About the Author

Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922, in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google). His ambition from a young age was to be a cartoonist and his first success was selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post between 1948 and 1950. He also sold a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.

He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates and in the spring of 1950, United Feature Syndicate expressed interest in Li'l Folks. They bought the strip, renaming it Peanuts, a title Schulz always loathed. The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952. Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day-and the day before his last strip was published, having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand -- an unmatched achievement in comics.

Reviews

...[T]here's something joyful and pure about Schulz's excursions into the inner life of an anthropomorphized dog, who really is a perfect foil for the permanently disappointed Charlie Brown, and brings necessary shades to a comic frequently concerned with feelings of insignificance. In Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron, you see Schulz exalting the power of imagination, self-assuredness, and hope...--John Parker "ComicsAlliance"

The latest of Fantagraphics' gorgeous Peanuts collections is guaranteed to fly off shelves faster than usual, centering as it does on the strip's true star, Snoopy, battling his perennially unseen archenemy. ... Longing and humor are, as always, elegantly alternated... Peanuts aficionados will also delight in the opportunity to see the strip's artistic and philosophical evolution play out in selections culled from 50 years of strips.--Jesse Karp "Booklist"