What kind of art do comic strips represent? The question is loaded because of the variety found in the world of comic strips, especially in the last two decades since internet became an integral part of our lives. This medium took away the middleman between the artist and her readers. No more begging the editors to publish in their newspaper or magazines. You put your art out there and if it’s good, you will get readers. The success of XKCD gave rise to more and more niche based comic strips, such as Itchy Feet Comic by Malachi Ray Rempen, that deals exclusively with travel and learning new languages.
Amongst the old classics comic strips, two names always stand apart. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson and Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. These two comic strips have inspired a generation of modern artists and they are still getting republished all over the world. My Life with Charlie Brown contains a collection of articles and speeches by Charles Schulz.
Peanuts published its first strip on October 2, 1950 and the last one on February 13, 2000, a total of 17897 strips, after which Schulz decided to retire. The lead character is Charlie Brown who began as a four year old, then six and ended as an eight year old. Other characters include Linus and Lucy who are siblings, Peppermint Patty and Marcie, Sally Brown, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, Franklin (an African American character who was introduced at the suggestion of a reader) and Woodstock who is a bird.
Charlie Brown is almost always sad and depressed. Initially, he was arrogant but mellowed with time. Other characters are also finely etched. Lucy fights a lot but she also provides psychiatric help at the modest rate of 5 cents. Her regular client is Charlie Brown. The counselling she provides includes self-evident truths, sarcastic remarks and occasionally thoughtful suggestions. Schroeder plays the piano and worships Beethoven. The music notes in the strip when Schroeder is playing the piano belong to Beethoven and it is a matter of great curiosity for musically minded Peanuts fans to trace the music to its source. Linus always carries a blanket with him and gets anxious if he loses it. Other characters often blackmail him into doing something by stealing his blanket – for instance, Snoopy forcing him to write a letter of recommendation for Neighborhood Dog of the Year. One may think that adults will not be interested in a comic strip where all the characters are kids. In fact, the problems faced by Charlie Brown and others and their reactions span a wide range of emotions. As a result, adults also get sucked in by the drama.
At a certain point in the series, Schulz introduced a dog in the strip, Snoopy. No one, including Schulz himself could see the huge canvas and myriad possibilities that Snoopy would acquire later on, so much so that Schulz feared that unless he kept Snoopy on a tight leash there was a danger that he would take over the series. Snoopy is not your regular dog. He does not consider Charlie Brown as his owner even though Charlie keeps him well fed. He looks with contempt at regular dog games like ‘fetching a stick.’ He cannot speak but his thoughts are conveyed by a thought balloon. Initially, these were limited to simple things like food but as Snoopy evolved and started walking on two legs, he became a fascinating character with very eclectic hobbies like collecting Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth paintings. He also started writing novels on a typewriter, balanced on top of his doghouse, which always started with the now famous line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” In one strip he got a letter from a publisher that his novel has been accepted for publication with the caveat that they will print only one copy. If that sells, they will print the next one. Snoopy also reads War and Peace, one word a day, speaks tolerable French, plays tennis, guitar and accordion. Snoopy has a friend, a bird called Woodstock (named after the festival) who speaks in little scratch marks – ||||.
Snoopy has a rich fantasy life. He is a World War I Flying Ace flying the Sopwith Camel fighter plane and trying to defeat his arch nemesis, the Red Baron. Charles Schultz was a World War II veteran, posted in France. On June 6, 1993 Schulz drew a large panel (it was a Sunday) showing Snoopy landing at Omaha beach, and he’s laying in water, just his head, helmet and a paw visible with the caption, “June 6, 1944 — To Remember.” He got a wonderful response from all over the world.
Peanuts does not have a single adult character. Adult characters are referred to, but never actually seen. This is a way to enter the children’s world completely. Spielberg did something similar in ET when he shot most of the movie from a height of 2.5-3 feet, a child’s point of view. As he explained in his interview on Inside the Actors Studio, he got this idea from watching Disney’s Looney Tunes as a child.
Arthur Conan Doyle faced great public outrage when he killed Sherlock Holmes in The Reichenbach Fall. In the sixties, Schulz introduced a plot twist where Linus and Lucy’s father gets transferred to another city and they leave their friends. This was a temporary twist and they were meant to return eventually but before that could happen, he was bombarded with telephones, telegrams and letters from all over the country demanding that he bring them back immediately.
In My Life with Charlie Brown, Schulz talks about his struggling days, the obstacles he faced and about possible perils that an upcoming cartoonist may face. There are many anecdotes, some illustrating the inspiration behind his comic strips. For instance, one time his daughter Amy was making noise at the dinner table. Schulz finally scolded her to be quiet. She did, began buttering her bread and then asked, “Am I buttering too loud for you?” That was the verbatim punch line for his next comic strip.
Schulz mentions more than once that comic strip is not a great art. I disagree and I am not entirely sure why he would say that. The quality of art does not depend on the length or duration else Haiku will not be considered an art form. Peanuts manages to pack so much in such a small interval. First, with just a few lines, the demeanour of the character changes completely. For instance, Snoopy’s grin when he wants a favour. (I discussed this briefly when I interviewed Malachi Ray Rempen.) The fantasy world of Snoopy and the fact that he thinks like a human is nothing but Magical Realism. The questions raised by conversations between Charlie Brown and Linus are sometimes deeply philosophical and point towards the meaning of existence.
Despite having children as main characters, Peanuts is not a cheerful series. It is full frustrations and futile activities, and tinged with sadness, not unlike the real life.
