Sparky

by Beverly Gherman

  He found a place downtown with no phone, no people, and no beautiful views to distract him. There he set up his drafting board, pulled out his pencil, his pen, and his bottle of India ink, and got to work. His method became to doodle on yellow lined paper until he had a possible idea for the strip. Once ideas were set in his mind, he took paper preprinted with four panels and made a few pencil lines to be sure his words would fit properly.

  Surprisingly, Sparky inked the speech balloons first. Many cartoonists penciled in their whole strips and then inked over the lines. Not Sparky. He drew the characters with a pen—his C-5 Speedball nib—because he liked shaping them with a pen line, not copying over pencil lines. That kept his lines fresh and free.

  He had worked hard to learn pen techniques while studying at the correspondence school when he was a young man. He continued to perfect his lines as a surgeon works to perfect his surgical skills. In later years, Sparky described the joy he felt when he brought the pen down and made a drawing of Linus—or any of the other kids—with his messy hair and his striped T-shirt. He knew he had made the best pen line he could make.

  Now that he had a quiet office, Meredith’s nonstop activity was an inspiration rather than a distraction. Before long, he created a new character, Lucy, who had many of Meredith’s qualities and energized the strip. Lucy stirs things up. She shouts! She says outrageous things to all the kids; she especially taunts Charlie Brown. She seems to know how to irritate him or get under his skin. She understands how sensitive he is and uses that against him. For Lucy’s outsized comments, Sparky switched to a broader pen nib, so that he could express her strong personality.

  SPARKY DRAWING THE “I HATE SCHOOL” STRIP / C. 1969

  Sparky and Joyce wanted to have a larger family. Their first son was born in February 1952. They named him Charles Monroe Schulz, Jr. and called him Monte. Soon, Lucy had a baby brother, too—Linus was added to the strip.

  They made friends with a young couple, Fritz and Lou Van Pelt, who lived nearby. The four of them spent evenings having dinner and then playing cards. Sparky borrowed their last name, Van Pelt, for the characters Lucy and Linus.

  But even with new friends, Sparky was not happy in Colorado Springs. He convinced Joyce to move back to Minnesota. In March 1952, after nine months in Colorado Springs, they packed up everything and headed back to Minneapolis. Sparky quickly settled into his familiar life. He and Joyce had two more children: Craig was born in January 1953 and Amy in August 1956.

  PEN NIB THAT SPARKY USED FOR HIS STRIPS

  Sparky’s work continued to flourish. His earnings increased to $2,500 a month at a time when most people were earning only $350. A publishing company agreed to publish a book of Peanuts strips that had previously appeared in the paper. And the strip found a new audience on college campuses. Professors used them in psychology textbooks, and college kids read the strip every day, searching for answers to their own personal problems. Most of all, readers enjoyed Sparky’s subtle humor and wise understanding of human behavior. A psychiatrist, who regularly read Peanuts said that Sparky was “one of the most gifted and insightful observers of human behavior known to us.”

  By the summer of 1955, Peanuts was running in one hundred newspapers.

  (EIGHT)

  They Like Me!

  On April 13, 1955, the family moved to a large home on West Minnehaha Parkway in Minneapolis. The house was luxurious with six bedrooms and a playroom for the children, as well as a finished basement with a pool table. There was a huge front lawn facing the parkway, and the surrounding homes were as tall and impressive as theirs.

  Once a year, the National Cartoonists Society selected a cartoonist to win the Reuben Award. The bronze trophy, designed by Rube Goldberg, a creative cartoonist, resembles a jumble of cartoonists flowing from an ink bottle.

  In 1956, Sparky went to New York to attend the society’s banquet. During the meal and throughout friendly banter at the table, Sparky could think about only one thing.

  When Rube Goldberg stood to announce the winner, the room grew quiet and Sparky held his breath. And then, he heard Goldberg say that Charles Schulz was the winner of the Reuben Award. He was the cartoonist of the year. It’s easy to imagine thirty-three-year-old Sparky, wearing a dignified black tuxedo on the outside, while in his head there was a kid shouting, “They like me! They really like me!”

  SPARKY RECEIVING THE REUBEN TROPHY FROM ITS CREATOR, RUBE GOLDBERG / 1956

  Sparky hurried up to the front of the room to receive his Reuben. Not only did his fellow cartoonists like him, they thought he was one of the best. And he had been creating his Peanuts strips for only five years. Nine years later, in 1964, he won the Reuben again and became the first cartoonist to win it twice.

  Winning the Reuben did not change Sparky’s life or make him want to relax or take time off. In fact, it encouraged him to work harder to find new stories to delight his readers.

  But Joyce found it harder and harder raising four young children in Minneapolis, especially when winter came. On with the snowsuits, mittens, hats that usually got lost, and heavy socks that would hardly fit in their boots. The children would play outside in the snow until they were too cold, and then the routine began all over again. Off with the boots, the wet socks, the mittens, the snowsuits, and maybe the hats—if they weren’t lost.

