Summary
- Peanuts creator Charles Schulz's commitment to the four-square- format was key to his strip's early success.
- Schulz understood the importance of making his work appealing to editors; adapting the form and content of his work so that it could fit into papers in several different ways helped Peanuts thrive at the start of its run.
- By embracing limitations rather than succumbing to them, Charles Schulz elevated both Peanuts' humor and visual style, leading to everything about the strip that remains enduringly popular.
Despite the seemingly straightforward nature of the enduring appeal of Peanuts, and helped define generations of comics that came after. But the secret to SChulz's success shows his intellect was just as groundbreaking as his comic.
At C2E2's "Four Perfect s: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz" , Gene Kannenberg, Jr and Ivan Brunetti – both cartoonists, and prominent comic book scholars, themselves – spoke about the impact of Schulz' early creative decisions on the long-term success of Peanuts.
Kannenberg and Brunetti discussed how Schulz' committment to "four, equal-sized s" was essential to the legendary comic strip's early survival. By doing this, the Peanuts creator made his strip more attractive to newspaper editors – leading to it becoming a staple of comic pages, and eventually, its legendary status in popular culture.
Why Peanuts Never Shows Adults: The Perfect Explanation from Creator Charles Schulz
Charles Schulz's iconic Peanuts brand focuses on the lives of its cast of child characters. There's a good reason adults never feature in the strip.
Charles Schulz Revolutionized The Four- Format With Peanuts
Newspaper Editors Loved The Ability To 'Fill Space'
Charles Schulz' intuitively recognized that his work had to appeal to editors and publishers before it reached audiences, and consequently, he tailored both the form and the content of Peanuts to do this.
If the four-square- format for comics feels natural, there is a strong chance it can be attributed – either directly, or indirectly – to Charles Schulz and Peanuts, which brought the form into vogue when the strip entered publication in 1950. Until 1980, Schulz zealously stuck to this design; according to comic historian Gene Kannenberg, Jr., this was an important part of the comic's success, before it even got to readers. As he explained during his appearance at C2E2:
It lends itself to s of equal size. For the first 30 years of Peanuts… Peanuts dailies were always four, equal-sized s. So editors always knew they could print Peanuts as either a traditional strip, or in a square box, or in a column. They could rely on every single day, they could do any one of those three things. That way they could arrange a page however they wanted to.
In other words, Peanuts' malleability was a simple, but highly effective way to ensure the strip's placement in as many newspapers as possible.
For writers working in any medium, it is vital to consider what their reader wants, and what their reader needs. However, it is important to note that – especially with traditional forms of publication, such as a novel, or a syndicated newspaper comic strip – there are steps in between writer and reader. Charles Schulz intuitively recognized that his work had to appeal to editors and publishers before it reached audiences, and consequently, he tailored both Peanuts to do this.
As Kannenberg explains:
That was one of the ways the strip was sold: the art was simpler so it could be shrunk down a bit, and also the form itself was malleable. Editors could do with it what they wanted to. It could be a space filler, but it was also a comic strip.
Of course, newspaper publishers are in the business of selling newspapers – meaning what appeals to them as content does so, in large part, because they think it will, in turn, do well with audiences. This proved to be the case with Peanuts, in large part due to Charles Schulz keen sense what would attract attention. While Peanuts did eventually expand beyond the scope of four s, its humor and visual style always remained rooted in the lessons learned in its earliest years.
Practicality Helped Create Peanuts' Groundbreaking Style
Necessity Is The Mother Of Innovation
Instead of being discouraged by the restrictions of the comic strip as a medium, Charles Schulz embraced them – and the result was an unparalleled level of acclaim, and a permanent place in the world's pop cultural consciousness.
