Charles Schulz Biography

Charles Schulz, the widely known Peanuts comics creator, was born in Minneapolis , Minnesota on November 26, 1992. He was born an only child to his parents Dena and Carl Schulz. Carl was a barber and an avid comic strip fan. Schulz always knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. It first showed when Ripley's newspaper published his drawing of the family dog, who was claimed as a hunting dog who ate pins, tacks, and razor blades, in 1937. The dog, Spike, would later become the inspiration for the beloved Peanuts beagle, Snoopy.

He later put his artistic ambitions on hold when he served in WWII as an infantry machine gunner in Europe. During the war, he would sketch episodes of daily war life in his notebook. After the war, he returned to St. Paul and pursued his cartooning career and between 1947 and 1950, he drew a weekly comic panel for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and also sold seventeen gags to The Saturday Evening Post. In 1950, he married Joyce Halverson, and at the same time, the Peanuts comics had debuted in seven newspapers on October 12. Also, United Feature Syndicate, one of the largest buyers and sellers of comic strips, liked Schulz's comics but asked if the comics could have a little more action. By 1965, he was honored twice with the Reuben award and Peanuts had become an international success. Then in 1959, he moved to northern California. His marriage to Joyce lasted until 1970. After his divorce, he married Jeannie Clyde, a pilot, poet, and documentary film producer. They then moved to Santa Rosa California and Charles had built his own ice rink to help him enjoy his love of hockey. His great success had come from his own childhood. He had based most of the Charlie Brown character on his own childhood adventures, and Charlie Brown had become an icon of life's down side.

In December of 1999, Schulz announced his retirement for health reasons. At that time, the Peanuts comics were in more than 2,600 newspapers worldwide. He had hand drawn all 18,000 Peanuts comics Then, in February of 2000, he died just before his final Peanuts Sunday strip was released into the newspapers. By then, his Syndicated cartoon strip, Peanuts, was running in over 2000 newspapers around the world. The Charles Schulz museum and research center in Santa Rosa , California opened in honor of the famous cartoonist in August, 2002. His comics have been popular for over four decades and has never depicted any adults. Despite of this tradition, it is popular with parents and kids around the world.