Marching Thru 30 Famous Faces - Number Two: Charles Schulz

In the early years of my art interests, Charles Schulz wasn't just a cartoonist. He was THE cartoonist. Everything I learned about how a cartoonist produced his cartoons came through this great cartoonist.

I wanted to draw like him so at first I traced Peanuts drawings to impress my friends, later admitting I had traced them. Then after I admitted to tracing my drawings I learned the friend I was trying to impress was tracing his drawings as well! Silly competitive kids. 

Snoopy was a favorite of mine and drew him quite often. Even though the Peanuts characters were simply designed by Charles Schulz, I found them pretty difficult to get just right. The heart of the problem for me were those noses. Most of the Peanuts characters had the same nose, and if I didn't match the exact curve Schulz used for the noses, my drawings looked wrong.

An aspect of Peanuts that continues to impress me is the use of scripture and elements of theology in the strip. I can think of no other comic strip that has been used more as a source of sermon illustrations.

Biographical publications on Charles Schulz

Over the years I've collected lots of books of his comic strip Peanuts and about his life. I've read every biography on Charles Schulz that I know is in print. When he passed away on February 12, 2000, my dream of meeting the man in person died as well. A possible opportunity to meet him came in the mid 90's when he visited the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area for what would turn out to be his last time. It never panned out and thinking about it makes me a little sad to this day.

One amazing and very fitting fact about Charles Schulz for this blog is that he drew the Peanuts comic strip for about as long as I've been alive, almost 50 years. Amazing. Charles Schulz was a legend as a cartoonist and he has influenced my life. Thank you Mr. Schulz.

I have piles of Peanuts comic strip books.
These are a few unique collections of his
comic strips and other drawings.