November 26
Charles Monroe Schultz's Birthday
 |
|
|
| After his discharge from the
army, Charles Schulz took a job as an art teacher at Art Instruction, Inc.
in Minneapolis. His first comic
strip job was doing lettering work for a Catholic comic magazine titled
Timeless Topics, His first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks,
were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He
created a character in Li'l Folks, named Charlie Brown. The
series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a
cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post; the first of seventeen single-panel
cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. Li'l Folks was dropped in January, 1950. Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957 – 1959), but abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965, he also contributed a single-panel strip (Young Pillars), a publication associated with the Church of God. Peanuts was almost a microcosm of Schultz 's life. Charlie Brown, the principal character in Peanuts, was named after a Charlie Brown, a co-worker at the Art Instruction Schools. Like Charlie Brown's parents, Schulz's father was a barber and his mother a housewife. Schulz and Charlie Brown were shy and withdrawn. Schulz had a dog when he was a boy. Schulz's "Little Red-Haired Girl" was Donna Johnson, an Art Instruction Schools accountant with whom he fell in love. Schulz was planning to propose to her, but before he got an opportunity to do so, she agreed to marry another man. Linus and Shermy were both named after his friends, Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler. Peppermint Patty was inspired by Patricia Swanson, one of his cousins. Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years without interruption and appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999 and died a few months later. So to celebrate one of
the world's favorite artist's birthday, we suggest making a batch of peanut
ice cream and watching A Boy
Named Charlie Brown (1969). |
|
Peanut Ice Cream |
|
|
|
1 cup chunky peanut butter 2/3 cup granulated sugar 1 cup whole milk |
1&1/3 cups whipping cream 2 tsp vanilla extract chocolate sauce for topping |
Instructions
- Combine the peanut butter and sugar in
a mixer bowl and beat a low speed for about one minutes
Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and
the vanilla and blend for a few seconds. - Cover and chill in refrigerator.
- Freeze in an ice cream maker 20-30 minutes until frozen.