Jill Harness
6 Ways Charles Schulz Really Was Charlie Brown
by Jill Harness - November 26, 2010 - 10:05 PM

While Charlie Brown and his creator, Charles Schulz, share a first name, the character was actually named after one of Schulz’s art school friends, not after himself. Despite this, the big-headed character shares a lot more with his creator than a name. In honor of what would be Charles Schulz’s 88th birthday, let’s celebrate the man and his creation by considering how similar Schulz was to good old Chuck.

1. They Both Had Terrible Valentine’s Days

We all know that Charlie Brown never receives Valentines even though he gives them out to everyone else, but he isn’t the only one that Cupid seemed to laugh at. Schulz was skipped ahead two grades as a child and was always shy and awkward around the other students in his classes. For his first grade Valentine’s Day, his mother helped him make up Valentines for everyone in class so no one would be left out. Unlike Charlie, who was ignored by everyone else, Schulz excluded himself. He was too shy to put the box of Valentines at the front of the class, so he held on to them throughout the day—and later brought them back to his mother.

2. They Mutually Loved The Little Red-Haired Girl

If you’re mostly familiar with the animated Peanuts classics instead of the comic strips, then you probably don’t realize just how unobtainable the Little Red-Haired Girl actually is—she’s never actually shown in the entire comic strip series. Charlie Brown talks about her and on rare occasion he gathers the muster to talk to her out of the frame, but she is never once shown in the strip.

The Little Red-Haired Girl and Charlie Brown’s obsession with her was based on a real-life obsession Charles Schulz had for a young redhead named Donna Mae Johnson. The couple met while working together at Art Instruction, an art correspondence school. Before long they had been together for three years, but when Charles asked her to marry him, she refused, only to marry another man in October of the same year. While the two remained friends, it seems Schulz never completely recovered from his broken heart. He once said of the ordeal, “I can think of no more emotionally damaging loss than to be turned down by someone whom you love very much. A person who not only turns you down, but almost immediately will marry the victor. What a bitter blow that is.”

3. They Both Loved Their Dogs

It isn’t too surprising to hear that Schulz had a black and white dog during his childhood that later served as the inspiration for Snoopy. Interestingly, the dog wasn’t actually a beagle though, it was a pointer named Spike. Charles’ first published drawing was of little Spike and it was featured in the newspaper comics feature Believe it or Not.

4. They Both Were Tormented By Bossy Women

Like The Little Red-Haired Girl, Lucy Van Pelt was also based on a real person, only in this case, it was actually two people. The bossy, impatient and rude character was based on Schulz’s mother and his first wife, Joyce.

One can imagine how bad the Schulz’s relationship with Joyce was, based on the fact that only a year after their wedding Schulz introduced Lucy to the world. Even after the couple’s divorce, Schulz still featured Lucy prominently in the series, where she always seems to have the upper hand over poor old Charlie.

Schulz’s mother was also a big inspiration for Charles, as her cold and distant manner made him constantly feel like he wasn’t getting enough love. This is reflected in the way other characters treat Charlie Brown. While he seems largely positive despite his maltreatment, this is one way he greatly differed from Schulz, who grudgingly held on to every indignity and insult he ever received and used them later on to fuel his strip.

5. They Were Both Above Racism

While Schulz generally stayed out of politics and Charlie and the rest of the gang never really mention current events, both he and his cartoons were progressive when it came to race. When Schulz added Franklin to the cast of the strip, race relations of the late sixties were at a boiling point. While he claimed the character had no political motivations, he obviously was against segregation and politely ignored hate mail sent in by both editors and readers complaining about the decision to have Franklin attend school with the rest of the children.

Similarly, when Hank Aaron was challenging Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974, Schulz read about the hate mail received by the athlete and decided to support Aaron by drawing a series of cartoons detailing Snoopy’s difficulty as he approached the home run record.

6. They Died Within Two Hours of One Another

Perhaps one of the saddest things Charlie Brown has in common with his creator is their deaths. Schulz knew he was becoming sick in the late nineties and announced his retirement in December of 1999 and requested that the publishers discontinue the series after his death. He continued to produce enough Sunday strips to last through mid-February, and on Saturday, February 12, 2000, he passed away. Only two hours later, the final Peanuts strip was printed.

