Good, Aged Charlie Brown

The Charles M. Schulz Museum has obtained a few more originals from a proposed strip by Sparky that didn’t take off. They were even drawn on paper with pre-printed Peanuts panels. Click to enlarge to full size, and you can see that the original India ink is much darker than the printer’s ink.

Little-seen original art for a proposed 50s comic strip Hagemyer, as drawn by Charles M. Schulz/copyright SFIPT

The museum has assembled the originals, and some other material, for an interesting new exhibit. More information is available from The Washington Post.

The strips were supposedly drawn by Schulz, but I’m wondering if Jim Sasseville, his assistant for the comic book stories, had a hand in producing the samples. It seems likely to me that if “Hagemeyer” had been launched, Sasseville would have worked on it, just as he did for the “It’s Only a Game” strip.

It’s Sunday, Charlie Brown

On Facebook the Charles M. Schulz Museum is featuring the 9th Sunday installment of Peanuts, originally published just a month after Monte was born.

‘Peanuts’ March 2, 1952

In 1952 Schulz was still inking lines with a brush, before switching to a pen. The characters hadn’t yet developed their individual personalities, but Chip Kidd has commented on Patty’s fascination with mud. Note that Kidd gets the year wrong.

From ‘The Art of Charles M. Schulz’ by Chip Kidd, 2001

The third Peanuts collection, “Good grief, more PEANUTS!” was the first with Sunday strips. Published in 1956, it doesn’t include the 3/2/52 strip.