In June of 2000, the world lost a great man and artist. His name was Charles “Sparky” Schultz. Charles Schultz was the inventor and creator of a comic strip called Lil Folks. A strip about the humorous problems and antics that children went through day to day. A funny strip that ran was a child sitting on an easy chair, where his legs went to the end of the seat cushion, and he looked past his feet and asked, “What is that chair for?” And in his childlike questioning, he points to the ottoman. This was the genius of Sparky. United Features bought this quirky little strip, and the publisher at the time didn’t like the name so the strip was syndicated under the name of Peanuts, a name Charles hated from the beginning. The strip began in 1950 and ended one month before Charles died. It is the longest running comic strip that has ever existed, and Charles Schultz drew, inked and lettered every single strip by hand for the entire 50 years.
After his death, a publishing company by the name of Fantagraphic books came up with the idea of reprinting the strip. Reprints of the strip are as old as the strip, and there are many that are out there. But this project wasn’t just a reprinting, this was a complete and utter reprint of the entire length of the strip. From 1950 to 2000. Fantagraphic books began talks with Sparky’s widow at the end of 2000 to commemorate her husbands long life with this gargantuan project. She was thrilled and has helped the company with anything they needed since that first meeting. Fantagraphic books went on a fact finding mission. They scrolled through archives,and all of Charles’ stuff; they needed every strip that Charles has ever published. The problem was that fire, flood and building damage had destroyed many of the older strips. A call for specific strips went out. A request to anybody in the the world who had this strip or that strip was asked to come forth. Little by little, bit by bit, the entire collection came forth. Newspapers, magazines, private collectors, little kids and even a person or two who had kept that one strip in their keepsake or wedding album parted with their piece, so that this collection could come about.
Starting in 2001, Fantagraphic books begin the Peanuts saga again. Their first volume spanned three years: the middle of 1950, when Sparky first began the strip, 1951 and 1952. Since then they have put out a volume that spanned 2,365 day years twice every year. The goal is to publish every strip that Sparky drew from day one till that tear jerking final farewell in June of 2000. The public response has been phenomenal, and they can barely keep up with the demand of the book buying public. Peanuts is as big as it ever was, and a new generation is being introduced to Snoopy and the Red Barron, Charlie Brown and the little red head girl, Lucy leaning on Schroeder’s piano, and Linus spouting off quips of genius in between sucking his thumb and holding his blanket.
