On Charles Schultz and Charlie Brown
American Masters has been running their retrospective on Charles Schultz.
It is remarkable.
Peanuts from the 50's in proper context are remarkable.
Comic pages from the 50's and 60's were dominated by fast-paced cold war-era action comics, and then here was this simple, serene, basic little 3-4 panel comic that talked about things like friendship and acceptance; or the lack there of.
On the surface its just the love-hate dynamic of a friendship. Obviously Lucy is Charlie Brown's friend, but she is unable to just say she is and therefore causes good ol' Charlie Brown to question himself.
Schultz was a tortured man. he was lonely most of his life, even though he had a wife and two children. He would often ask himself: "If I wasn't famous, would anyone really care about me?" Charlie Brown constantly thinks about "The Little Red-Haired Girl," the thing he could never attain. She is never seen in the comic strip, she makes later appearances in animated specials.
She existed. It was Schultz's love from Academy Art School in Minnesota. Many years would go by and he would constantly be searching for that feeling again - even after it was long gone.
After watching that beautiful documentary it makes me appreciate his work just that much more. Look at that strip again. Could Lucy be any more cruel at that one point? Short of swearing and pushing him off the wall? All Chuck wants is an affirmation of the friendship between them and he gets a snide remark, the type of cruelty only children are capable of.
Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. He knows he will fail before he even tries, but yet he keeps on going. A seemingly endless strip of failure and rejection, yet he dusts himself off and moves on the only way he knows how to.
By the late 60's and 70's Snoopy took center-stage on the strip. It became more about the adventures of Snoopy and his fantasy-life than Charlie Brown's very real one.
Sometimes I think there is a little Charlie Brown in all of us.
It is remarkable.
Peanuts from the 50's in proper context are remarkable.
Comic pages from the 50's and 60's were dominated by fast-paced cold war-era action comics, and then here was this simple, serene, basic little 3-4 panel comic that talked about things like friendship and acceptance; or the lack there of.
On the surface its just the love-hate dynamic of a friendship. Obviously Lucy is Charlie Brown's friend, but she is unable to just say she is and therefore causes good ol' Charlie Brown to question himself.
Schultz was a tortured man. he was lonely most of his life, even though he had a wife and two children. He would often ask himself: "If I wasn't famous, would anyone really care about me?" Charlie Brown constantly thinks about "The Little Red-Haired Girl," the thing he could never attain. She is never seen in the comic strip, she makes later appearances in animated specials.
She existed. It was Schultz's love from Academy Art School in Minnesota. Many years would go by and he would constantly be searching for that feeling again - even after it was long gone.
After watching that beautiful documentary it makes me appreciate his work just that much more. Look at that strip again. Could Lucy be any more cruel at that one point? Short of swearing and pushing him off the wall? All Chuck wants is an affirmation of the friendship between them and he gets a snide remark, the type of cruelty only children are capable of.
Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. He knows he will fail before he even tries, but yet he keeps on going. A seemingly endless strip of failure and rejection, yet he dusts himself off and moves on the only way he knows how to.
By the late 60's and 70's Snoopy took center-stage on the strip. It became more about the adventures of Snoopy and his fantasy-life than Charlie Brown's very real one.
Sometimes I think there is a little Charlie Brown in all of us.