2022 60 Charles Schulz
Issue Date: September 30, 2022
First Day City: Santa Rosa, CA
Type of Stamp: Commemorative
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset
Format: Pane of 20
Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed: 50,000,000
Charles M. Schulz once described himself as “born to draw comic strips.” At just two days old, an uncle nicknamed him “Sparky” after Spark Plug the horse from theBarney Googlecomic strip. Throughout his youth, he and his father shared a Sunday morning ritual of reading the funnies.
After serving in the Army in World War II, Schulz’s first big break came in 1947 when he sold a cartoon feature calledLi’l Folksto theSt. Paul Pioneer Press. In 1950, Schulz met with United Feature Syndicate, and on October 2 of that same year,PEANUTSTM, as termed by the syndicate, debuted in seven newspapers.
Charles Schulz populated his world with characters featuring unique personalities, who would “fully inhabit their issues.” He would mix and match them for maximum comedic effect. The core cast of characters is so well-defined that each one could carry a story by themselves.
Schulz created dynamic, three-dimensional characters whose storylines were driven by their imperfect personalities. This is what elevatesPeanutsfrom a simple comic strip to a substantial work of literature.
In all, Schulz produced 17,897Peanutscomic strips, which has been called, “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.” He spent 50 years building a legacy that would give the world Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and a whole cast of characters that forever changed the landscape of American comic strips.
