A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.
Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz was an American cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts which features his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists in history, and cited by many cartoonists as a major influence, including Jim Davis, Murray Ball, Bill Watterson, Matt Groening, and Dav Pilkey.
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being"; it is considered to be the grandfather of slice of life cartoons. At the time of Schulz's death in 2000, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of roughly 355 million across 75 countries, and had been translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion.
Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip Peanuts, syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American archetypes and a popular and widely recognized cartoon character. Charlie Brown is characterized as a person who frequently suffers, and as a result, is usually nervous and lacks self-confidence. He shows both pessimistic and optimistic attitudes: on some days, he is apprehensive to even get out of bed because he is unable to face the world, but on others, he hopes for the best and is determined to accomplish things. Charlie Brown is easily recognized by his round head and trademark zigzag patterned shirt.
Peppermint Patty is a fictional character featured in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. Her full name, very rarely used in the strip, is Patricia Reichardt. She is one of a small group in the strip who live across town from Charlie Brown and his school friends. She has freckles and "mousy-blah" hair, and generally displays the characteristics of a tomboy, while also being shown to not be a strict complier. She made her first appearance on August 22, 1966. The following year she made her animated debut in the TV special You're in Love, Charlie Brown and began coaching a baseball team that played against Charlie Brown, and thereafter had other adventures with him. Uniquely, she refers to Charlie Brown and Lucy as "Chuck" and "Lucille", respectively. In most of her appearances, she is attracted to Charlie Brown, based on her reactions. Her birthday is October 4.
Rerun Van Pelt is Linus and Lucy's younger brother in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. Lucy Van Pelt, his sister, disparagingly calls the situation a "rerun" of the birth of her brother Linus, so Linus nicknames the child "Rerun". Despite Lucy's disappointment, she becomes a warm and protective older sister.
Lucille "Lucy" Van Pelt is a fictional character in the syndicated comic strip Peanuts, written and drawn by Charles Schulz. She is the older sister of Linus and Rerun. Lucy is characterized as a "fussbudget", crabby, bossy and opinionated girl who bullies most other characters in the strip, particularly Linus and Charlie Brown.
Shermy is a fictional character from the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz. Schulz named him after a friend from high school. When Peanuts made its debut on October 2, 1950, Shermy sat with another early character, Patty on the curb, and spoke the first lines of dialogue, ending with "Good ol' Charlie Brown...How I hate him!" which is ironic, considering how he became one of Charlie Brown's closest friends, along with Linus van Pelt and Schroeder.
Sally Brown is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She is the younger sister of main character Charlie Brown. She was first mentioned in May 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appearance in August 1959. Cathy Steinberg was the first to voice Sally in 1965 for the CBS special A Charlie Brown Christmas; she was six years old at the time.
Violet Gray is a fictional character featured in the long-running syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Violet first appeared in the February 7, 1951 strip. She was originally a major character, until she was eventually relegated to background and cameo appearances as other female characters became more prominent, with Lucy ultimately taking over most of Violet's character traits.
Frieda is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. She is known for having naturally curly hair, of which she is extremely proud.
Woodstock is a fictional character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. He is a small yellow bird of unknown species and Snoopy's best friend. The character first appeared in the April 4, 1967, strip, though he was not officially named until June 22, 1970. He is named after the Woodstock festival of 1969.
Pig-Pen is a fictional character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. While amiable, he is a young boy who is, except on rare occasions, extremely dirty and attracts a permanent cloud of dust.
Patty is a fictional character featured in the long-running syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Patty was formerly a major character whose role was reduced in later years; she never developed a distinct personality like Lucy or Sally. She is sometimes confused with Peppermint Patty, a different and later character with a similar name. Patty appeared in the first Peanuts strip, with Shermy and Charlie Brown, on October 2, 1950.
It's Only a Game was a sports-and-game-oriented comics panel by Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. This panel feature ran for 14 months, from November 3, 1957, to January 11, 1959. It's Only a Game was distributed by United Feature Syndicate.
This is a list of adaptations in film, television, musical theater, and video games, based on characters from the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.
The Complete Peanuts is a series of books containing the entire run of Charles M. Schulz's long-running newspaper comic strip Peanuts, published by Fantagraphics Books. The series was published at a rate of two volumes per year, each containing two years of strips. Slipcased sets of two volumes are also available. The series comprises a total of 26 volumes, including a final volume that was a collection of Schulz strips, cartoons, stories, and illustrations that appeared outside of the daily newspaper strip. These hardcover books were first published between 2004 and 2016. Later, Fantagraphics also began publishing the series in a softcover format. A companion series titled Peanuts Every Sunday, collecting only the Sunday strips of the Peanuts series, was launched by Fantagraphics in 2013 and ran until late 2022.
Willie and Joe are stock characters representing United States infantry soldiers during World War II. They were created and drawn by American cartoonist Bill Mauldin from 1940 to 1948, with additional drawings later. They were published in a gag cartoon format, first in the 45th Division News, then Stars and Stripes, and starting in 1944, a syndicated newspaper cartoon distributed by United Feature Syndicate.
Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the Peanuts films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recognizable and iconic characters in the comic strip and is considered more famous than Charlie Brown in some countries. The original drawings of Snoopy were inspired by Spike, one of Schulz's childhood dogs.
