Despite the seemingly straightforward nature of Peanuts on the surface, creator Charles Schulz was a visionary artist, with his innovative understanding of the medium pivotal to the enduring appeal of Peanuts, and helped define generations of comics that came after. But the secret to SChulz’s success shows his intellect was just as groundbreaking as his comic.
At C2E2’s “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz” panel, Gene Kannenberg, Jr and Ivan Brunetti – both cartoonists, and prominent comic book scholars, themselves – spoke about the impact of Schulz’ early creative decisions on the long-term success of Peanuts.
Kannenberg and Brunetti discussed how Schulz’ committment to “four, equal-sized panels” was essential to the legendary comic strip’s early survival. By doing this, the Peanuts creator made his strip more attractive to newspaper editors – leading to it becoming a staple of comic pages, and eventually, its legendary status in popular culture.
If the four-square-panel format for comics feels natural, there is a strong chance it can be attributed – either directly, or indirectly – to Charles Schulz and Peanuts, which brought the form into vogue when the strip entered publication in 1950. Until 1980, Schulz zealously stuck to this design; according to comic historian Gene Kannenberg, Jr., this was an important part of the comic’s success, before it even got to readers. As he explained during his panel appearance at C2E2:
In other words, Peanuts’ malleability was a simple, but highly effective way to ensure the strip’s placement in as many newspapers as possible.
For writers working in any medium, it is vital to consider what their reader wants, and what their reader needs. However, it is important to note that – especially with traditional forms of publication, such as a novel, or a syndicated newspaper comic strip – there are steps in between writer and reader. Charles Schulz intuitively recognized that his work had to appeal to editors and publishers before it reached audiences, and consequently, he tailored both the form and the content of Peanuts to do this.
As Kannenberg explains:
Of course, newspaper publishers are in the business of selling newspapers – meaning what appeals to them as content does so, in large part, because they think it will, in turn, do well with audiences. This proved to be the case with Peanuts, in large part due to Charles Schulz keen sense what would attract attention. While Peanuts did eventually expand beyond the scope of four panels, its humor and visual style always remained rooted in the lessons learned in its earliest years.
As comic scholar Ivan Brunetti elaborated during his “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz” appearance, the artist’s sense of what would make Peanuts a hit came from his understanding of the practical necessities weighing on newspaper publishers at the start of the 1950s. The four-panel structure gave editors more options for how to include Peanuts strips – something made necessary by the changes happening to the format of papers overall during the era. Brunetti stated:
This historical insight confers an even greater appreciation for Charles Schulz’ as a foreward-thinking creator, one with an invaluable understanding of his medium. The way Brunetti framed this, it was a matter of Schulz’ perspective:
Just like a filmmaker working on a shoestring budget, or a teenage rock band touring in their drummers’ parents’ minivan, the creator of Peanuts worked within the confines of what he could accomplish with his comic strip. Instead of being discouraged by the restrictions of the comic strip as a medium, Charles Schulz embraced them – and the result was an unparalleled level of acclaim, and a permanent place in the world’s pop cultural consciousness.
Once again, it is worth noting how valuable it is to study Charles Schulz as a pioneering commercial artist. Certainly, some forms of art allow creators to eskew practical considerations; newspaper comic strips are far from one of those modes of artistic expression, and for any artist working within a commercial framework, Schulz’ approach to comic creation provides a wonderful guideline. As an artist, he recognized that both the form of his strip, and its content, had to be as accessible as possible.
Charles Schulz’ sense of how to maximize the reach of Peanuts led him to the four-panel format, which in turn helped shape the strip’s signature sense of humor. With its format in place, the evolution of Peanuts became a matter of finding the perfect rhythm of set-up and delivery for jokes from panel one to panel four. Again, Schulz turned limits into assets. While a crowd occasionally gathers in early Peanuts comics, panels most often feature one or two characters. One-sided conversations, with off-panel characters’ dialogue omitted, became a staple. In these and many other cases, Schulz quickly learned what worked best in the strip’s allotted space.
Notably, Peanuts most famous recurring gags were developed as part of Charles Schulz’ process of learning to use the four-square-panel format as effectively as possible. As this was happening, a corresponding learning process was happening for the strip’s readers – audiences quickly learned what to expect from Peanuts. Just as it was a reliable strip for its publishers, it became similarly dependable for fans. This led to the cultivation of the following that catapulted Schulz and the Peanuts gang to international recognition, making the strip one of the most perennially beloved franchises in history.
Charles Schulz’ approach to Peanuts at the start of the comic’s publication might not seem overtly groundbreaking, but it radically altered the trajectory of syndicated cartoons throughout the second half of the 20th century, due to its success. As Gene Kannenberg, Jr and Ivan Brunetti explained to attendees of the “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz” panel at C2E2, Schulz insight into the publishing industry, and his willingness to match his artistic work to papers’ standards, made Peanuts the invaluable culturual touchstone it remains to this day.