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The Unsinkable Charlie Brown
122 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,035 books1,654 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 24, 2022
Charlie Brown always makes me smile. I read this to improve my Spanish. The Spanish translator did a decent job capturing the flavor of Peanuts. My main complaint is that the translator chose to translate the classic “good grief” as “dios mío” (my g-d). I am not fluent enough in Spanish to know all the idioms and what’s a cuss word and what isn’t, but I would imagine that the translator could have chosen a better approximation.
December 27, 2015
First read: November 10 and 11, 2013 Definitely a keeper!
Second read: still fun!
Second read: still fun!
July 28, 2020
Like the Titanic herself, the Legend of Charlie Brown is one not even God can sink. (God it seems is a nice guy after all, and why sink something that gives God himself a few chuckles?) This one has classic Peanuts strips that delves deeper into the rich complex characterizations as never before. Snoopy suffers from having his very doghouse burned down by a house fire which destroys everything, including his Van Gogh paintings! Yep, the Van Goghs are VAN GONE! Can Snoop survive? Plus a camp buddy introduces Charlie and the world to Peppermint Patty, the tomboy who in three days of strips captures the imagination, causing fans to write creator Charles Schulz demanding her return. And nowadays we can't get enough of that Peppermint Patty sensation! (Certainly Marcie won't! LOL!) Charlie enters the spelling bee at school, a risk taking venture which inspires the animated film classic A Boy Named Charlie Brown. Yep, why sink something so classic as Charlie Brown? The Blockhead is Forever!
Four stars
Charlie Brown sinkable? UNTHINKABLE!
Four stars
Charlie Brown sinkable? UNTHINKABLE!
Read
November 12, 2019First read: November 12, 2019, Tuesday
February 14, 2025
First Edition Book. And this where we meet Peppermint Patty.
July 30, 2025
I can't stand it. : )
July 15, 2014
Oh how I love Peanuts! There isn't a whole lot I can say about this book other than that!
Linus, Snoopy & Peppermint Patty have always been my top favorites but I love them all for different reasons! I'm not big on comic books..But how could I pass up on reading Peanuts during the Booktube-A-Thon! And I am so glad I did...It was a reminder to me why I needed to sit down and read through the other Peanuts books that I have on my shelf...Brings me back to the happy times of my childhood! The innocence of what cartoons and comics used to be!
Linus, Snoopy & Peppermint Patty have always been my top favorites but I love them all for different reasons! I'm not big on comic books..But how could I pass up on reading Peanuts during the Booktube-A-Thon! And I am so glad I did...It was a reminder to me why I needed to sit down and read through the other Peanuts books that I have on my shelf...Brings me back to the happy times of my childhood! The innocence of what cartoons and comics used to be!
July 31, 2012
I like Peanuts generally, love some of them, and this one contains two of my absolutely all time favourite strips. So that's why the five stars. It's a Peanuts book, what can I say?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews