Charles Schulz

According to the dictionary, the definition of a hero: a mythological or legendary figure with great strength or ability, an illustrious warrior, one that shows great courage, the principal character in a literary. My hero has none of those as central abilities. My hero follows my definition of a hero: one that changes the lives of others in a positive way. Through Peanuts, Charles Schulz did just that.

On November 26, 1922, a legend was born to Carl and Dena Schulz of St. Paul, Minnesota. A week after his birth, the nickname "Sparky" was given to him and stuck his whole life. He was an artistic child and one teacher even said ha was going to grow up to be an artist. She was right because that is what he did his whole life.

From the start, he wanted to draw comics. He attended an art school to improve his drawing skills but got a C+ in the course "drawing children." When World War II rolled around, Charles went into the army and soon after being drafted his mother died of cancer. This slowed Charles in becoming an artist but in the army he learned work ethics and was the leader of a machine gun squad.

After the war, he got a job lettering tombstones. He didn't like this job very much nor the one that followed, lettering already drawn comics for Timeless Topix Magazine. His next job was better when he became a teacher at the art school he attended. There he met Charlie Brown and a red headed girl. Next he started selling one-panelled comics to a newspaper, The Saturday Evening Post. He finally settled in when he got a full time job at United Feature Syndicate and created the comic strip L'il Folks, featuring Charlie Brown and Shermy. This became the focus of his career.

Later L'il Folks was renamed "Peanuts" when United Feature Syndicate found two other comics with names similar to L'il Folks. This made Shulz unhappy. He didn't like the name Peanuts even after a huge success. Even after it became the longest running comic of all time. It appeared in 2,600 newspapers, 25 countries and 21 languages. To think Charles Shulz did this whole comic strip by himself, single handed. He probally got the determination from his father who during the great depression; ran a barber shop with two employees, got dinner on the table and got Charles to an art school. Charles Shulz died tragically on February 12, 2000 in Santa Rosa, California of colon cancer just 27 hours before his last comic would appear in newspapers. Charles may have died but his comics will live forever.