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On February 12th, the night before his last comic strip was scheduled
to run, Charles "Sparky" Schulz died in his sleep.
The creator of the popular comic strip "Peanuts" was
77 years old and had been drawing Charlie Brown and his gang
for 50 years. |
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Schulz is part of an elite group, a group of people who have
had the ability to touch generation after generation with their
work. Charlie Brown and Snoopy have been around for my entire
life and through the lives of my parents. Snoopy and Charlie
Brown have become as globally recognized as Mickey Mouse or Bugs
Bunny. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last 50 years,
you will at some point in your life have heard of the Peanuts
gang.
In Charlie Brown, Schulz has embodied a little bit of everyone.
We've all had the metaphorical kite stuck in the tree and the
football pulled out from under us. We've all dragged around a
security blanket of some kind or another and every one of us
has felt like a loser.
Schulz touch so many people all around the world in such a
relatively short span of time. Charlie Brown grew into a constant
in some lives that never went away. For some, he was there in
childhood and rediscovered in adulthood. The poor little loser
that was Charlie Brown could never truly die.
Although no new strips will be produced, I'm certain that
the old ones will never disappear. With classic television specials
like Charlie Brown's Christmas or the Great Pumpkin, that are
watched annually by millions, the Peanuts gang hopefully will
be around for generations to come.
The psychiatrist is now truly out for good, and Snoopy will
never again sit atop his dog house as the infamous Red Baron,
but we will always have the memory of the man that was Charles
Schulz through the comics he created.
As we say our farewells to both Schulz and the Peanuts gang,
perhaps it isn't "Good-bye, Charlie," just "See
you later." |
