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“As
a youngster, I didn’t realize how many ‘Charlie
Browns’ there were in the world. I thought I was the
only one. Now I realize that Charlie Brown’s goofs are
familiar to everybody, adults and children alike.” –
Charles Schulz
From
the start, the PEANUTS characters exhibited their familiar
quirks and endearing qualities. But the gang certainly did
grow and change over the years.
Lucy
Van Pelt, Charlie Brown’s crabby, know-it-all friend,
first appeared in 1952, but only later assumed her trademark
bossiness – borrowed from earlier characters like Violet,
who soon faded from the scene. (It was Violet, in fact, who
first pulled away the football before Charlie Brown could
kick it, in 1951).
Woodstock,
the featherbrained companion of Charlie Brown’s pet
beagle Snoopy, first appeared in 1967, but wasn’t named
until 1970 – after the famous rock festival made its
mark on popular culture. And Schulz admitted that Woodstock
didn’t truly take on his loopy persona until the early
1970s, when his creator loosened up his drawing style.
Woodstock
wasn’t the only PEANUTS character to reflect current
events and changing times. Franklin, the strip’s first
African-American character, debuted in 1968, transferring
to the PEANUTS’ school as integration gained momentum
around the country.
In 1969,
NASA’s Lunar Module “Snoopy” and Command
and Service Module “Charlie Brown” accompanied
astronauts into space aboard Apollo X – an event reflected
in the strip that year with Snoopy’s flights as the
World-Famous Astronaut.
Snoopy,
in fact, remained perpetually at the forefront of fad and
fashion with his many alter-egos, including Joe Cool (1971),
the World-Famous Disco Dancer (1978), Joe Preppy (1981), Flashbeagle
(1983), Joe Aerobics (1987), and even Joe Grunge (1993).
Until
his death on February 12, 2000, Schulz continued to keep his
cartoons both timely and timeless. While many comic strips
tend to date fairly quickly, PEANUTS stands out, not only
as an accurate mirror of its times, but as a cartoon classic
with ongoing appeal.
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