Week 3: Peanuts

For this week, I read Charles Schultz’s Peanuts. Peanuts is always one of my favorite comics. I’ve bought comic books of Peanuts when I was little, and I’ve seen some Peanuts movies. I didn’t know that Peanuts has such a long history. It’s very interesting to read some of the earliest volumes and see how the style changed during time.

Peanuts is mainly about the daily life of a group of kids. I did a research and found that Charlie Brown was only set as a 4-year-old boy in the earliest volume in 1950. And he was six years old in 1957. In 1979 Charlie Brown became an eight-and-a-half-year-old boy, and the setting was kept since then. It’s always interesting to see the group of kids pretend to be adults, and trying to say something in a mature tone. I love how Schultz gave every character a unique personality, even Snoopy, the cute little beagle. It’s not usual to see the main character is a “lovable loser”. Charlie Brown always looks worried and is always teased by the girls. He always messes up what he is doing. But he’s always kind and soft-hearted. Everyone loves Charlie Brown.