{"id":930,"date":"2015-03-26T11:11:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T18:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/?p=930"},"modified":"2015-03-25T17:24:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T00:24:53","slug":"peanuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/peanuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Peanuts & Mushrooms: A trip to the Charles Schulz Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is there to say about world famous creator of the\u00a0PEANUTS <\/strong>comic-strip, Charles (Sparky) M. Schulz, that hasn’t already been said, better, by somebody else?<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Peanuts<\/i>\u00a0pretty much defines the modern comic strip, so even now it’s hard to see it with fresh eyes. The clean, minimalist drawings, the sarcastic humor, the unflinching emotional honesty, the inner thoughts of a household pet, the serious treatment of children, the wild fantasies, the merchandising on an enormous scale\u2014in countless ways, Schulz blazed the wide trail that most every cartoonist since has tried to follow.”
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0–Calvin and Hobbes<\/a><\/i>\u00a0creator\u00a0Bill Watterson<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rather than attempt to be authoritative, let me instead be personal. Charlie Brown and Snoopy are probably two of the first comic characters I considered my own. Thinking back, I can recall the wonder of delving into my older brothers’ box of random comics to look at the drawings, not yet skilled enough at reading to do more than that.\u00a0It was this box I would return to on quiet evenings spent with father; I would sit on his lap while he held the comic and read the word balloons and narrations I pointed out, sometimes acting out the voices in his deeply accented English. It wasn’t long before I was reading those comics on my own and eventually seeking out newer adventures of Spider-Man, Aquaman<\/strong> and others. But before point\u00a0I discovered the comics section of the local Daily News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It was there, where poor Spidey was printed in dull black & white, that I\u00a0discovered Peanuts<\/em>\u00a0for the very first time. The artwork was beautifully simple, the dialogue was simple enough for a beginning reader and the strips where funny! A very young Patrick understood that\u00a0cartoons were meant to be funny, \u00a0but comics were instead\u00a0meant to be\u00a0exciting. Sure, there were\u00a0the Marvel Super-Heroes<\/em> and Spider-Man<\/em> cartoons on T.V. but my younger sister was nowhere near reading age so the Archie, Disney and Harvey<\/em>\u00a0comics had yet to enter the house;\u00a0not that such example could\u00a0impact what passes for logic to a sullen child just learning how to read on \u00a0his own. What mattered was that I understood, sometimes all too well, the Peanuts<\/em> comic-strip; additionally, I was much more able to accurately imitate a drawing of Charlie Brown<\/strong> or Snoopy<\/strong> than I could, a drawing of Spider-Man<\/strong>. As a grew from a child to a young boy\u00a0my oldest brother took to calling me “Charlie Brown,” an apt description, though my dog’s name was Champ.<\/p>\n

\"PEANUTS<\/a>
One of several PEANUTS sunday strips to occupy a whole wall at the Charles Schulz Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Flash Forward 40 Years<\/strong>
\nThe celebration of my “Birthday-weekend” (other people celebrate birthdays over the course of a weekend right?<\/em> ) began with the artist’s reception<\/a> for the 26th Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit<\/a>. Lea<\/a> & I arranged to take that\u00a0Monday off from the usual work at the\u00a0Balloon Man<\/a> and\u00a0Kung Fu Magazine<\/a> respectively, a great feat on her behalf considering the number of Bay Area clients that are in constant need of balloons. The afternoon drive into Santa Rosa was pleasant and relatively short, leaving us plenty of time to wander and wonder at this monument to an artist’s life work, the Charles Schulz Museum & Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Crystal <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Baccarat Crystal Snoopy <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The joy of sharing a cookie with Snoopy and Woodstock. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_9062\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Crytsal <\/a> <\/div>
\"Snoopy <\/a>
Snoopy and Lea share a cookie. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Snoopy's <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Panoramic <\/a>
Fish-Eye view of the museum lobby. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Me <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Go <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Crytsal <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Charlie <\/a>
Charlie Brown statue welcomes all. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Down the Rabbit Hole<\/strong>
\nAs luck would have it, the museum’s temporary exhibit (on display until April 26, 2015) titled Peanuts in Wonderland<\/strong>\u00a0celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>. The exhibit is appropriately immersive, with key holes to peer through and its own Cheshire Beagel.\u00a0 There is a bias towards the Disneyfication of the “Alice in Wonderland” theme\/aesthetic, and that’s to be expected, but there are still hints to Alice’s more obscure\u00a0appeal. \u00a0There is a broad enough selection of homages to demonstrate Alica’s popular appeal among a wide range of creatives. The flash-free environment and low light setting of the display of older items leaves most of the exhibit better seen in person.<\/p>\n

\"Diseny <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"good <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Original <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Edwardian <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/a>
Schulz\u2019s Re-created Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Post Script\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • The museum theater plays PEANUTS specials and movies all day, we were too engrossed with reading the actual strips to ever make it into the theater.<\/li>\n
  • Other documentaries about the museum’s founding or the creation of the PEANUTS Christmas Special aren’t nearly as interesting as the video of Schultz actually drawing.<\/li>\n
  • The replica of his studio makes a fascinating time-capsule.<\/li>\n
  • There is a profound poignancy to\u00a0the timing of\u00a0Charles M. Schulz’s\u00a0final Sunday comic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A #TBT review (or travelog) of a long overdue trip to the Charles M. Schulz museum & research center; with photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,35,15],"tags":[53,54,23,71,58,57,69],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-gallery","category-reviews","tag-tbt","tag-throwbackthursday","tag-art","tag-gallery","tag-heroes","tag-museum","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_9034.jpg?fit=5916%2C2484&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3egHU-peanuts","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10203,"url":"https:\/\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/the-avengers-the-veracity-trap\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":0},"title":"The Avengers: The Veracity Trap","author":"PLUGO","date":"August 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Out Today! 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