  Sparky and Joyce’s fifth child, Jill, was born in 1958. Shortly after that, they received a letter from a neighbor who had moved to California. She told them about all the wonderful advantages of living in an area that had no snow. She was especially excited about the orange tree in her front yard. Every morning, she could pick the fruit from her tree and make her own orange juice. Sparky also had fond memories of his time there after the war. That did it. Joyce convinced Sparky they had to move to California.

  They flew to the West Coast and searched in areas near San Francisco. Just as they were ready to return home, the Realtor took them to Sebastopol, a town north of San Francisco. They found the perfect place on Coffee Lane with room for horses and plenty of land to build a house with enough bedrooms for all of them. The area was known for its Gravenstein apple orchards. When they moved in, the friendly neighbors brought baskets of apples to welcome them. Before long, they would have apples, as well as oranges, growing around their property.

  Joyce hired contractors and architects, who went to work building the house and adding a tennis court and swimming pool. By the end of 1960, they were living in their new home and ready to celebrate the holidays without snowstorms and freezing weather. All of them thrived in their new community. The children grew up with great freedom and independence. They rode horses along the trails, or they rode motorbikes or bicycles if they were in a hurry to get someplace.

  Sparky adored his children. When his daughter Amy came into the studio to talk to him, Sparky put down his pen and gave her all his attention. She said she never realized he had a job, because he was always right there for her. When his youngest daughter, Jill, became a skilled ice-skater, Sparky drove her all over the state to skating competitions. When his sons wanted him to play ball, they never hesitated to interrupt him either. He liked pitching to them or rallying with them on the tennis courts. He could always come back later to work on the strip.

  As his own children were growing up, he saw how much they enjoyed television programs. But Sparky had always said he would not put his Peanuts characters on television. He kept resisting until a local producer persuaded him to give it a try for a Christmas special. He said he would, but only if they used his ideas.

  IMAGE FROM THE CHRISTMAS TELEVISION SPECIAL, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, FIRST SHOWN ON DECEMBER 9, 1965

  Sparky’s first televised Peanuts program, A Charlie Brown Christmas, was shown on December 9, 1965. Sparky had insisted that the program be about the true meaning of Christmas. He wanted no laugh track. He insisted the roles would be played by kids using their own voices, not adults mimicking them. He wanted no exaggerated animation, such as when a
nimals chase each other or hit each other over the head. He wanted less movement, in keeping with his daily strips. Initially, he thought traditional hymns would be perfect for the background music, but others persuaded him to try some lively jazz music, because it would add a bounce to the special.

  He wrote a simple script in which Charlie Brown searches for the meaning of Christmas and finds it when Linus stands up and recites the story of the Christ child’s birth, using the Gospel of St. Luke, to stress “peace and good will toward men.” He completes his explanation by saying in his quiet, gentle voice, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” Then all the children help Charlie Brown decorate his skinny little fir tree, which is almost falling to the ground. They make it stand tall and add ornaments until it glows with beauty.

  Before it aired on television, CBS executives were worried. They were afraid the public would object to the religious aspect of the program. They expected angry phone calls and letters. How wrong they were! Instead, “All heaven broke loose,” one of them later admitted. Phone calls indicated that half the country had watched the program and liked it. People were touched by the story and pleased with Vince Guaraldi’s sophisticated jazz music, which brought the story to life. Newspaper critics wrote positive reviews. They found the quiet animation perfect for Sparky’s characters and declared the program a classic after that very first showing. With such success, CBS asked Sparky to create four more television programs. There were holiday specials such as It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and many more television shows.

  In 1966, Sparky’s father, Carl, and stepmother, Annabelle, came to California for a visit. They were able to share in Sparky’s delight when A Charlie Brown Christmas won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program. At the Hollywood ceremony, Sparky, again dressed in a tuxedo, accepted the Emmy, saying, “Charlie Brown is not used to winning, so we thank you.”

  After the award ceremony, Annabelle and Carl visited the family in Sebastopol. But on the morning of Sunday, May 29, Carl suddenly collapsed and died. His death was a terrible loss for Sparky. However, it helped that his father left the world knowing his son was successful and had been recognized for his ability. Sparky remembered Carl’s early misgivings that he would never succeed as a cartoonist.

  SPARKY WITH JILL, AMY, AND CRAIG, RIDING THE PONY CART ON CHARLIE BROWN BOULEVARD / C. 1964

  (NINE)

  Ice-Skating in Sunny California

  As time passed, the kids in the Peanuts strip grew up and their personalities became more complex. Snoopy, the dreamer, grew more and more imaginative. In the early strips, Sparky drew Snoopy as a dog on all fours. Then Snoopy’s fantasy life exploded. He stood up and became the writer, with his typewriter on top of the doghouse; the fedora-wearing lawyer, who carried his briefcase to the courthouse; the flying ace, who chased the Red Baron through the skies; and the astronaut, who beat the real astronauts to the moon. Sparky explained that when “Snoopy stood up on all fours and climbed up on his dog house, the strip took off.” He had to be careful not to let Snoopy monopolize all the stories in the strip.

  In 1969, the Apollo 10 lunar expedition was sent into space as a preliminary trial for the later trip to the moon. The crew named the command module Charlie Brown and the lunar module Snoopy. They disconnected the two modules and sent Snoopy into orbit about eight miles above the moon to study the surface where the Apollo 11 crew planned to land.

