Stuff from My Studio: Peanuts!

This is a reproduction of a Peanuts strip that ran on July 5 1973, printed on a ceramic tile which The Lovely Anna gave to me as a Christmas present in 2004.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA ran an exhibit called “MAD About Peanuts” in one of their galleries from March-Nov 2004, which featured not original Peanuts art but originals of some of the many Peanuts spoofs MAD had done over the years. I believe the museum had a number of MAD guests during the run, and on Aug 15-16th of that year I did a talk and ran a couple of kids caricature workshops in their education center. Anna bought that strip while we were there on the sly and had Sparky’s widow Jeannie sign it, then gave it to me as at Christmas.

Appearing at the Museum was a real privilege. Charles Schulz is arguably the greatest cartoonist in the history of this country, certainly of the daily comic strip artform. Jeannie is a wonderful lady and is a fierce protector and generous sharer of “Sparky’s” work and legacy. Maybe in my next “Stuff from my Studio” segment I’ll share something I brought back from the trip to Cuba she organized with the State Department’s sanction as a cultural exchange mission.

Anyway I only ever met Sparky once, that being at the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award Weekend in 1999. I’ve told this story before but it’s a good one:

Anna and I went to our first NCS Reuben weekend in San Antonio in 1999. MAD legend Mort Drucker sponsored me for NCS membership (this was a few years before I’d get my chance with MAD), and we were to meet he and his wife Barbara there. Mort’s mother fell very ill, and he and Barbara had to cancel their trip. Mort called me beforehand to tell me the news and named off several people I was to look up and introduce myself to. Thus, Anna and I found ourselves at our first Ruebens knowing absolutely no one.

The Reuben weekend consists of a big group of pro cartoonists, many of whom are old friends and know each other well. They don’t mean to, but that makes it a tough place for newcomers to feel at home, especially if they have no acquaintances to make introductions or if their work is not very well known. Anna and I did meet some new people and tried to mingle as best we could, but it felt like we were crashing someone’s party and it was a little awkward at times. We were never made to feel unwelcome or snubbed, but everyone seemed to know each other so well it was natural to feel uncomfortable breaking in at times.

We were at the opening cocktail party on Friday night, which was held in a roped off area of a park right in front of the Alamo. We had our plates from the buffet line and our drinks, and found an unoccupied bench on the far side of the area to sit down. It was a beautifully set up party area, but there were no tables and chairs and very few of these benches. We settled in and I began to point out famous cartoonists to Anna. I spotted Jack Davis right away, and a few others. Then on the very far end of the park I spotted a man in a dark sweater just getting to the end of the buffet line.

“That’s Charles Schulz,” I said to Anna.

He was one person we were told was very nice but very conscious of his fame, and doesn’t like to be approached or fawned over at all. We weren’t hopeful of being able to meet him without having someone introduce us.

Schulz started scanning the area, presumably looking for a place to sit. There was room for one more on our bench, and Anna joked that maybe he’d walk all the way across the park, about 60 yards, and sit down by us to eat his dinner. “No way,” I snorted.

He continued scanning, spotted our bench, and started walking towards us. “He’s just walking towards some people he knows,” I said. “No way is he going to sit next to us.”

He never slowed down. He walked right up to the bench, asked if this spot was taken, plopped down and offered his hand. “Hi. I’m Sparky,” He said to a wide-eyed Anna. We introduced ourselves and mentioned we were from Minnesota and lived for a time in St. Paul, only a few blocks from his childhood home. We talked for 20 minutes about Minnesota and St. Paul, the Mall of America, “Camp Snoopy” and other stuff. He was honestly interested in what we did, asking all kinds of questions like if we had kids, what we thought about the Minnesota North Star’s hockey team moving to Dallas and other things of interest. Of course we mentioned we were big fans of Peanuts, to which he responded with a smile and a wave of his hand, then asked more about us. He thanked us for sharing our bench, got up and tossed his empty plate in the trash can, and was shortly in conversation with Jack Davis about golf nearby.

Just for fun I sauntered by them and, while Anna took some covert pictures I turned into the conversation and made to look like I was talking right along with them. These are the priceless results:

Sadly Sparky passed away only nine months later. We were very lucky to get a chance to meet and speak with him. Jeannie has been a good friend for many years (although we don’t get to see her much) and that comic strip ceramic tile she signed for me has a place of honor in the studio.

Incidentally the original art of that strip was given by Sparky to MAD editor Al Feldstein:

It sold at auction in Aug 2014 for a measly $41,825. Peanuts, indeed!

This has been another thrilling episode of…