Twelve years ago today, Charles Schulz, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts, died at the age of 77, from colon cancer. This may seem like a strange post for Valentine’s Day, but there’re a couple of synchros here that are heart felt.
Schulz drew Peanuts for nearly half a century. That’s a very long time to spend with characters you created, to be involved with their lives, their issues, their relationships. The comic strip was read by 355 million people worldwide, reached readers in 75 countries, in 2,600 newspapers, and 21 languages. The strip, merchandise, and product endorsements brought in $1.1 billion a year. Schulz is said to have earned between $30 million and $40 million a year, doing what he loved. In nearly 50 years, Schultz drew ore than 18,250 comic strips.
“That’s longer than any epic poem, any Tolstoy novel, any Wagner opera,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. Just hours before the last Sunday episode in the saga of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, and Linus ran in the Sunday papers, Schultz passed away.
His wife, Jeannie, said, “He had done everything he wanted.”
Lynn Johnston, a friend of Schuz’s and the creator of a strip called For Better or Worse, told the AP: “It’s amazing that he dies just before his last strip is published…It was as if he’d written it that way.”
While Schulz was in the hospital, Johnston recalled a remark he had made: You control all these characters and the lives they live. You decide when they get up in the morning, when they’re going to fight with their friends, when they’re going to lose the game. Isn’t it amazing how you have no control over your real life? But, as Johnston said, ”I think, in a way, he did.”
When I was a kid growing up in Venezuela, I remember that every Sunday morning, my dad would turn first to the comic section in the American newspaper, The Daily Journal, or to the Venezuelan paper, and read Peanuts. He would chuckle or laugh out loud and one Sunday I finally asked what the deal was with this comic strip. He thought a moment, then said: “These characters, in any language, are us, we humans.”
Peanuts became a part of our collective consciousness. His creation wasn’t just confined to the comic section of newspapers. There were books, TV specials, commercials, a rock song, a concerto at Carnegie Hall, his work was even shown at the Louvre. The novelist Umberto Eco wrote the introduction to the first Peanuts book translated into Italian. According to the NY Times, Eco referred to the book as ‘poesie interrompue, or interrupted poetry, “and, using Freud, Beckett, Adler and Thomas Mann to back him up, said, ‘These children affect us because in a certain sense they are monsters; they are the monstrous infantile reductions of all the neuroses of a modern citizen of the industrial civilization.’”
I don’t agree with the monstrous part. But one thing is for sure: Schultz followed his passions, he did what he loved. As the Times article put it, “Snoopy could always be counted on to nap, fantasize and wonder when his next meal would arrive. Charlie Brown, the round-headed blockhead (named after one of Mr. Schulz’s childhood friends, not after the cartoonist himself), could always be counted on to persevere despite constant failure. He once held onto the string of a kite that was stuck in a tree for eight days running, until the rain made him stop. At the time it was the longest run of immobility for any cartoon character. His first home run came after nearly 43 years of strike outs, on March 30, 1993.”
Really? I mean, who couldn’t love these characters?
So it’s strangely fitting that Charles Schulz passed away on Valentine’s Day. The day before he died, he said, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy . . . how can I ever forget them?
If that isn’t love, what is?
I agree with the statement that who says we’re not in charge of our lives? I think we very much are – we just don’t realize it.
Its interesting about the timing of deaths. My grandmother, for example, died the night before she was supposed to move into an assisted care facility. She did not want to go and they delayed it as much as possible until they couldn’t anymore. When I heard the news, I thought, “Good for her!” She got to live in her house until the end of her life. I miss her, but I totally understand the resistance. I don’t want to live in an assisted care facility either. Her husband, my paternal grandfather, had a resolution for New Year’s 2009: to celebrate his 90th birthday and attend my sister’s wedding (he was in a lot of pain when he rode in a car for a 15 hour drive one way, and 15 hours back a few days later just to attend my sister’s wedding). In May 2009, he turned 90, was the guest of honour at the wedding, and then passed away a couple weeks later. He did three things in that month of May!
