What do you think?
Rate this book
Peanuts Coronet #16
We're On Your Side, Charlie Brown
Cartoons.
64 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
3 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,023 books1,636 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz 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 his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly 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." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz 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 his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly 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." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Read
February 15, 2021Classic literature
September 22, 2025
I know Peanuts is often more poignant than outright funny, but this collection was neither funny nor poignant, just kind of boring. Maybe Mr. Schulz hadn't quite hit his stride yet. I do enjoy how weird all the Peanuts kids are, though.
Read
July 28, 2019Lighthearted and adorable. My favorite part is when Charlie Brown looks at the reader how Jim looks into the camera on The Office 😂
January 2, 2020
Nostalgic.
Yet, a dark side to kids.
Yet, a dark side to kids.
July 4, 2020
Indulging in a little nostalgia. Not wild about the writing but it's my childhood.
April 20, 2010
Hoe many Charlie Brown books got published? I have a collection of these books--from my youth and from my brother-in-law's set-and I have a lot of these works staring me in the face. I've begun getting addicted to these bon-bons.
This one begins with Linus walking along (a four panel cartoon). The first three have him walking with a bunch of "plinks," as, it appears, coins are falling from his pockets. In the final panel, he observes that "This pocket leaks."
Or, Schroeder playing his piano. Lucy asks "What sort of girl would you like to marry, Schroeder?" He notes that he'd like someone with blonde hair, an even disposition, and a liking of classical music. After which, Lucy says "STRIKE THREE!!!!"
And on it goes. A nice collection. . . .
This one begins with Linus walking along (a four panel cartoon). The first three have him walking with a bunch of "plinks," as, it appears, coins are falling from his pockets. In the final panel, he observes that "This pocket leaks."
Or, Schroeder playing his piano. Lucy asks "What sort of girl would you like to marry, Schroeder?" He notes that he'd like someone with blonde hair, an even disposition, and a liking of classical music. After which, Lucy says "STRIKE THREE!!!!"
And on it goes. A nice collection. . . .
September 8, 2016
I like the older Charlie Brown strips best. Charlie Brown is my favorite comic strip.
December 17, 2024
A small, relatively early Peanuts collection. The strip had mostly hit its stride by then (Snoopy's design - a skinny, bent muzzle instead of the familiar bulbous roundness - is the most obviously unfinished aspect) but this doesn't feel like the strongest selection of strips. Some gems, but also a few that I think Schulz would have done differently later in his career.
April 19, 2010
After standing and saying nothing for two frames Violet turns to Charlie Brown and says "My dad understands foreign policy better than your dad understands foreign policy"... what a cogent comment on human nature:) I love it...and I got to use the word "cogent"!
November 2, 2015
Charles Schulz was already at the top of his game in this collection of early Peanuts comics. Impossibly charming.
April 17, 2023
✔️Published in 1957.
Fun reading.
Fun reading.
March 24, 2009
I have a copy of this that was printed in 1967
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews