May 3, 2004 - As a shy, self-conscious boy growing up in St. Paul, Charles Schulz experienced the kinds of cruelty that belong uniquely to kids. And after attending a U of M extension class in cartooning and landing a job at the Pioneer Press, he experienced adult-style cruelty as well. He would go on to use those experiences -- and the hope and perseverance that accompanied them -- as inspiration for his new comic strip, "peanuts." A new collection of the very earliest Peanuts cartoons comes out today. They were drawn between 1950 and 1952. In the book's forward, Garrison Keillor calls Schulz "an innovative genius of American comics." Jean Schulz -- who called her husband "sparky" -- says she's amazed at what the early work reveals of a different side of her husband's creativity.
December 14, 1999 - Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the comic strip "Peanuts," announced today he will retire on Jan. 4th, after more than fifty years of drawing the cartoon. Schulz is quitting to concentrate on treating his newly-diagnosed case of colon cancer. Schulz was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and drew inspiration from his life here.
September 30, 1994 -