‘Peanuts,’ Charles Schulz, and the state that started it all
csmonitor.com
csmonitor.com
Seems an executive named it. They couldn’t keep using Lil’ Folks, due to another comic named Little Folks, and had to change the name. Howdy Doody was a smash hit and the kids in the audience were referred to as the “peanut gallery”.
So the strip about a group of kids became “Peanuts”. And Schulz HATED it. But he had no power at first, and was worried about the effect of a name change on licensees once the strip got really popular. Seems people had to talk him out of it a number of times.
The age? Charlie Brown is officially 9.5 years old. When the strip started they were all supposed to be 4, but it was adjusted up a few times in the early years until they reached their final ages.
Turns out, the same company that owns Hello Kitty bought the Japanese rights to Peanuts, and they seem to have been quite successful with it. If you want Peanuts merchandise, visit Japan!
She didn't even know that any other characters existed, that there were TV specials, etc. She just knew it as a generic character like Hello Kitty or whatever.
The only thing worse was Doonesbury.
Bill Watterson made the right decision by retiring from Calvin and Hobbes at the peak of his game.
The Far Side on the other hand was always something I loved. I read it in reprints religiously as a kid and collected a number of the books.
but for a real hurried and simplified explanation : a lot of them exist to parrot a talking point that has been pre-approved by their publisher and coincides with the group think surrounding the publisher and their affiliates.
"Are you sure you should be telling Santa all this?"