Newspaper Article

MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM / Exhibit of 'Peanuts' Art Is A Happy Comment on Schulz

Michael Schuman. Michael Schuman is a freelance writer

2001

Overview

Original pen and ink drawings, and if you look closely you can see a few places where white paper with corrections has been placed on the original strips, supplement posted descriptions of major \"Peanuts\" characters. Although \"Peanuts\" first appeared in October 1950, the exhibit is heavy on [Charles Schulz]'s later work. But distributed among the more recent strips are relics from \"Peanuts\" infant years, before the characters developed the personalities that would make them household names. In a strip dated Oct. 4, 1953, an unrecognizable Snoopy, looking more puppy-like with a flatter head and smaller neck, actually acts like a real dog, chasing a bird around his yard until he is tired and out of breath. Not all on view is traditional wall art. A small collection of vintage 1960s bobble-head dolls in one gallery dominates a display devoted to merchandising magic. In another, visitors examine the art of adding color to comics, from Schulz's way of assigning a numbered color from a chart to a specific area of his drawings to today's high- tech computerized comics. While adults sit in an easy chair and screen videos of Schulz explaining his craft, their kids can pore over an assortment of \"Peanuts\" books or fashion their own \"Peanuts\" strips in brochures stacked by the television monitor. In addition, a wall-length time line details the highlights of the lives of both Schulz and his characters. Avid \"Peanuts\" aficionados will likely already know how Schulz's drawings for his high school yearbook in 1940 were rejected and that Peppermint Patty made her debut in 1966. But how about this piece of \"Peanuts\" lore: Charlie Brown was first called a blockhead in 1958.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Schulz, Charles