Peanuts, written by Charles M. Schultz, is a widely known comic strip. It is one of the most well-known comics of all time, along with Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, and some others. If you haven’t heard of Peanuts, you’ve heard of Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Not only is this comic strip just humourous, but it also can relate to people of all ages. Showcasing life problems, sarcasm, and even depressing topics, Peanuts can genuinely touch the audience’s heart. As the comic strip artist for the school paper, I must think about what the audience wants to see. Schultz did an amazing job with this by mentioning child-like topics and life struggles adults can relate to. 
While Peanuts is revealed to have depressing topics, most of it is filled with humor and sarcasm. Schultz mainly implemented irony/sarcasm into his Peanuts cartoons. This is a good choice on his part because everyone loves humorous sarcasm. A great example of this is the strip that appeared on April 23, 1984, where the character ” Marcie ” says a sarcastic, unexpected line in the third panel. Another excellent example of this type of humor can be shown in the comic that was published on September 17, 1980. In this strip, we can see the unexpected ending in the last panel. These are just TWO examples representing just a sliver of the comedy Schultz implemented in his strips. This is the type of humor Schultz mostly implements in Peanuts.
Not only does Peanuts show sarcastic humor, but it also reveals more serious topics about life’s struggles. The strip on August 12, 1972, is a good example. Linus is talking more negatively in this comic, but notice how Schultz turns that into humor in the final panel. This makes the negative quote that Linus was saying very subtle. Because of this, the audience hardly even notices the gloomy part, yet they still feel it without knowing why. An additional fantastic example of this is the Peanuts strip that appeared on October 21, 1965. This strip features Charlie Brown’s reluctant confidence. An additional consolable quote from Charlie Brown is, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’. Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.'”. This is potentially one of the saddest quotes in the cartoon, showing just a glimpse of Charlie Brown’s depression. Not having the confidence to do something is a very relatable thing that everyone goes through in their life. This helps the audience engage more in the comic. Because of these relatable things throughout the comic, the audience will want to read it more and more.
Some might say, “Why should I read Peanuts and not any other hundred comics out there that show similar humor?” While that is a great p
oint, Peanuts is the root of the tree for all those other comics. From 1950 to now, every comic creator has been somewhat inspired by Charles Schultz’s work. Even the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, another huge inspirational comic, Bill Watterson, was inspired by Peanuts. He stated, “He was a hero to me as a kid, and his influence on my work and life is long and deep.”. Another great comic illustrator who took inspiration from Peanuts is Stephan Pastis, creator of the comic “Pearls Before Swine.” Pastis was able to meet Schultz. He says, “If you’re from a certain generation, you basically learn to read with “Peanuts’. It’s sort of the template for the modern strip. Its influence ceased to be noticed because it’s in everything.” These two examples from major cartoonists show how much of an impact Schultz has made on the newspaper’s comics section.
As the school comic illustrator, countless cartoonists influenced me. I want to create an effect similar to that of Peanuts and engage my audience as much as possible. What comics would you like to see in the paper, whether event-related or random?
