LOTTE MUSEUM OF ART - LMOA

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, American cartoonist Charles Monroe Schulz dreamed of becoming a cartoonist since childhood. He took a number of cartooning classes in high school. Later in 1945, after returning from his military service abroad during WWII, he did lettering work for the catholic comic magazine Timeless Topix. Soon afterwards, Schulz started teaching at his alma mater Art Instruction Schools, where he met the people who would become the inspiration for some of the essential characters in Peanuts – e.g. Charlie Brown, Linus Maurer, and the Little Red-Haired Girl.

In 1947, Schulz kick-started his career as a cartoonist for the local newspaper St. Paul Pioneer Press, which published his weekly series of single panel cartoons titled Li’l Folks. The serial contains prototypes of key characters in Peanuts, notably those of Charlie Brown and Shermy Plepler. In 1950, Schulz submitted his one-panel comic samples to United Feature Syndicate in New York, which immediately took an interest in his work. On October 2, 1950, the company launched in seven national newspapers a four-panel comic strip series titled Peanuts, whose eventual success earned Schulz a nationwide recognition. For the next 50 years, Peanuts made daily appearances in numerous newspapers. As the world’s most beloved comic strip boasting nearly 360 million fans, it has been published in more than 2,600 newspapers in over 40 languages across 75 countries.

Peanuts illustrates episodes from the daily lives of a group of young friends with distinct personalities – Charlie Brown, Lucy van Pelt et al., along with Charlie’s dog Snoopy. Through these characters’ charming and unsullied perspectives, the comic strips recount the tragicomic aspects of our own lives flush with irony and humor. Charlie Brown, an archetypal average boy in a small town, constantly deals with failure without ever succumbing to despair. Charlie’s pet beagle Snoopy, on the other hand, deftly resolves every problem, often by transforming himself into a character that suits every purpose (a caring physician, an eloquent lawyer, and an ace pilot, to name a few). The dog’s multifaceted, extraordinary talents strongly resonate with our own desire to escape the often stifling issues we face in reality. Also, the strong bond shared amongst the Peanuts gang despite all their individual peculiarities accounts for the warm sentiments these characters elicit from readers to this day. 

Peanuts has become a global icon in popular culture, having been reproduced in various media formats including animated TV series, feature films and games. Its beloved characters have graced the covers of some of the world’s most influential magazines such as Time and Life. After its publication on the 2,000^th newspaper, the comic strip made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records(1989) as the most published cartoon strip. The wide appeal of the Peanuts franchise extends beyond media and entertainment. In 1968, NASA selected Snoopy the Astronaut as its friendly Mascot for Safety, an honorable duty which the World’s Most Famous Beagle has been faithfully fulfilling for over 50 years since. What’s more, the organization went on to name the command and lunar modules of its 1969 Apollo 10 space mission after Charlie Brown and Snoopy, respectively, making them the first cartoon characters ever to have gone on a space trip.