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Comments (32)

  1. They were also big SF Giants fans.

    posted by Rico on 11-26-2010 at 12:47 am

  2. Cold cereal, toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks and jelly beans never get old.

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 11-26-2010 at 3:36 am

  3. Great Article!! I love how Lucy was based on real people in his life and how she was portrayed in the comic :D

    That’s so sad though about being painfully shy and not giving out or receiving valentines and being turned down by the real life little red haired girl… I’d want to give him a hug :(

    posted by Rina on 11-26-2010 at 8:50 am

  4. The whole story fits mine with the sole exception of their times of death. Good grief, just like Schultz, I am Charlie Brown!

    posted by RealLifeCharlieBrown on 11-26-2010 at 9:10 am

  5. I agree, Rina.

    posted by Sara in Al on 11-26-2010 at 9:23 am

  6. Thanks Jill, for this wonderful and very touching article.
    I have always loved Charlie Brown and the comic strip “Peanuts”, now I feel like I understand them both much better.

    posted by Eddie Deezen on 11-26-2010 at 10:50 am

  7. Both of them also had fathers who were barbers.

    posted by Doug Smith on 11-26-2010 at 10:58 am

  8. “While the two remained friends, the it seems Schulz never completely recovered from his broken heart.”

    I think there is an extra “the”….

    posted by Sarah in CA on 11-26-2010 at 11:11 am

  9. I still think that Peanuts is one of the best comics out there. Not that I’m above dirty humor by any means, I appreciate that Peanuts is funny and still clean.

    posted by hockeyzombie on 11-26-2010 at 1:48 pm

  10. Great article. Cartoonists are so intriguing.

    posted by Ryan on 11-26-2010 at 1:49 pm

  11. Thanks Sarah, I fixed that mistake.

    posted by Jill Harness on 11-26-2010 at 2:27 pm

  12. I miss Charley Brown and Snoopy, even tho I saw myself as Lucy :-)

    posted by christine on 11-26-2010 at 3:10 pm

  13. #3 that’s why Snoopy has a brother named Spike!

    posted by snuggle-monkey on 11-26-2010 at 6:24 pm

  14. I kind of thought that about Lucy. One of my favourite quotes came in an interview with him. Someone asked him how come Charlie Brown lived such a tortured existance and he said, “Because you can’t create humor out of happiness.”

    posted by Dave on 11-26-2010 at 9:27 pm

  15. Well this little red headed girl loved Charlie Brown ;)

    posted by Alie on 11-27-2010 at 11:01 pm

  16. Strictly speaking, wasn’t Peanuts created when Schultz got his autobiography rejected by various publishers so started drawing his own life experiences in cartoon form?

    posted by DS Flash Card on 11-28-2010 at 7:31 am

  17. If you haven’t read “Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography” by David Michaelis, you really, really must. Especially if you are a Peanuts fan. They are also printing all of the Peanuts strips in book form (my local library has them, they’re simply titled “Peanuts: 1960-1969″, etc) and it’s amazing how many I remember from my childhood and fun to see how socially aware he was. I was also surprised how many times I was able to recognize situations that later turned up in Calvin and Hobbes, what a great homage to the master.

    posted by Donna on 11-28-2010 at 12:36 pm

  18. the story about the valentines has me thisclose to crying. stupid lady parts!

    posted by englishbreakfast on 11-29-2010 at 3:36 pm

  19. I still have the final Sunday Peanuts strip, as well as Charlie Brown-themed tributes from other cartoonists that ran in the days after Charles Schulz’s passing. I’m glad our paper is rerunning the older ones–I’m seeing so many I’ve never read in any of the dozens of collections we own!

    posted by Grobanite33 on 12-1-2010 at 2:56 pm

  20. i have always been and will always be a fan of charlie brown …. and charles schulz. the charlie brown christmas special is as meaningful to me today as it was when i first saw it in it’s original broadcast. thank you mr. schulz.

    posted by Nathan on 12-6-2010 at 1:27 pm

  21. I grew up with Charlie Brown. Charles Schultz gave an invaluable gift to a whole generation and for that he has my profound thanks.

    p.s I always really dug Peppermint Patty she was such a hippie-ish chick.