As comic scholar Ivan Brunetti elaborated during his "Four Perfect s: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz" appearance, the artist's sense of what would make Peanuts a hit came from his understanding of the practical necessities weighing on newspaper publishers at the start of the 1950s. The four- structure gave editors more options for how to include Peanuts strips – something made necessary by the changes happening to the format of papers overall during the era. Brunetti stated:
That’s also one of the genius aspects of Charles Schulz, who was dealing with the reality after WWII of newspaper sizes shrinking [due to the] cost of paper, [and] so many factors [that] made that happen. He designed the strip so not only could you run it in three different formats – horizontal, vertical, or square – but even the design of the strip. He simplified the content, knowing it probably would be shrunk down quite a bit. Comics, which used to be a big part of the paper, around 1950, became a smaller part of the paper.
This historical insight confers an even greater appreciation for Charles Schulz' as a foreward-thinking creator, one with an invaluable understanding of his medium. The way Brunetti framed this, it was a matter of Schulz' perspective:
Instead of looking at those things as problems, he took them and made them a strength. It led to the way Peanuts is designed to be simpler.
Just like a filmmaker working on a shoestring budget, or a teenage rock band touring in their drummers' parents' minivan, the creator of Peanuts worked within the confines of what he could accomplish with his comic strip. Instead of being discouraged by the restrictions of the comic strip as a medium, Charles Schulz embraced them – and the result was an unparalleled level of acclaim, and a permanent place in the world's pop cultural consciousness.
Once again, it is worth noting how valuable it is to study Charles Schulz as a pioneering commercial artist. Certainly, some forms of art allow creators to eskew practical considerations; newspaper comic strips are far from one of those modes of artistic expression, and for any artist working within a commercial framework, Schulz' approach to comic creation provides a wonderful guideline. As an artist, he recognized that both the form of his strip, and its content, had to be as accessible as possible.
Peanuts' Iconic Humor Evolved Alongside The Strip's Visual Style
Charles Schulz Maximized His Comics' Impact
Just as it was a reliable strip for its publishers, it became similarly dependable for fans. This led to the cultivation of the following that catapulted Schulz and the Peanuts gang to international recognition.
Charles Schulz' sense of how to maximize the reach of Peanuts led him to the four- format, which in turn helped shape the strip's signature sense of humor. With its format in place, the evolution of Peanuts became a matter of finding the perfect rhythm of set-up and delivery for jokes from one to four. Again, Schulz turned limits into assets. While a crowd occasionally gathers in early Peanuts comics, s most often feature one or two characters. One-sided conversations, with off- characters' dialogue omitted, became a staple. In these and many other cases, Schulz quickly learned what worked best in the strip's allotted space.
Notably, Peanuts most famous recurring gags were developed as part of Charles Schulz' process of learning to use the four-square- format as effectively as possible. As this was happening, a corresponding learning process was happening for the strip's readers – audiences quickly learned what to expect from Peanuts. Just as it was a reliable strip for its publishers, it became similarly dependable for fans. This led to the cultivation of the following that catapulted Schulz and the Peanuts gang to international recognition, making the strip one of the most perennially beloved franchises in history.
Charles Schulz' approach to Peanuts at the start of the comic's publication might not seem overtly groundbreaking, but it radically altered the trajectory of syndicated cartoons throughout the second half of the 20th century, due to its success. As Gene Kannenberg, Jr and Ivan Brunetti explained to attendees of the "Four Perfect s: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz" at C2E2, Schulz insight into the publishing industry, and his willingness to match his artistic work to papers' standards, made Peanuts the invaluable culturual touchstone it remains to this day.
- Created by
- Charles M. Schulz
- First Film
- The Peanuts Movie
- Cast
- Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Bill Melendez, Sally Dryer, Peter Robbins, Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Mariel Sheets, Lisa DeFaria, Venus Omega Schultheis
- TV Show(s)
- The Snoopy Show, Peanuts by Schulz
- Movie(s)
- The Peanuts Movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown's All Stars!, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
- Character(s)
- Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt, Sally Brown, Pig-Pen, Marcie (Peanuts), Peppermint Patty, Woodstock
Created by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts is a multimedia franchise that began as a comic strip in the 1950s and eventually expanded to include films and a television series. Peanuts follows the daily adventures of the Peanuts gang, with Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy at the center of them. Aside from the film released in 2015, the franchise also has several Holiday specials that air regularly on U.S. Television during their appropriate seasons.
