Peanuts Creator Schulz Dies on Eve of Last Strip

Just hours before Sunday papers with the last drawings of the Peanuts characters began hitting newsstands, the man who created the world's most popular comic strip died in his sleep at his Santa Rosa, California home.

Charles Schulz, "Sparky" to those who knew him, was diagnosed with colon cancer in November. And ever since, get-well wishes and tributes have been pouring in. Mail reached 500 pieces a day at his Santa Rosa studio. And other cartoonists expressed their feelings through their own comic characters.

Mike Luckovich is an editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He's a fan of editorial cartooning, although one time he asked me, 'Mike, why do you do those mean cartoons?' because his strip was always so gentle and so sweet."

The mini-plots of the Peanuts gang were as profound as they were funny.

Paige Braddock works for Schulz Creative Associates. "He's an observer of how people interact and what people's insecurities are and somehow he manages to capture that, in this simple, elegantly-designed art form. You know, in 20 words, or less."

The insecure and anxious Charlie Brown may well have been a reflection of the other side of Schulz's own personality.

Gaye Lebaron is a columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat." ... and in a way, he's Everyman. And I think that's what the appeal has been. He has characteristics shared by everybody."

The Peanuts kids had a universal appeal. The strip appeared in 2500 papers in 76 countries.

Daryl King read the last strip early Sunday in a Washington, DC coffee shop. "It's like the end of an era. You grow up with Peanuts, you expect it's always going to be there."

For San Francisco school psychologist Wes Cedros, the Peanuts kids became more interesting with time. "As I grew older, I could identify with all the themes that were running through."

It was the animated characters of the Peanuts television specials that Los Angeles e-commerce fashion worker Pat remembers. "There was this sort of sad undertone to it, that just really hit; it hit that soft spot."

Schulz was the 1978 International Cartoonist of the Year and twice won cartooning's highest honor, the Rueben Award. Last week he spoke about the art of cartoons with Santa Rosa radio station, KSRO. "I'm just pleased that somehow I've been able to kind of point out to some people that comic strip art is an art."

There will be reruns. But Schulz and his family decided long ago that after he stopped, no One else would ever draw the strip he drew for nearly 50 years.