Sparky Read online

  SPARKY WITH CHARLIE BROWN / C. 1958

  For my favorite Sparky fans: Zack, Emma, Matthew, and Benjamin —B. G.

  Text © 2010 by Beverly Gherman.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

  All cartoon strips: PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate, Inc. PEANUTS is a registered trademark of United Feature Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Page 122 constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.

  ISBN 978-1-4521-3398-0

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the previous edition as follows:

  Gherman, Beverly.

  Sparky : the life and art of Charles Schulz / by Beverly Gherman.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-8118-6790-0

  1. Schulz, Charles M. (Charles Monroe), 1922–2000. 2. Cartoonists—United States—Biography. I. Title.

  PN6727.S3Z68 2010

  741.5’6973—dc22

  [B]

  2009005814

  Book design by Jennifer Bostic, Paper Plane Studio.

  Typeset in Omnes.

  Chronicle Books LLC

  680 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94107

  www.chroniclekids.com

  Acknowledgments:

  My gratitude to Jeannie Schulz, who opened her heart to me and shared the latest writings about Sparky; to Monte, Craig, Amy, and Jill, who also shared insights about their dad. They made it a joy for me to write about Charles Schulz and his Peanuts kids.

  I would like to give special thanks to Lisa Monhoff, archivist at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California, and to Laura Davis at United Feature Syndicate, Inc. They were invaluable in locating material to be included in the book.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Author’s Note

  8

  (ONE) Always Drawing

  10

  (TWO) Winning and Losing

  20

  (THREE) “Do You Like to Draw?”

  30

  (FOUR) Becoming a Man

  40

  (FIVE) Getting Down to Work

  46

  (SIX) Losing the Red-Haired Girl

  54

  (SEVEN) Growing Peanuts

  60

  (EIGHT) They Like Me!

  74

  (NINE) Ice-Skating in Sunny California

  86

  (TEN) Staring Out the Window

  98

  (ELEVEN) Drawing on the Wall

  108

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  121

  CREDITS

  122

  INDEX

  123

  Author’s Note

  While I was in college, the Peanuts comic strip was the first thing I read in the morning’s newspaper. Without fail, Charles Schulz seemed to capture my daily worries. He knew the way people of all ages suffer. Although his characters were young kids, they were struggling with popularity problems, poor grades on school tests, and misunderstandings between friends, just as I was. I could have made appointments at the counseling center on campus to get advice, but how much better to find my answers in Peanuts, along with a smile or laugh.

  Who was this Charles Schulz, the man who created the Peanuts cartoon strips for fifty years? How I wish I had known him! Instead I read about him, talked to his family and friends, and, best of all, read his strips and books and watched his videos. Through them all, I discovered how kind and generous and hardworking he was. He was born with a great talent but he never took it for granted. Throughout his life he always tried to improve his original ability.

  (ONE)

  Always Drawing

  From the beginning, Charles Schulz intended to draw cartoons. Not just any cartoons—the very best cartoons. He drew all the time. No matter where he was, he pulled out a stubby pencil and a wrinkled piece of paper so he could sketch a friend or copy a picture from the latest Big Little Books he collected. He noticed the way an arm popped out of a friend’s shoulder or the way his collar curved around his neck. From his books he observed the way Popeye’s muscles rippled under his rolled-up shirtsleeve or the way he gobbled up his spinach. Observing was just as important as drawing. He called it “mental drawing.”

  Charles Monroe Schulz was born on November 26, 1922. Before he was a week old, his uncle nicknamed him “Sparky.” For some reason the baby reminded him of Sparky, the sad-eyed horse from the popular comic strip Barney Google who uexpectedly became the big winner of a race. Yet, “Sparky” stuck, and it turned out to be the perfect nickname for a talented boy who loved comic strips and who would become a winner in the cartoon world.

  When Sparky was a kid, everybody—children and adults—read comics. There was no television and no electronic games. Even Sparky’s parents liked comics. And while they didn’t know anything about the comics business, they thought Sparky’s drawings were good, and they encouraged him to follow his dreams.

  Although Sparky’s parents only had third-grade educations, they both were hardworking, sensible people. Carl Schulz opened his St. Paul, Minnesota, barbershop early in the morning and kept it open until late at night. He made thirty-five cents for each haircut and pennies more for shaves. It took many haircuts and many shaves to pay the rent.

