Li'l Folks

This is the anniversary of Charles M. Schulz birthday. Li'l Folks was the original name for Peanuts, which was the name given by the syndicate and which he apparently hated.

I was a Peanuts freak as a child. It was the counterbalance to all the Mad magazines and books I read. When we were in San Francisco in 1996, we stopped at the Cartoon Art Museum which was funded primarily by Mr. Schulz.

I highly recommend going to a museum if you are interested in art¹. Not because the environment is ideal (it rarely is), but because you get to see a three-dimensional object that another human created. After seeing his original cartoons full-size in person I can tell you in all confidence: the man loved Wite-Out®. He definitely did not draw Charlie Brown's head perfectly every time, and was not above fixing Linus' hair. Okay, enough tattling on one of the greatest cartoonists of all time.

One of his friends offered to look at my cartoons and pass them on, but I've never been that serious about it and didn't have anything to show. To bring things full circle, when I was six years old, my friends and I used to draw huge scenes of dog pirates on their ships. I still get ideas and stories now and then and will hopefully get off my ass and make them available.

The big news that day was they had door prizes and we won a Ben & Jerry's cake which we brought back for the birthday party at my brother's place. We didn't have a car though, so it was, as they say around here, melty.

Also, it was there I discovered FAL, which I just found out has a web site — the sick bastards.

1. Understatement is funny.

Posted by Mike at November 26, 2003 10:50 AM | TrackBack