Colors by Will Carroll.
When I was a kid, I would often attempt to draw my own Peanuts comics, but I just couldn’t nail Charles Schulz’s art style and writing style. Even now decades later I still don’t think I’ve nailed it. There’s something so simple, yet bizarrely complex about the way he drew, the way he wrote. What on the outside looked to be a simple comic about a bunch of kids and a dog sleeping on his roof is under the surface a commentary about human nature, society, failure, and how one often escapes into their imagination.
Many people state that Schulz was Charlie Brown, and to a certain extent they’re right, however Schulz put a little bit of himself into all of his characters. He had the philosophy of Linus, the love of classical music of Schroder, the sportsmanship of Peppermint Patty, the crabbiness of Lucy, and of course the imagination of Snoopy.
Snoopy is for the most part a happy character and is often seen succeeding where his owner fails, but at the same time he’s not without his struggles. In many a strip he rants about the fact that his life as a dog is rather dull and often pretends to be something else, whether it be a buzzard, a snake, an astronaut, or World War I flying ace, and even in his imagination he isn’t guaranteed success as he was never able to defeat his arch nemesis the Red Baron.
There is also the fact that much like Charlie Brown, Snoopy has dealt with failure, specifically when it comes to becoming a successful author. He pours his effort and heart into every word on the page, only to be greeted with rejection from the publishers (in one special he was even told in a letter “Give up! You are a terrible writer! Why do you bother us?”). Snoopy often brushes these rejections aside and goes back to writing soon after, but at some point I couldn’t help but wonder, would being rejected so many times ever get to him?
That’s where the idea of this tribute came from, thus finding the connection between Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Both are seen struggling with failure in their lives (though obviously old Chuck gets the worst of it), but both deciding to move forward despite failing and try again. They have both lost multiple times, but they’re not losers. Perhaps that’s what Charles Schulz wanted to communicate to his readers, life is cruel, life is tough, and life can often be unfair, but loosing doesn’t make you a looser, you’re only a looser if you stop trying. After all, he failed and was rejected by a news paper syndicate in 1949 and one year later he ended up creating the most famous comic strip of all time.
I could go on forever talking about Charles Schulz and how his work inspired me, my favorite strips, my favorite characters, my favorite specials, but I think I’ll just end things with a quote from the final Peanuts strip that truly says it all;
“Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... How can I ever forget them...”
