Peanuts began in 1950 and dominated the newspaper comics for decades.
Peanuts may be the most iconic of newspaper comic strip of all time. A record breaking 17,897 strips were published and at its peak of popularity Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers. The comic crossed over into television with various specials that ultimately became holiday standards, including It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The world’s most famous comic strip was created by Charles M. Schulz and had its roots in his weekly comic Li’l Folks which ran in his hometown newspaper from 1947 to 1950. After it was dropped he began working on a new comic and brought some of his best Li’l Folks work to the United Feature Syndicate for consideration. They picked up his new work and re-named the comic Peanuts to avoid confusion with other similarly named strips at the time. Schultz never liked the name.
The first Peanuts comic strip was published on October 2, 1950. It ran in nine newspapers, including The Denver Post. It began as a daily strip, four panels long, which eventually became the standard for comic strips in this country. Charlie Brown appeared in the first strip and Snoopy made his first appearance in the third, on October 4. Other main characters that were introduced during the 1950’s include Schroeder in 1951, Lucy and Linus in 1952, and Sally in 1959. Peanuts ran until February 13, 2000, which was the day after Schulz died.
The first Peanuts comic strip ran on October 2, 1950.