Charlie Brown was modeled after Charles Schulz. “We always say that each of the characters represents a piece of our dad,” Craig Schulz, Charles’ son, says in a new book about the production of the new movie, The Art and Making of the Peanuts Movie. “Charlie Brown was his real self, while Snoopy was what he wanted to be.”
There are 17,897 Peanuts comic strips. They ran between 1950 and 2000, each one drawn by Schulz. Schulz died from colon cancer at age 77, the day before the last original strip ran.
Charles Schulz did not choose the name Peanuts (nor did he like it). Charlie Brown first appeared as a character in a comic strip called Li'l Folks, but when Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate about a publishing deal in 1950, the syndication service thought the name was too close to two other comics it ran at the time, and changed it to Peanuts. Schulz never liked the new name; he thought it "made it sound too insignificant."
Iconic Peanuts
characters like Lucy and Linus didn’t show up until years into
the comic. The Peanuts gang in CGI in The Peanuts Movie (2015).
Design by Tyler Carter, Color by Robert MacLenzie. © 2015
Peanuts Worldwide LLC. © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation. All rights reserved.
The first Peanuts strip featured Shermy, Patty (a separate
character from Peppermint Patty), and Charlie Brown. It ran in
seven newspapers in October 1950.
In the early Peanuts strips, Lucy was younger than Charlie Brown. In her first comic strip in March 1952, Lucy was a toddler. Later, Schulz decided to make her Charlie Brown’s peer. Lucy would later be the character to observe “Happiness is a warm puppy” in an April 1960 strip.
Linus did not speak for the first two years of Peanuts strips. He appeared as Lucy’s security-blanketed younger brother in September 1952, but did not get a line in the comic until 1954.
Franklin’s first appearance in the Peanuts comic was in July 1968. In it, Franklin recovers Charlie Brown’s lost beach ball. At the time, Franklin’s inclusion was seen as controversial, and Schulz received letters complaining about the character.
Snoopy has his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame, right next to Schulz's.
Schroeder loves Beethoven (and his house at 1770 James Street is a nod to the composer’s birth year) but the first piece he played in the strip was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s "Prelude in G Minor."
In most of the Peanuts comics, Marcie has no eyes. Marcie’s glasses mask her eyes throughout most of the original comic, only appearing in rare moments, like a May 1980 strip where Peppermint Patty tries to convince her to wear her glasses on top of her head.
The little red-haired girl is never fully seen in the Peanuts comic strip. The daily strip only showed the object of Charlie Brown’s affections once, in silhouette, in 1998. He did get to meet her in the television special 'It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown', which aired in 1977.
Snoopy has five siblings. Spike was the first Snoopy brother, introduced in 1975 and named after Charles Schulz’s childhood pup. Snoopy’s other siblings include Marbles, Olaf, Andy, and his only sister, Belle.
If you look closely, you will notice that Snoopy’s eyes are on the same side of his nose. It looks natural in the comic, but was a particular challenge to animate in 3D.
Even the U.S. Postal Service loves A Charlie Brown Christmas. In 2015, to mark the 65th anniversary of the comic and the 50th anniversary of the television special, the USPS released Forever Stamps with images like Snoopy ice skating, Linus kneeling with the Christmas tree, and Charlie Brown checking the mail for a Christmas card. The Peanuts gang also got a commemorative stamp from the USPS in 2001.
