8/10/2019 Charles M. Schulz – Visionary and Humanist (Part 3)

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Charles M. Schulz  –  visionary and humanist: Part Three

In the year 1968, Schulz introduced the little African-American kid Franklin in Peanuts. Franklin is the first African-American character to feature in a mainstream American comic strip. From the introductoryepisode located at a public beach, Franklin informs Charlie Brown that his father is fighting over in Vietnam. They quickly become friends and Charlie Brown invites Franklin to visit him at this house. Schulz

had never emphasized on Franklin‟s  racial background and denied any political motivation behind this

character. But showing Franklin at a racially integrated beach at the time when the presence of African- American families on American public beaches was rare, Schulz might have made an effort to express his view on race discrimination with his characteristic subtlety.

 At the time when the civil rights movement was at its peak, the introduction of Franklin was obviouslycontroversial. Schulz received a letter of objection from a Southern editor for showing Franklin sitting in thesame row in school with Peppermint Patty. United Features too didn't like to see an African-American child

inviting his white friend to come on over to his house and asked Schulz to change it. In the same MichaelBarrier interview, Schulz had expressed his displeasure against the syndicate for objecting Franklin‟sintroduction into the strip. The dispute on the issue finally ended after Schulz threatened United Feature'sPresident Laurence Rutman: “Either you print it  just the way I draw it or I quit.” Schulz continued to draw

Franklin attending school with his white friends.

Franklin is a thoughtful and sensitive kid who frequently quotes from the Old Testament. He is an activeand serious student who reads psychology books and refuses to play a game of marbles after school because“I have a guitar lesson at three-thirty…right after that I have little league, and then swim club, and thendinner and then a „4H‟ meeting.” He can ingenuously ridicule Lucy‟s psychiatric booth by calling it alemonade stand. He is the center fielder of Peppermint Patty‟s baseball team and has a common subject toconverse with Charlie Brown – about his grandfather. Unlike the other characters, Franklin has the least

anxieties and obsessions but when Peppermint Patty cries after she is forced by the school principal to wearshoes that hurts her, Franklin comments, “All I know is, any rule that makes a little girl cry has to be a bad

rule!” 

Schulz had sought to depict the character in an unprejudiced manner and refused to make any overtpolitical statement through him. Franklin was naturally accepted into the integrated milieu of the strip,treated as any other character and his existence was as normal as the other members of the gang. But stillSchulz could not avoid being impaled by critics for showing Franklin as a “token black” character who had

“no personality traits at all”. ( Source) He had never addressed the „race issue‟ openly because he believedthat race was not his subject. He didn‟t want to draw things unless he really understood them. Though onoccasions, race did appear as an issue in the strip. While watching Franklin practicing ice-hockey to“become a great hockey player”, Peppermint Patty asks him, “How many black player in the NHL,Franklin?” Readers are divided on whether this is a racial comment or a question addressed to white

 America. ( Source)  In the animated film A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, a particular scene became thesubject of severe criticism due to its “casual racism on display”. In that scene, seven members of the gang,including Snoopy, joins together to celebrate Thanksgiving and Franklin is shown sitting alone on one sideof the table, on a fragile beach chair below the level of others. The scene has been read by critics as a subtle but insidious depiction to ascertain Franklin as a “racial outcast”. ( Source) Whether this one-off exampleproves anything about Schulz‟s race outlook remains arguable. But Schulz‟s handling of Franklin isdefinitely different from the typical African-American stereotype depicted in American comics.

* * * 

Charles M. Schulz had “changed the entire face of comic strips” thinks Bill Watterson, the author of  Calvin

and Hobbes. Watterson further acknowledges that “there's not a cartoonist who's done anything since 1960 who doesn't owe Schulz a tremendous debt.” The Times called the Peanuts characters “international iconsof good faith”.The New York Times editorial defined Peanuts as “an ongoing parable of contemporary American existence”. Garry Trudeau called it, “the first (and still the best) postmodern comic strip”. The

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strip continues to receive heaps of praise and gratitude even today. But there is also a growing school ofthought that wants to remove the visor of appreciation and read the strip differently.

Like all great art, Peanuts also must be read objectively; with extreme care and attention. There are skeptics who believe that a genius with a tremendous mastery on medium can also elusively intoxicate minds andpush people towards the realm of fabricated believes. How a comic strip that is devoted to failure didachieve such a universal success? Is Peanuts successful because it has worked like a palliative in the mind ofthe readers and diverted them from the rigors of their daily survival? Does Charlie Brown‟s inability toestablish meaningful relationships, his guilt, futility and subjection somehow create an off-putting feelabout the complexities of life? Was there an innate but generous escapist feel that worked silently within the brilliant ideas of Peanuts? Did Schulz deliberately underestimate the social powers that controls life andignored to expose them? Did he instead, accentuated too much to comprehended and explain psychologicaland emotional aspects through funny episodes involving funny looking children? For a genuine evaluationof Schulz and his creation, these awkward questions need to be debated.

 References:

1. Chip Kidd edited: The Art of Charles M Schulz

 3. Charles M Schulz: You really don’t look 50 Charlie Brown 

4. Charles M Schulz: The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970 (Vol. 10)4. Comics.com website

 5.  Annotations of The Complete Peanuts

6. Umberto Eco: The world of Charlie Brown (reprinted in the collection of essays Apocalypse Postponed )

7. Calvin Harlan: Visions and Invention, an introduction to art fundamentals 

(Concluded )