"Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz dies
Sadness over the retirement of one of the world's best-loved cartoonists turned to grief Sunday, as word spread that Charles Schulz had died on the same weekend his final comic strip was being published.
Schulz, who first started drawing the "Peanuts" strip half a century ago, died in his sleep at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif., Saturday night. He was 77.
The soft-spoken creator of such characters as Charlie Brown, Linus and Lucy had been battling colon cancer.
After suffering a series of small strokes, and undergoing emergency abdominal surgery in November, he announced his retirement a few weeks later.
Schulz was born in St. Paul, Minn., on Nov. 26, 1922, and studied art after he saw a "Do you like to draw?" ad.
He was drafted into the army in 1943 and went to Europe. After the war, he worked on a church comic book, taught art, and sold cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post.
His first feature, "Li'l Folks," was developed in 1947. In 1950, it was sold to a syndicate and the name changed to "Peanuts." The stories featuring Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy and their pals eventually ran in more than 2,400 newspapers, reaching millions of readers in 68 countries.
His last strip,which appeared Sunday morning in American papers, showed Snoopy at his typewriter, and other "Peanuts" regulars, as well as a "Dear Friends" letter thanking Schulz's readers for their support. That strip appeared in Canadian dailies Saturday.
One of the things readers loved about the strip was its consistency. It always rained when Charlie Brown played ball, and he always responded to troubles with a cry of "Good grief." Lucy continued her 5 cent psychoanalysis and Snoopy flew his doghouse back to the First World War.
The strip brought Schulz international fame. He won the Reuben Award, comic art's highest honour, in 1955 and 1964. In 1978, he was named International Cartoonist of the Year. The 1965 TV special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" won an Emmy and rerun immortality.
Schulz had a clause in his contract dictating the strip would end with his death. While battling cancer, he opted to retire it then, saying he wanted to focus on his health and family without the worry of a daily deadline.
"Why do musicians compose symphonies and poets write poems?" he once said. "They do it because life wouldn't have any meaning for them if they didn't. That's why I draw cartoons. It's my life."