  Just as the two modules were to reconnect, there was terrible turbulence in space. Everyone panicked. Would the modules crash into each other? From Earth, NASA scientists worked to manipulate the modules. In space, the crew did the same. Finally, the spacecraft and the lunar module were rejoined and the crew announced with great relief, ”Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other.”

  In the strip, Sparky’s Snoopy landed on the moon in March. He beat the actual astronauts on the Apollo mission, who didn’t make it to the moon until July.

  While Sparky worked on his comic strips, Joyce was building and creating new projects around their Sebastopol property. Her next plan was to build an ice rink in Santa Rosa after the city’s rink closed. It would be for their family and all the families in the area. Sparky was enthusiastic. He loved ice-skating and playing ice hockey. The rink, formally called Redwood Empire Ice Arena and more casually called Snoopy’s Home Ice, opened in April 1969 with great excitement from the community.

  But things were not as good with the Schulz marriage. Sparky and Joyce were no longer getting along. In 1972, after twenty-one years together, they decided to divorce. Sparky felt terrible. At that time, the kids in his strips were playing baseball and Charlie Brown kicked Lucy off the team. Maybe that was what Sparky really wanted to do. But he couldn’t. Instead he left the house, and started living in his office at One Snoopy Place, near the ice-skating arena.

  Sparky was extremely sad. Some days he felt like a failure. But his feelings didn’t keep him from drawing the Peanuts strip every day. Afterward, he said he had drawn some of his best strips during this time.

  Soon he began eating his breakfast and lunch at the Warm Puppy Cafe next to the rink. He had a reserved table near the door, which allowed him to watch everyone come and go. He could also watch his daughters Amy and Jill while they skated.

  One day, he noticed a smiling woman bringing her daughter to the rink. After she returned a few more times, he suggested she join him for a coffee at his table. Her name was Jeannie Clyde.

  Sparky liked talking to her, and before long they discovered they were meant to be together. “Sparky swept me off my feet,” Jeannie said later.

  Sparky and Jeannie were married in September 1973, surrounded by all their children. Hers: Brooke and Lisa. His: Meredith, Monte, Craig, Amy, and Jill.

  In 1974, Sparky was asked to serve as Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. The parade is held every New Year’s Day and features creative floats made from flowers and other organic materials, such as grains of rice, cranberries, and dried coconut used to fill in faces or backgrounds. Sparky invited his daughter Amy to sit with him in a convertible as they waved to the crowd along the five-mile parade route. After that, his strip about the experience showed the amusing truth of how kids rarely recognize their parents’ achievements.

  Sparky’s new wife, Jeannie, realized that Sparky had his own way of doing things. She hoped she could persuade him to travel with her, because she loved exploring other countries. But traveling made him nervous. He preferred to stay home and work in his studio or sit at the Warm Puppy and see all the people who came there. That’s what made him happy. And it fit with his philosophy that it was important to “Be who you are!”

  JEANNIE AND SPARKY / C. 1979

  Jeannie quickly realized she was not going to change her husband. If their marriage was going to work, she would have to accept him the way he was.

  In 1980, Jeannie and Sparky built a new home in the foothills above Santa Rosa with a beautiful view of the sky, the surrounding hills, and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Every day, Sparky followed his routine in the office at One Snoopy Place: answering the mail, making phone calls, then sitting at his drawing board doodling, as he waited for that day’s idea to come into his mind.

  Often Sparky interrupted his routine to give interviews to other cartoonists and newspaper people. He was extremely generous about giving advice to cartoonists just starting out. He remembered how much that had meant to him when he was beginning. He answered his mail from young fans, and one day, even picked up the phone to find a third-grade reporter eager to interview him.

  Sparky regretted he had not attended college. On his own, he read the classics, new novels, and history books. He also read biographies, especially about musicians rather than artists. He liked to discuss them with friends and with his son, Monte, who had become a novelist. Sparky took classes, mainly in English literature, and read many literary masterpieces. Fo
r his classes, he wrote papers about those books. If he got an A on a paper, he bragged to his children and proudly asked them to read what he had written.

  Throughout his life, Sparky had studied the Bible and could quote it from memory. He often used Biblical phrases in the strip. Once he showed Linus loosely quoting from the Bible as he and Sally are drenched by the rain. Both of them are wearing raincoats, but Snoopy lies on top of his dog house, complaining that the rain is falling on his face!

  (TEN)

  Staring Out the Window

  Sparky used events from his life in his cartoon strips. When he was worried about the meaning of his life, he drew Snoopy worrying about the meaning in his life. When he was lonely, he drew Charlie Brown feeling lonely.

  Sparky also used the strip as a way to honor holidays or other special historical dates. He had served his country as a young infantryman in the army, and he felt that the experience had strengthened him physically and emotionally. The D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, was an important date to him and to all his buddies. It had been the turning point in World War II when the United States and the Allies surprised Germany and landed thousands of soldiers on the coast of Normandy, France. The invasion helped to end the war.