November 2023

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the classic TV special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Synopsis: Peppermint Patty invites herself and a few friends to Charlie Brown's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The only problem is Charlie Brown can't cook. Still wanting to be a good host, Linus and Snoopy step in to help and together, they serve an unconventional feast of jelly beans, popcorn, pretzels, and toast and learn that maybe Thanksgiving is not about the turkey and mashed potatoes after all.

Maybe you grew up reading the Peanuts in the newspaper or watching the animated shows on TV. Maybe you had a favorite character (Snoopy!) or learned Vince Guaraldi's "O Tannenbaum" on the piano to entertain guests at holiday parties.

Most of us are familiar with Peanuts, but what do we know about the man behind the comic strip? This prompted me to do a little research.

Charles "Sparky" M. Schulz always knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. Born on November 26, 1922, in Minneapolis, he grew up reading the funnies in the Sunday paper with his dad—the era of Mickey Mouse and Popeye. His first drawing (of his dog, Spike) was published in a nationally syndicated paper when he was 14 years old. He continued drawing and even took a correspondence cartoon course during high school (source).

From 1945 to 1950, he pieced together a freelance career selling cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, teaching at Art Instruction, and publishing a weekly single-panel cartoon, Li'l Folks in the local paper in Minnesota. (Fun fact: the name "Charlie Brown" first appeared here in 1948.)

In October 1950, the first Peanuts comic was published in seven newspapers nationwide.

"Over nearly fifty years, Charles Schulz drew every one of his 17,897 Peanuts comic strips by himself, without the aid of assistants," author Mason Currey writes. "The demands of producing six daily strips and a Sunday page required a regular schedule, and Schulz fulfilled his duties in a businesslike manner, devoting seven hours a day, five days a week, to Peanuts."

Here's a window into his daily creative practice:

"At 8:20, Schulz drove the kids to school in the family station wagon, stopping to pick up the neighbor’s children on the way. Then it was time to sit down at the drawing board, in the private studio beside his house. He would begin by doodling in pencil while he let his mind wander. . . .Once he had a good idea, however, he would work quickly and with intense concentration to get it onto paper before the inspiration dried up."
"Schulz stayed in his studio for lunch—almost always a ham sandwich and a glass of milk—and continued working until around 4:00, when the kids returned home from school. The regularity of the work suited his temperament and helped him cope with the chronic anxiety he suffered throughout his life."
- Mason Currey, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Can you imagine doing the same thing for 50 years? Drawing 17,897 comic strips with the same characters?

There's something really inspiring about Schulz's daily routine, the parameters he put on his time, his consistent practice, the way he eliminated decisions like what to eat for lunch so he had more decision-making power available for his work.

When he started, Peanuts was published in seven newspapers, but when he retired in 1999, it appeared in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide. He had also won an Emmy Award (for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving), and collections of his work had been translated into 25 languages (source).

There is power in routine, in showing up consistently, in the small things we create. There is value in commitment and patience and developing ideas.

I hope this inspires you to keep showing up, to keep putting in the work, and to celebrate the small achievements in your life as they come knowing that they are often part of a greater legacy.