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Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others
The noted cartoonist's comments on the development of and influences on his career and his world-famous cartoon strip accompany reproductions of one hundred and thirty-four feature pages of Peanuts
222 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,037 books1,633 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.”
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 29, 2023
Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art With Charlie Brown and Others is a coffee table book celebrating the Peanuts 25th anniversary in 1975.
I saw this on Shopgoodwill and no one else bid on it so I got a great deal on it if you don't count the ridiculous shipping and handling fees.
This collection features some writing by Charles Schulz about the philosophy behind the strip, drawing methods, and the dreaded "Where do you get your ideas from?" among other things. I found that material insightful but the real meat of the book were the comics. There were a handful of dailies but the big kahuna was the 134 Sunday strips, each taking a full page.
It's interesting to see Peanuts at the halfway point. All the characters are there but the Peanuts gang hasn't started selling Metlife insurance yet. Was 1975 the apex of the strip? Well, probably.
Four out of five stars.
I saw this on Shopgoodwill and no one else bid on it so I got a great deal on it if you don't count the ridiculous shipping and handling fees.
This collection features some writing by Charles Schulz about the philosophy behind the strip, drawing methods, and the dreaded "Where do you get your ideas from?" among other things. I found that material insightful but the real meat of the book were the comics. There were a handful of dailies but the big kahuna was the 134 Sunday strips, each taking a full page.
It's interesting to see Peanuts at the halfway point. All the characters are there but the Peanuts gang hasn't started selling Metlife insurance yet. Was 1975 the apex of the strip? Well, probably.
Four out of five stars.
October 22, 2022
Originally published in 1975 to mark the jubilee of the Peanuts strip, this is part biography of Schulz, partly about the development of the strip and its various influences and include one hundred and thirty-four full-colour Sunday pages. I found this completely fascinating - Schulz talks about his early life, where Peanuts (a name he apparently always hated) came from and why the characters look the way they do and it was hugely entertaining and informative. Plus the cartoons are completely glorious, with a lovely mix of laugh out loud, amusing, sad, melancholic and poignant. A superb collection, I highly recommend it.
March 21, 2020
This was an important book for me during my formative teen years, and therefore, should be part of my list. Schulz was not a great writer, but he does manage to convey many of the childhood experiences that made him the artist he was. The "double whammy" of losing his mother to cancer and then being drafted into the army during WWII had to be gut wrenching, and may account for much of the angst that we would later see in Peanuts. To his great credit, he was able to spin traumatic experience into creative gold.
One particular anecdote that he relates still resonates with me. A night he spent on sentry duty as a soldier where he experienced a remarkable calm in his soul. He knew that he didn't really want to be there, and yet, somehow, he was experiencing this inner peace. Something that he puzzled about to the end of his life. Having experienced a similar moment, that account stuck with me. It is the sign of a great writer if you can touch a reader like that. I'm happy to say that this book does have those moments.
This book probably marked the zenith of Peanuts appeal for me personally, however. It has to be said that, beginning in the late 70's, the strip began to slip and become painfully repetitive ("You're weird, sir!") and the slide would never really stop. Still, Schulz had more good days between 1950 and 1975 than most cartoonists will ever see in a lifetime. God bless you, Sparky!
One particular anecdote that he relates still resonates with me. A night he spent on sentry duty as a soldier where he experienced a remarkable calm in his soul. He knew that he didn't really want to be there, and yet, somehow, he was experiencing this inner peace. Something that he puzzled about to the end of his life. Having experienced a similar moment, that account stuck with me. It is the sign of a great writer if you can touch a reader like that. I'm happy to say that this book does have those moments.
This book probably marked the zenith of Peanuts appeal for me personally, however. It has to be said that, beginning in the late 70's, the strip began to slip and become painfully repetitive ("You're weird, sir!") and the slide would never really stop. Still, Schulz had more good days between 1950 and 1975 than most cartoonists will ever see in a lifetime. God bless you, Sparky!
March 9, 2013
It's almost sacrilegious to say you aren't a fan of Peanuts... I suppose I enjoy it in small doses, but there aren't either the laugh out loud elements or indeed the profundity of other, later strips. But it was, in many ways influential not just in cartooning terms, but also in commercial/popular culture, and there is certainly elements of Charlie Brown, Linus and even Lucy in me... perhaps all of us... which is why it is so popular. This book is an interesting combination of some strips from Schultz's back-catalogue and some brief biographical notes, produced for the 25th anniversary of the strip's syndication. It is beautifully produced, but, like the strip in general it doesn't have the depth or detail that I would have liked, getting behind the strips themselves to the source. Also a number of the strips he refers to in the text are not actually reproduced in the collection which is a little annoying... Definitely one for Peanuts fans, but not if you are looking for insight into the creative process.
September 10, 2018
An amazing treasure behind the scenes of the creation of Snoopy.
In addition with the writer's prologue and the sad story around his mother's death and the influence he had in the military we understand the factors that gave birth to our popular hero Snoopy.
The comic strips of the innocent childhood of Charles Brown make us all empathise the hero and become at least for a momment children. The love of sports, the everyday life. The wordplays...
- it is a genuine source of talent & humour.
In addition with the writer's prologue and the sad story around his mother's death and the influence he had in the military we understand the factors that gave birth to our popular hero Snoopy.
The comic strips of the innocent childhood of Charles Brown make us all empathise the hero and become at least for a momment children. The love of sports, the everyday life. The wordplays...
- it is a genuine source of talent & humour.
May 11, 2023
Ich hatte zwar über die Comics keine Vorurteile, aber komischerweise über ihren Urheber, den ich mir mit einer prüde-suburbanen Moral ausgestattet und als Begleiter einer sich bis heute fortsetzenden Mimosenkultur zusammengedichtet habe. Ich lag falsch. (Aber ich hatte die Comics auch nie gelesen.) Charles Schulz hat aus seiner Kindheit, von seinem Werdegang als Zeichner und der täglichen Arbeit im Studio Interessantestes zu erzählen. Im Schulunterricht zeichnete er Icons von runden Hitler-Gesichtern. Man zwang ihn zum Singen, weshalb er alles was mit Musik zu tun hat hasste. Von Studenten berichtet er, die die Aufgabenstellung "thumbnail sketch" missverstehen und Zeichnungen ihrer eigenen Daumen einreichen. Außerdem hält er "Peanuts" für den schlechtesten jemals für einen Comic erdachten Namen.
Die Auswahl der "Plates", also der dreigeschossigen Comic-Einheiten, ist aus selbstevaluatorischer Perspektive ziemlich glaubwürdig: 11 sind aus den 50ern, hier wurden nur Glanzlichter ausgewählt, 27 aus den 60ern und 96 aus den 70ern; das Buch ist von 1975. In der Hinsicht auch bemerkenswert, dass Schulz zur Fortsetzung eines seiner Running-Gags von Ronald
Reagan persönlich angespornt wurde.
Die Auswahl der "Plates", also der dreigeschossigen Comic-Einheiten, ist aus selbstevaluatorischer Perspektive ziemlich glaubwürdig: 11 sind aus den 50ern, hier wurden nur Glanzlichter ausgewählt, 27 aus den 60ern und 96 aus den 70ern; das Buch ist von 1975. In der Hinsicht auch bemerkenswert, dass Schulz zur Fortsetzung eines seiner Running-Gags von Ronald
Reagan persönlich angespornt wurde.
July 15, 2023
This book is what I would call a sorta autobiography because although Schulz does tell his life story, it's not in the format an autobiography ordinarily is.
There's over a hundred comic strips in this book and some photos of Sparky, including one of him as Grand Marshal in the 1974 Rose Parade with his daughter Amy.
It was interesting just how much a lot of Peanuts strips were based not only on Sparky's childhood, but by also observing his childrens' behavior and listening to what they talked with him about...sometimes he would eavesdrop on conversations his kids were having with their friends.
Throughout his writing, it was obvious how much he adored his children and he admitted to always wanting to win any game he played...with or without them.
It was also interesting how he described "drawing with his eyes." He'd spend time studying a subject's facial features, gestures, and what they're wearing very carefully before eventually putting a pen/pencil to paper!
A must-read for any Charles Schulz fan!
There's over a hundred comic strips in this book and some photos of Sparky, including one of him as Grand Marshal in the 1974 Rose Parade with his daughter Amy.
It was interesting just how much a lot of Peanuts strips were based not only on Sparky's childhood, but by also observing his childrens' behavior and listening to what they talked with him about...sometimes he would eavesdrop on conversations his kids were having with their friends.
Throughout his writing, it was obvious how much he adored his children and he admitted to always wanting to win any game he played...with or without them.
It was also interesting how he described "drawing with his eyes." He'd spend time studying a subject's facial features, gestures, and what they're wearing very carefully before eventually putting a pen/pencil to paper!
A must-read for any Charles Schulz fan!
February 11, 2022
Peanuts Jubilee was written on the 25th anniversary of the Peanuts comic strip and includes Charles Schulz' memories of starting the strip as well as his perspective on his art. The strip went on to run for 50 years or 18,000 strips, all written by Schulz, who refused all assistance in writing the strip. This remarkable accomplishment is a stand out in our pop culture, and most people who grew up in the fifties, sixties and seventies, eighties, and nineties have fond memories of Charlie Brown and Snoopy and the gang. Peanuts Jubilee includes favourite Sunday colour strips.
It was a nice trip down memory lane for me, as a big Peanuts fan. I remembered a lot of the gags - the hockey games on the bird bath, Snoopy and his typewriter on his doghouse, Lucy's psychiatrist booth - classic comic images that define the balance of innocence and sophistication of the strip. I felt my stress level go down as I was reading, down to the level of more innocent time.
It was a nice trip down memory lane for me, as a big Peanuts fan. I remembered a lot of the gags - the hockey games on the bird bath, Snoopy and his typewriter on his doghouse, Lucy's psychiatrist booth - classic comic images that define the balance of innocence and sophistication of the strip. I felt my stress level go down as I was reading, down to the level of more innocent time.
June 21, 2024
Charlie Brown has been around all my life. I was part of a generation of kids who had to make sure to be bathed and in pajamas, ready to watch the seasonal Charlie Brown specials--complete with Dolly Madison commercials. No such thing as videotaping the show--if you missed "A Charlie Brown Christmas," you had to wait a whole year to hope to see it again. The only theme song possibly more magical than "Linus and Lucy," in the fall of 1969, would have been "Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away..."
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, even if I've seen many of the strips in other collections. Long live Peanuts!
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, even if I've seen many of the strips in other collections. Long live Peanuts!
March 20, 2013
More of a heavily illustrated essay than a true biography, its always interesting to see what an artist is prepared to share about themselves. Peanuts is more a good Woody Allen movie and lacks those laugh out loud moments that come with something like Calvin and Hobbes. However the cumulative effect is that you end up with a lasting smile on your face.
February 15, 2008
One of the best retrospectives of Chuck and Peanuts...I think like after the first 25 years of the strip. Really cool.
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April 11, 2010Peanuts Jubilee by Charles M Schulz
February 24, 2015
this book is so awesome, it was the first book I read as a child, read it back to back, and it wasn't just a comic strip collection, it was also about the man him self.
June 24, 2012
Have loved this since my teens. Well worn and due a revisit
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews