PEANUTS
Charles Monroe Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922, the son of Carl and Dena Halverson Schulz. His father was a barber. Charles loved to read the comics section of the newspaper with his father and was given the nickname "Sparky" after Sparkplug, the horse in the Barney Google comic strip. From an early age, Schulz loved drawing and practiced by copying his favorite comic strip, Popeye.
He was a shy teenager, perhaps as a result of skipping a grade which made him the youngest in his class at Central High School, in St. Paul. One sad episode in his high school life was the rejection of his drawings by his high school yearbook. However, a five-foot-tall statue of Snoopy was placed in the school's main office 60 years later.
In 1943, Schulz served in the Army as a squad leader on a machine gun team. After being discharged in late 1945, Schulz returned to Minneapolis where he did lettering for a comic magazine, Timeless Topix, In 1946, took a job at Art Instruction, Inc., reviewing and grading lessons submitted by students. He worked at the school for a number of years while he developed his career as a comic creator, until he was making enough money to be able to do that full-time.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, a weekly series of one-panel jokes entitled Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first out of 17 one-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, he tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with the one-panel series Li'l Folks, and the syndicate became interested. However, by that time Schulz had also developed a comic strip, using normally four panels rather than one, and reportedly to Schulz's delight, the syndicate preferred this version. Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers. The weekly Sunday-page debuted on January 6, 1952. After a somewhat slow beginning, Peanuts eventually became one of the most popular comic strips of all time, as well as one of the most influential.
At its height, Peanuts was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, in 21 languages. Over the 50 years that Peanuts was published, Schulz drew nearly 18,000 strips. During the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997 to celebrate his 75th birthday; reruns of the strip ran during his vacation, the only time reruns occurred while Schulz was alive. Unlike many other successful cartoonists, Schulz never used assistants in producing the strip; he refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him. He never allowed other artists to draw his characters for the multitude of products that were sold under the Peanuts line, feeling that his line quality could not be copied with any success. When Schulz was approached to produce animated Peanuts specials for television, he made an exception to that rule and allowed the award winning animator, Bill Melendez, to draw his characters. They became close friends and won many awards for their collaborations.
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Thanksgiving Toasts! by Larry Leichliter
Cel: 11.75"w x 9.75"h
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Giclee: 16.25"w x 10"h -
He's YOUR Dog, Charlie Brown 50th Anniversary Series: Snoopy’s Rendezvous on Saint Germain
Create by Larry Leichliter, this scene, a cross dissolve: the reality of poolside at Peppermint Patty's home and Snoopy's visions of enjoying a root beer or two at this lovely café on Saint Germain in Paris. This limited edition 12 field cel is accompanied by a signed giclee print of Mr. Leichliter's Key Pose Model Sheet for Snoopy, created in the traditional format of Bill Melendez's studio, on a legal sheet of paper. The two pieces look great side by side or show each one off in it's own frame, either way they will catch your eye and bring a smile.
The second limited edition celebrating the golden anniversary of this television special really needs no explanation, but indulge us. Snoopy is not your average canine, but you knew that. His wanderlust for Paris, being served fine root beer and day dreaming of sharing his time with a sweet French Poodle and then there is reality. A cross dissolve by the cameraman and he is in Peppermint Patty's backyard about to be nabbed by good 'ole Charlie Brown! This artwork was designed and created under the artistic direction of Larry Leichliter, at Bill Melendez Productions, Inc., in association with Lee Mendelson Productions and Charles M. Schulz's Creative Associates in 2018.
Diligently preserving this unforgettable moment from He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown!, Snoopy's Rendezvous on Saint Germain has been fashioned in the time-honored tradition of Bill Melendez Productions, Inc. This limited edition animation cel set-up is hand-inked, hand-painted and mounted on a giclee background print. Larry, in keeping with the studio's tradition, sketched a Key Pose Model Sheet of Snoopy on legal paper depicting his multiple roles in this special. A giclee print of this model sheet is signed by Larry and accompanies each cel in this limited edition. The background print and the giclee model sheet were replicated on Arches Velum Museum Rag paper from artwork especially prepared for this limited edition.Dimensions:
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limited edition 12 field cel measures 12” w x 9.5” h
giclee key pose model sheet measures 14” w x 9.5” h