As for my connection to Peanuts, in the 2nd grade, I had a crush on a girl who I thought resembled a real life Lucy. But she liked a friend of mine. She wanted to give him something but he didn’t like her. So I told him to let her give him what she wanted to give him and then he could give it to me. When that happened and she found out about it, she was mad at me. Also as a kid, I thought actress Jodie Foster was the real Peppermint Patty because she kind of looked like her in the movie “Freaky Friday.” Finally, I remember the excitement I would feel whenever the T.V. would do that “Special” logo which indicated that a holiday episode of the Peanuts gang would be aired on TV that evening. Ah, the joys of childhood! Snoopy has to be one of my fave characters of all time!
Today, I think of Lucy as a Republican and Charlie Brown as the American voter. When will Charlie Brown ever learn that Lucy has no intention of ever letting him kick the football?
Interesting timing with your grandmother. My mother died hours before she was going into hospice.
Lucy as s Repubican: love that.
I think you’ll find his name is spelled Schulz and not Schultz.
I only know this because Schultz should be my surname,but my Nana changed my Father’s surname to her second husband’s surname,hence the B for the start of my surname.
Her second husband was of Irish decent
(I guess that’s why she converted to Catholicism) ,
so now I have an Irish surname,but no Irish blood in my veins
(that I know of anyway).
She changed it because Schultz sounded too German and it wasn’t a good name to be taking to school during WWII in Australia.
But Schultz is the Jewish version of the German surname Schulz,so I don’t know how much Charles would like being called Charles Schultz.
I would hope it would be no big deal to him.-)
Yikes! You’re right. Thank you./ I’ll change it right now.
Re:
‘These children affect us because in a certain sense they are monsters; they are the monstrous infantile reductions of all the neuroses of a modern citizen of the industrial civilization.’”
That sounds like an apt description of “South Park” to me.Not Peanuts.
For sure, Daz!
Thanks! You started my day with the image of Snoopy doing his happy dance.
Happy Valentine’s Day to all.
I always loved his happy dance!
perfect story for today – for any day – a reminder of what’s really important – really meaningful in our lives – the only thing – love –
Spoken like a true Leo!
Peanuts is still running in the newspaper I mostly buy – and it’s still relevant today, as well as being funny. Doing what you love is one of the secret recipes for success.
Has it really been twelve years already? How quickly time flies. I still read Peanuts in my daily paper. He created timeless characters. Happy Valentine’s Day to you both, and thank you for the remembrance of a fine gentleman.
Happy valentine’s day to you, too, DJan!
What an amazing story. I think of all the statistics showing that people will wait until their birthdays, or Christmas, or some personally significant event, to pass away. Huzzah to Charles Schultz, for sending these wonderful characters into the world……….he may be gone, but they still live in our imaginations.
My Nana passed away suddenly on my Father’s birthday.
And since he was the first on the scene to find her,I imagine this thought would be hard not to recall when his birthday comes around each year.
It would have to take some of the “Happy” out of the obligatory
“Happy Birthday” salutation.
That’s a sad synchro, Daz.
And here is probably a better one…or worse?
Re:
“Lynn Johnston, a friend of Schulz’s and the creator of a strip called For Better or Worse, told the AP: “It’s amazing that he dies just before his last strip is published…It was as if he’d written it that way.”
My Father-in-Law loved reading the comic strip
“For Better or Worse”. He would often read it out to my boys while laughing his head off
(I thought it was a pretty bland strip though).
It would have been his birthday today
(It’s Feb 15th now,over this side of the planet).
..well I guess it still is his birthday.Death doesn’t change that I guess.
His is the parrot/lorikeet sync in your book , “Synchronicity and the Other Side”.
And regarding Lynn Johnston,the creator of
‘ For Better or Worse’,that’s a sync also because his wife’s name is Lyn.
I would say his birthday being the day after Valentine’s Day would be why my wife has been a bit melancholy the last two.
will comment on this in a bit. Off to meditation!
I remember the story well, Daz. It was as powerful as the one about Sylvester the car and Peter Gabriel. I certainly understand how your wife feels.The dates June 23 and September 25 are always sad for me – mom passed, dad passed.
Please give her a hug for me.
Intriguing about Lyn and the comic strip!
You won’t believe this.
But Lyn’s birthday is September 25th,
two days after mine.
The syncs just won’t stop.
Uh, okay, is there room in that spiritual brotherhood you share with Mike Perry for a spiritual sister? Too weird!