    posted by Twiddle on 12-20-2010 at 7:16 pm

  22. I got to meet Charles Schultz. He was a very nice, sincere man.

    posted by Jeanette on 12-28-2010 at 11:29 am

  23. I must say, that February 12th, 2000 was THE saddest day for me: I lost both of my childhood heroes that day. Charles Schultz, and Coach Tom Landry both died on the same day.

    posted by UnclePeJay on 1-6-2011 at 5:38 pm

  24. When he requested to stop publishing after her death is her confession, he is telling that charlie schulz-brown is not here anymore. We will always love them.

    posted by Wilson on 1-10-2011 at 11:48 am

  25. i remember reading that comic after i heard he died, it was sad even as a child to have witnessed it and affected me more than princess di’s death (though to my credit i was only four at the time).

    posted by Fred on 5-16-2011 at 1:54 am

  26. One of the things that made Peanuts so successful was that Charles Schultz was never alone: There are many, many Charlie Browns in the world.

    posted by Brian on 6-16-2011 at 1:49 pm

  27. Many, many incidents momentous and small in Schulz life are reflected in Peanuts e.g. Poor Sweet Baby is a phrase often said to him by his second wife. Although Schulz also used all Peanuts characters to achieve this reflection. Schroeder is obsessed with something often seen as for kids just like cartoons and Lucy does not get it and tries to drag him away from it. Snoopy became an outlet for his escapist dreams. In all Schulz was often CB but so was he Schroeder, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Sally etc. and he also used things he saw in others particularly his family. NB: Virtually all affection is not returned by the targets. By creating such a personality driven strip he was usually able to create something far better and ironically more universal than the usual tell a joke a day strip. Something not often mentioned is how well it is drawn. Who wouldn’t love it!

    posted by Steve on 7-10-2011 at 6:35 am

  28. There was a short tribute on a website I can no longer access because they upgraded but I didn’t. The tribute was from a guy named Kevin (I think) and ended with, “Thank you for leaving your dog behind for us to play with…” The tribute was at http://killfrog.com
    Maybe someone wants to see if it is still there. Too bad I didn’t save the link. I can still access the link to the “Neverloading Story” but I can’t navigate through the site.

    posted by Tdave on 8-7-2011 at 1:24 pm

  29. correction: “Neverloading Story” should be “Everloading Story”

    posted by Tdave on 8-8-2011 at 9:41 am

  30. I believe Schulz’s dog’s name was “Sparky”, which is where his own nickname of “Sparky” came from. I do know that the dog illustration that Schulz drew for Ripley’s Believe it or Not was indeed of a dog named “Sparky”, because I’ve seen that cartoon myself.

    “You named yourself after the DOG?!” – John Rhys-Davies (As Sallah, in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”)

    posted by BHBailie on 8-9-2011 at 6:44 pm

  31. In the early years of PEANUTS, before Mr. Schulz became such an icon that he was a semi-familiar face on televison, many PEANUTS fans did not know what the artist looked like. So it was a then-rare event when I saw him on TV when I was 8 years old. The New York-based HOWDY DOODY show visited California for a month of programs in January, 1954. Charles Schulz was invited to appear on one of those shows to demonstrate how he drew the characters. Apparently the show’s host, Buffalo Bob Smith, was not really a fan of the comics. I distinctly recall that, after introducing the man to the kids in the Peanut Gallery, Bob turned to the large art pad and said, “Draw ‘Peanuts’!” I think he mistakenly thought that that was the main character’s name! However, it was a great thrill for me to see the gentle man behind that comic strip for the first time! I’m sure that millions of other kids (and whichever parents who were also watching) felt the same way! I hope that a kinescope film of that live show exists!

    posted by Walt Mitchell on 9-22-2011 at 1:10 pm

  32. No, it was Spike that Schulz drew for Ripley.

    Also, Schulz got the nickname “Sparky” from an uncle, who nicknamed him after “Sparkplug”, a horse in the old “Barney Google” comic strip.

    Schulz hated the name “Peanuts”, BTW, for exactly the reason noted in the Howdy Doody post above. He wanted to call it “Li’l Folks”, or something like that, but it was too close to an already-existing strip, so his second choice was to call it “Good Ol’ Charlie Brown”. The syndicate, however, foisted “Peanuts” on him, and Schulz never really forgave them for that.

    “Peanuts” is my all-time favorite strip – always has been, always will be.

    posted by Jerry Modene on 9-23-2011 at 10:27 am

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