Speaking Volumes | Good Ol’ Charlie Brown: Celebrating 70 Years of ‘Peanuts’
Written by Charles Schulz, “Peanuts” was first published on Oct. 2, 1950. From 1950 to 2000 there were 17,897 strips: 15,391 daily strips and 2,506 Sunday strips. Professor Robert Thompson is quoted saying that “Peanuts” was “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.” It ran in over 2,600 newspapers, including the Bradenton Herald, has been translated into 21 languages and has a worldwide readership of around 355 million in 75 countries.
“Peanuts” is critically acclaimed not just for its comic strips but its Emmy award-winning TV specials. It inspired a Broadway musical called “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”Snoopy even has a space shuttle named after him. There is something about Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang that has resonated with readers across the world for 70 years.
“Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Brownest,” Linus tells Charlie Brown in the 1965 TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Maybe there is a little Charlie Brown in all us. Perhaps that’s a big reason why the “Peanuts” comic strip has been a beloved household name all these years. Charles Schulz once said that, “Peanuts deals in defeat.”Charlie Brown as the comic’s every-person represents our everyday anxieties. Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang remind us of life’s commonplace difficulties but always sprinkled with a little bit of hope and a lot of humor.
The emotional struggles in the comic are recognizable, and they’ve stirred readers for seven decades. These are some reasons why “Peanuts” has been so popular with children as well as adults. Charles Schulz did not consider “Peanuts” a children’s comic, even with Snoopy being one of the most beloved children’s characters of all time. He said that the strip, “deals with intelligent things. Things that people have been afraid of.”Schulz shows that people of all ages can identify with the comic strip’s many deep concepts. He understood the ups and downs of childhood and how to represent them, so everyone could see themselves.
While the last strip was published on Feb. 13, 2000, readers can continue to enjoy the many collections published over the years. You can find the comic’s collections under the call number 741.5973 Sch in the Manatee County Libraries’ juvenile section. Our Hoopla database has different volumes of the strip. You can enjoy other books such as Charles Schulz’s biography, “Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography” by David Michaelis, “The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life” edited by Andrew Blauner, “The Great American Story of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts Gang!” by Chloe Perkins, and many others. You can also borrow the popular TV specials “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on DVD.
Your library is online: www.mymanatee.org. Free masks are available at all library locations.
Speaking Volumes is written by staff members with the Manatee County Public Library System. Ana Feliciano Chico is the assistant supervisor of information services.