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Peanuts Coronet #8
This Is Your Life, Charlie Brown!
Selected cartoons from It's a Dog's Life, Charlie Brown, Vol. 1.
128 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1968
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About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,028 books1,637 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 4, 2016
Charlie Brown is my favourite, he's just, well, my favourite... This made me laugh out loud at 4am which I wasn't expecting but it was just what I needed. I have a lot of love in my heart for these characters!
September 2, 2011
Another delightful collection (copyrighted from 1960 to 1962) that, in addition to bringing a smile to this readers face, also makes you realise that - from what the characters said and did in the early 60s - however much we might think it was, life wasn’t all that different then. This is filled with some terrific runs - Lucy trying to wean Linus off his blanket by burying it, Charlie Brown’s struggles with his baseball team, Sally learning to walk and falling in love with Linus and Frieda (her of the “naturally curly hair”) getting a cat - and also some smart single strips - Lucy saying “Snoopy isn’t as smart as I thought he was - he moves his lips when he reads”, Pigpen realising why he shouldn’t play hide-and-seek and Snoopy eating corn on the cob. Great fun and highly recommended.
December 1, 2024
I like how these comics address a variety of topics and situations. Makes a lovely, light-hearted palette cleanser in between tougher books I’m reading.
Poor Charlie Brown gets unnecessary hate, though. And did you know that Frieda has naturally curly hair? If you don’t, you will by the time you finish with this one.
3.5⭐️
Poor Charlie Brown gets unnecessary hate, though. And did you know that Frieda has naturally curly hair? If you don’t, you will by the time you finish with this one.
3.5⭐️
April 2, 2020
I always found the cartoons on TV to be a bit over my head with this cartoon character, but then after reading a few books, I realized Mr. Shulz's humor, And must say, I enjoy it. Not for everybody, But Check it out! See the other side of Charlie Browns life, outside of being a Holiday special :-)
March 11, 2020
Very funny, I loved this as a kid!
September 17, 2025
Brilliant as always.
April 12, 2010
I just found a bunch of old Charlie Brown books, back from the 1960s. Most are in pretty bad shape; this one is still in pretty decent condition. The first cartoon has Snoopy asking Charlie Brown if he could be a "house-dog." Brown notes that "We're not accepting any applications for house-dog." Snoopy goes back to the doghouse and wistfully notes "I thought there might be an opening. . ." Nice start to this volume.
It always amazed me that one could get so much into four panels in this comic strip. Charles Schulz was awfully good at his business!
Another. . . Linus wonders if cows always come in for the night from the pasture. Lucy brightly responds "If they leave them out overnight, they get pasteurized." To which Linus can only say "I guess I'd make a lousy farmer."
And so it goes. There are quite a few of the cartoons that focus on the baeeball team, with Charlie Brown somehow trying to keep the team that he is managing together and focused on winning (yeah, right!).
A delight to revisit these treasures from my youth!
It always amazed me that one could get so much into four panels in this comic strip. Charles Schulz was awfully good at his business!
Another. . . Linus wonders if cows always come in for the night from the pasture. Lucy brightly responds "If they leave them out overnight, they get pasteurized." To which Linus can only say "I guess I'd make a lousy farmer."
And so it goes. There are quite a few of the cartoons that focus on the baeeball team, with Charlie Brown somehow trying to keep the team that he is managing together and focused on winning (yeah, right!).
A delight to revisit these treasures from my youth!
October 2, 2023
I have a 1978 printing of this book. It contains strips from the early 1960s, including the introduction of Frieda and her cat, and the beginning of Sally’s infatuation with Linus. There are quite a few strips where the punchline requires knowledge of US celebrities of the day, so they’re a bit lost on me. Nevertheless a great read time and again.
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April 11, 2010This Is Your Life, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz (1982)
September 20, 2012
Quite funny.
My first read about Charlie.
My first read about Charlie.
January 21, 2013
Classic Charlie Brown!
July 4, 2013
Love Charlie Brown. He's the best.
November 5, 2014
I love Peanuts!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews