Saturday was the 60th anniversary of Peanuts, Charles Schultz's iconic comic strip, a strip he drew for an incredible fifty years, totaling 17,897 strips.
Arguably the most popular comic strip in history, Peanuts became a cultural icon, published all over the world and leading to a thriving merchandising enterprise. Schultz's characters were used to sell cars, snack foods, even life insurance, and merchandising items included everything from bed sheets to mugs, dolls, calendars, posters...you name it. In fact Bill Watterson, creator of my personal favorite Calvin and Hobbes, was at the other end of the spectrum, refusing to license his characters or let them be used for commercial purposes. In his mind, such usage cheapened the strip and robbed it of its impact, since there would be pressure to tone down controversial viewpoints, lest the sponsors get upset.
Cnet's Daniel Terdiman has an excellent article about the 60th anniversary of Peanuts, along with a lot of great pictures of the Peanuts museum, in Santa Rosa, California. It's definitely worth a read! Click HERE to read the article.
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