Image via Mark Anderson, flick'r Snoopy, the creation of cartoonist Charles Schultz for the comic strip Peanuts, is one of the best known and best-loved cartoons on the block, and certainly one of the most iconic pets around. Schultz once said about him, “Snoopy’s whole personality is a little bittersweet. But he’s a very strong character. He can win or lose, be a disaster, a hero, or anything, and yet it all works out. I like the fact that when he’s in real trouble, he can retreat into a fantasy and thereby escape.” Snoopy’s popularity took off from the inception of the strip, even though he was originally meant to be somewhat of a minor character, described as just Charlie Brown’s oddball dog. The comic strip started off being called Li’l Folks in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and the newer version, entitled Peanuts didn’t appear until October 2, 1950.
View video about Snoopy's creator, Charles Schultz. Over the nearly 50 years that the Peanuts gang ruled the newspapers, Schultz took only one vacation, a five-week break to celebrate his 75th birthday. Those five weeks were the first time that reruns had ever appeared in all of the cartoon’s history; quite a feat since Schultz drew nearly 18,000 strips over his lifetime, and all entirely by himself! Today the Peanuts brand as an entity generates over 2 billion dollars a year in revenue, with Snoopy at the forefront. Snoopy comes from humble beginnings, adopted by Charlie Brown from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. He is a bi-colored beagle, black and white, and remembers occasionally with grief his family who remain behind at Daisy Hill. Periodically, he sends his mother cards on Mother’s Day. This is only one of the many unexpected things that Snoopy does that makes him such an original character, and so well-loved by many. For all that Snoopy is perhaps the most famous beagle of all, his most memorable escapades come when he is doing distinctly non-doglike things. Beyond mailing off Mother’s Day cards, he also plays shortstop on Charlie Brown’s ragtag baseball team, and is considered one of the best players. In addition to playing baseball, Snoopy also passes a short stint trying to become a famous writer; each of his stories begins with the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night” and are constantly rejected by the unseen forces of “The Editors,” who are commonly maligned throughout the strip.
