First Collection of Early Peanuts Cartoon Reveals Different Side of Charles Schulz
May 3, 2004 - As a shy, self-conscious boy growing up in St. Paul, Charles Schulz experienced the kinds of cruelty that belong uniquely to kids. And after attending a U of M extension class in cartooning and landing a job at the Pioneer Press, he experienced adult-style cruelty as well. He would go on to use those experiences -- and the hope and perseverance that accompanied them -- as inspiration for his new comic strip, "peanuts." A new collection of the very earliest Peanuts cartoons comes out today. They were drawn between 1950 and 1952. In the book's forward, Garrison Keillor calls Schulz "an innovative genius of American comics." Jean Schulz -- who called her husband "sparky" -- says she's amazed at what the early work reveals of a different side of her husband's creativity.