanation from him regarding how the Syndicate came up with the name “Peanuts.” But a recent highly questionable author, David Michaelis, in his major biography “Schulz and Peanuts,” has stated that the name was based on the “Howdy Doody” TV show, where a group of 40 little kids would sit in the “Peanut Gallery” for each show. Howdy Doody was very popular in 1950 when the Peanuts strip began. Michaelis also stated that one character on the Howdy Doody show would address the kids by calling them “Peanuts.”I don’t recommend David Michaelis’s biography, because Charles Schulz’s children have stated that it contains a huge number of factual errors, and that Michaelis deliberately left out a lot of positive information about Schulz in favor of negative information – in particular, leaving out a lot of information that they had given to Michaelis regarding Schulz’s highly positive relationship with his children. Nevertheless, this particular information about the connection of the name “Peanuts” to the Howdy Doody show is probably correct.If you search the Web, you may come across the alternate explanation that the name “Peanuts” was chosen because the strip was published in such small frames compared to other strips. I don’t recall ever reading this anywhere else.Charles Schulz was always unhappy about the name “Peanuts,” throughout the years that he was drawing the strip. In the early years, the first panel of his Sunday strips contains the name “Peanuts.” But if you look at his later Sunday strips, you will see that he has changed it to "Peanuts featuring ‘Good Ol’ Charlie Brown.’ "

While it is never fully possible to know “what might have been,” my personal feeling is that, ironically, with 60 years of hindsight, it may actually have been fortunate that United Feature Syndicate insisted on the name “Peanuts,” rather than accepting “Li’l Folk” or “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown.”When Charles Schulz proposed the name “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown” in 1950, he could not possibly know what a huge empire Peanuts would eventually become, and that “Peanuts” would someday become a household word, where everyone would know that it was not the name of one of the characters in the strip. He also had no way of knowing that someday Snoopy would become far more popular around the world than Charlie Brown. Initially, Peanuts was an odd, groundbreaking strip unlike anything that had come before it. The Syndicate gave it an odd name, unlike so many previous strips that had been named after the lead character. As the strip evolved, Charlie Brown and Snoopy both became lead characters, as well as Linus and Lucy to some extent, and the strip became more about a group of characters rather than just one. In an odd way, the name “Peanuts” fit better.So, United Feature Syndicate may have been correct, way back in 1950, that the name “Peanuts” would be more marketable than “Li’l Folk” or “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown.” It’s short and simple, and today we all instantly identify it with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy. But the Syndicate had no clue that they had a young cartoonist standing in front of them who would totally change the nature of comic strips for the future and the influence that they would have on our lives.

Good job Hobbes. Thanks.

For Peanuts fans who also enjoy Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, on Thursday (November 17th), over at the Calvin and Hobbes site here on GoComics, I posted some excerpts from a tribute to Charles Schulz, which was written by Bill Watterson when Schulz announced his retirement. I also posted some information on the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, California, which I visited this past week, and a Peanuts strip that may have influenced Thursday’s Calvin and Hobbes.Bill Watterson was very strongly influenced by the work of Charles Schulz, so I sometimes post Peanuts strips on the Calvin and Hobbes page that parallel the Calvin and Hobbes strip for that particular day.

@Hobbes, great information on Charles Shultz and Peanuts Thank again

Flap the wings, not the beak.

He made his point though; Snoopster listened.

I didnt understand

…I came here for the Peanut’s and see that it has been taken over by that calvin and Hobbes crowd…

I have read the biography mentioned above. I remember the comments the kids made about the book. They really didn’t like the fact that the author described the bad stuff about them along with the good. The stuff about the kids was important in order to better understand a complicated person. A lot of biographies will have errors that can be corrected. The best part of the book was when the author described who the characters were based on and how they felt about it. The kids had a great life to be envied. I would recommend this book. It is just one viewpoint, so I hope eventually the kids will get over themselves and realize this.

The bluebird of the OWS???

Hi gmfordeI talked to two of Charles Schulz’s neighbors about the book last week when I was in Santa Rosa, and they just felt really bad that it didn’t explain what a kind and generous person Schulz was. So what I’m hearing from them and from Charles Schulz’s children is not so much a denial of the negative things that Michaelis described from Schulz’s life, but a sorrow or sometimes an anger that so many positive things were ignored, so that the reader doesn’t get a balanced picture.Perhaps the best recommendation that I can give would be to go ahead and read the book by Michaelis, since there is no other book available with so much detail about Charles Schulz’s life; but also to read the long, detailed comments by Schulz’s children about the book, read both sides with some caution, and then create your own, more balanced picture by combining the two points of view.You can find a lot of postings from Monte, Jill, and Amy Schulz at the following site:“Click here: Schulz Family Comments”

<< 3hourtour wrote: … I came here for the Peanuts and see that it has been taken over by the Calvin and Hobbes crowd. >>Hi 3hourtourDon’t worry, this is very brief visit – only about a 3-hour tour so far. By the way, I like your icon. I’m also a Gilligan’s Island fan and “expert,” if that helps…..:>)

Thank God, He gave us Charles Schultz to enjoy for many,many years!! And all of the joy he brought to us.

When I was in the Air Force (1961-1966) I worked on the eletronics of the Hound Dog missle. Our Mascot was The “Dancing Snoopy”.

Always wanted a Beagle so I could name him Snoopy. But… never happened.

STILL THE GREATEST AND BEST COMIC EVER!!

Hi comicnut4636You may be interested to know something that one of Charles Schulz’s neighbors told me: When Schulz was drafted to serve in World War II, he was initially assigned to one unit but then had to immediately return home because of his mother’s death. When he returned, he was assigned to a different unit. His original unit later became part of the D-Day invasion, and many of the men were killed, which devastated Schulz when he learned about it. Ironically, if his mother had not died when she did, Charles Schulz easily could have been killed on D-Day and Peanuts never would have existed.As I reflect on this story, it makes me wonder how many other great young talents have been lost during World War II, or any other war for that matter, including other incredibly gifted people who might have brought us joy, laughter, and great positive changes for our world. War is sometimes a necessary evil, but it is an evil nontheless, and we have no way of knowing the full price that the human race has had to pay for it.

Whoooooops!

xxx

Thanks for the info, Hobbes! Excellent!

Well, whatever it was Birdy was raving about, he quite clearly wasn’t going to stand for it… so he did the exact opposite!

Hi GretchensMomWhat rogue53 seems to be missing, is that it is possible to spend time sharing information with other people, without doing it for selfish or egotistical purposes.A great example of this would be the volunteer tour guides at the Schulz museum. You mentioned the name “Peanuts” bringing a smile to your face. It was amazing, because the Schulz museum seemed to bring a smile to everyone’s face: the employees, the volunteers, and all of the visitors.

i think this comic is a classic!!!

Interesting insight on the name “Peanuts” – I guess I always thought that was sort-of a nickname for Charlie Brown.

Looks like the bird took a long walk off a short doghouse.

Angry bird 1.0? - (game – Google it for details.

@Number 6: And if the pier is weak, one must also be careful to avoid excessive pier pressure. (Sorry, just thought I’d throw in a lame joke for 3hourtour.)

Thanks, Hobbes!