The artistic style of Peanuts is immediately recognizable to most contemporary readers, but the worldwide familiar with Charles Schulz’ iconic cartoon obscures the fact that when it first entered publication – nearly three-quarters of a century ago – the artist was in fact taking some notable creative risks by drawing, as one expert described them, “those little kids, with their gigantic heads.”

Appearing on C2E2’s “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz” panel, comic historian Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and scholar Ivan Brunetti spoke about the innovative aspects of Schulz’ early work on Peanuts. This included a discussion about the aesthetic of the artist’s work, which both Kannenberg and Brunetti proposed actually represented an experimental approach at the time.

Debuting in 1950, Peanuts cultivated its popular prestige by serving up a particular style of humor that audiences responded to – and though it may seem surprising, Charles Schulz’ illustration style was initially a somewhat unusual method for delivering that humor.

Peanuts’ Art Was More Avant-Garde Than It Appears In Retrospect

Charles Schulz’ Experimentalism

Peanuts is a cultural touchstone – but rather than something to be taken for granted, how it became the defining newspaper comic strip of its generation is among the most fascinating aspects of its history. It may be difficult, but it is worth it for readers to imagine themselves flipping through an antiquated newspaper, finding the funny pages, and coming across a Peanuts strip for the very first time. As part of their wider exploration of Charles Schulz’ enduring appeal, during their C2E2 panel, Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and Ivan Brunetti considered how the cartoon would have been perceived at the time of its debut.

According to Brunetti:

People forget how revolutionary [Peanuts] was at the time. All of Schulz’s ideas, these were not guaranteed to be ‘winner’ ideas… I think everyone just accepted, ‘Yeah, that feels right.’ And you forget that at one point, that was really an experimental approach. And a risky approach.

“Yeah. Peanuts looked like nothing else at the time,” Kannenberg agreed, noting that the caricature-style drawings that went on to define Charles Schulz’ work – “those little kids, with their gigantic heads” – began as an artistic gamble, though one that ultimately paid off spectacularly. By being visually experimental, Schulz’ created a unique aesthetic, one that stood out from everything else occupying newspaper comic sections. Though exactly how bold of a “risky approach” this was at the turn of the 20th century has been lost to time, contemplating it adds a valuable dimension of context to Peanuts’ success.

Had Peanuts not appealed to readers immediately, and consistently – in both its approach to humor, and its visual style – the trajectory of 20th century popular art might have turned out very different. Charles Schulz’ influence as a commercial creator cannot be understated, and while his work might have eventually become synonymous with “safe,” that was a reputation that actually had to be earned by taking chances. Despite being far from what most people would classify as “avant-garde” art, taking chances was without a doubt vital to Peanuts’ popularity.

Peanuts’ Long-Term Success Makes Its Style Feel Familiar, Rather Than Innovative

How A Classic Becomes A Classic

During their “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz” panel, Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and Ivan Brunetti agreed that Schulz was a creative innovator, with this aspect of his career being somewhat lost amid his decades of success. That said, it deserves to be part of Peanuts’ enduring legacy just how much of a gamechanger the strip was when it debuted – having an overt effect not just on the newspaper comic medium, but on American culture as a whole.

In his writing on the subject of Peanuts, scholar Ivan Brunetti has repeatedly referred to Charles Schulz as “the [Marlon] Brando of comics,” precisely because of the way Schulz’ work changed comics, in parallel to how Brando revolutionized film acting in the same era. As Brunetti explained:

‘The Brando of comics.’ Nobody ever asks me, ‘What do you mean by that?’ If anyone has seen Marlon Brando’s first film, The Men (1950), he has a totally different acting style than everybody else in it. There are a lot of classically trained theater actors in the film, and they have a particular way of acting that feels like ‘old movies.’ I think it actually was around the same time [as the launch of Peanuts]. Then whenever you have a scene with Marlon Brando, he has this naturalistic way of acting that at times really clashes with the more theatrical [actors]. It ushered in something that now, we take for granted… that just became the way it is.

Brunetti’s comparison is particularly on-point; the delineating line between the “old” and “new” style of film acting represented by Marlon Brando may be difficult to recognize for anyone who isn’t a dedicated cinema history buff, but it is crucial to truly understanding the evolution of the medium.

Contemporary movie acting can be said to have begun with Marlon Brando in 1950 – as Ivan Brunetti suggests – just as a noticeable shift in comic strip art can be traced to his contemporary, artist Charles Schulz. Paired together, these two examples offer a fascinating insight into how a “totally different style” can, over the course of decades, come to be considered classic, and even standard. While not every subsequent comic illustrator draws people the way Charles Schulz did, they can all be said to have been influenced by his work in some way, shape, or form.

Charles Schulz’ Artistic Style Quickly Became Comforting To Readers

& Remains Beloved Decades Later

Charles Schulz’ artistic style in Peanuts may have been new and refreshing to newspaper readers when the strip debuted, but it quickly became familiar, and over time, cherished by generations of fans. What might have begun as a creative experiment was readily embraced by audiences, to whom it “felt right,” from the get-go, as Ivan Brunetti put it. However, as much as that success was reliant on the comic’s art, its humor was, of course, also essential to the equation, as the characters of the Peanuts gang and their antics proved to be unforgettable.

Part of Peanuts’ perennial appeal is its unique depiction of childhood; as much as its characters visually stood out, Schulz’ jokes, and the worldview that took shape around them, distinguished his strip from its contemporaries even further. As with any great work in the comic medium, Charles Schulz arrived at a delicate balance between his art and his writing, with the two perfectly informing one another, rather than one taking precedent over the other. This kind of creative equilibrium is just one of the many things that elevated Peanuts to a level few comics can truly reach.

As Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and Ivan Brunetti explained to their audience at C2E2, one of the underlying reasons for Peanuts’ monumental success was Charles Schulz’ status as a pioneering artist in the comic medium. Now that the creative risks of the past have become a worldwide recognizable artistic style, it is valuable to consider how cultural growth like this takes place. This allows readers a more full appreciation for famous works of pop culture such as Peanuts – as recognizing it as iconic is one step in the right direction, while understanding why it is considered iconic is another great leap forward.

Source: “Four Perfect Panels: Fans of Peanuts and Charles Schulz,” C2E2 panel.