American cartoonist (1922-2000).
Creator of the "
Peanuts"
comic strip. Nicknamed "
Sparky". Enjoyed incredible
success with characters like
Charlie Brown,
Snoopy,
Linus Van Pelt and his
crabby sister
Lucy,
Peppermint Patty, and more.
He based Charlie Brown on himself, Snoopy on his favorite
childhood dog, and
the little red-haired girl on a girl who turned down his
marriage proposal before he started the comic strip.
He saw himself -- even after years of
success and millions of dollars, after untold
TV specials, after getting
NASA spacecraft named after his
characters, after winning millions -- maybe billions -- of
fans worldwide -- as a bit of a
loser.
Too many
people, some of them
clueless morons who wouldn't know
humor if it bit 'em on the ass, claim that Schulz' strip was never
funny and certainly
not as funny as "
Dilbert" or "
Calvin and Hobbes" or whatever the
hot strip of the day is. What these people do not
realize is that without Schulz, most
papers would not include
comics pages and most cartoonists would not have become cartoonists in the first place -- Schulz has
inspired almost every cartoonist drawing today, including
Scott Adams,
Matt Groening,
Jim Davis,
Mort Walker,
Gary Trudeau,
Bill Watterson, and many, many more.
Sparky Schulz died yesterday,
February 12, 2000, the day before his
final comic strip appeared in
newspapers.
Once upon a time, when I was just a
little kid, I sent Charles Schulz a
fan letter with a little
suggestion for a cute
story idea. He sent me a nice signed
drawing and a short
note, and years later, I saw a
hint of my
suggestion in one of his cartoons. To this day, the
idea -- that I might have
contributed in a very, very
tiny way to the success of "Peanuts" -- fills me with the closest thing I can get to
pride.
I'm getting
teary-eyed over a cartoonist. If you think that's stupid,
go to hell.