  Sparky often met his dad at the barbershop. Carl was always happy to see Sparky, but he never stopped cutting a customer’s hair. Or, if he was cutting Sparky’s hair when an “important customer” came into the shop, Carl shooed Sparky out of the barber’s chair and made him wait on the bench—sometimes with half a haircut and a great deal of embarrassment.

  INSIDE CARL’S BARBER SHOP / C. 1921

  Perhaps this was when Sparky began collecting insults like other kids collected stamps. He used them later in his cartoon strips, thinking that his readers would understand those painful insults and might be able to sigh or chuckle with him.

  Sparky’s father even worked late on Saturday nights. Father and son would walk home together. On the way, they would stop at the nearby drugstore to pick up two Minneapolis newspapers. They loved reading the funny pages together, analyzing the comics endlessly, trying to guess what might happen next.

  SPARKY RIDING HIS TRICYCLE / C. 1928

  Often on Sunday mornings, Sparky and his parents would climb into their Ford and drive across the state line into nearby Wisconsin to visit Dena’s Norwegian family at their farm.

  Carl greatly valued his car. He took good care of it and was aware that not everyone could afford to own an automobile.

  Dena had a reputation for making the most delicious pies. She would rise early in the day to shape her flaky crust and fill it with apples or lemon curd or fresh berries to take to her family. Sparky would carry the pie on his lap all the way to the farm. He held it carefully, trying not to jiggle it too much.

  Concentrating on the pie helped him avoid thinking about what was coming next. They were always greeted by barking dogs who attacked the fenders of the car and frightened Sparky. Next came the noisy cousins pulling on him to play. Sparky’s mother made Sparky dress up in a freshly ironed shirt and fancy suit, even though his cousins were running about in short knickers and cotton shirts stained from grass and farm chores. He was a city kid who was not comfortable among all the animals and dirt roads of the farm. And his cousins teased him about his wanting to draw instead of going outside to play with them.

  He hated those trips.

  When Sparky was old enough to attend his neighborhood school, Richard Gordon Elementary School, he met other city kids like himself who wore neat, clean clothes and brown leather lace-up shoes. He fit right in.

  One day, his kindergarten teacher handed out white paper and black crayons and told her students to draw anything they liked. Spar
ky drew a man shoveling snow. All winter long he saw bundled-up men shoveling snow in front of their homes and in their driveways. It was a familiar scene for the five-year-old. But then he added something unexpected—a palm tree! He had certainly not seen that tree in the Minneapolis winter, but he remembered his mother reading a letter from their relatives who had moved to Southern California. They had sent a picture of the unusual palm trees they discovered there. Sparky was fascinated by the straight rough trunks of the trees and their droopy wide fronds.

  SPARKY / C. 1930

  Even as a kindergartner, Sparky had an unusual way of looking at the world. His teacher studied the picture. She told him, “Someday, Charles, you’re going to be an artist.”

  SPARKY WITH HIS CLASS AT GORDON SCHOOL / C. 1932

  (TWO)

  Winning and Losing

  In St. Paul, the Schulz family lived on a quiet street close to Carl’s barbershop. When Sparky wasn’t inside the apartment drawing pictures or playing with his toy cars, he was outside playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood kids.

  Sparky’s best friend, Shermy Pepler, lived next door. They were both only kids, loners who had found each other. Shermy’s mother played the piano and often chose music by the classical composer Beethoven, so it was natural that later Sparky’s famous comic strip would feature Schroeder playing Beethoven on his toy piano. Sparky admitted that Brahms was his favorite composer, but Beethoven’s name sounded funnier.

  The treat of the week for Sparky and Shermy was going to the Saturday afternoon movie. First they bought popcorn for five cents at a shop down the street. Then the pair walked to the Park Theater to buy movie tickets for ten cents.

  Sparky’s favorite film was Lost Patrol, an adventure movie set in the desert with endless sand dunes and handsome figures riding their horses at top speed. He also liked cowboy and Tarzan movies. Watching films taught him how the action on the screen moved forward, scene to scene, building excitement. Later, he would use the same technique in his comic strips.

  Sparky bought every comic book that he could get his hands on. He bought big black pads of plain paper and copied his favorite illustrations from the Famous Funnies books, Mickey Mouse, Popeye, and Buck Rogers. It was good practice, and he learned how other cartoonists shaped their characters. He read Sherlock Holmes mystery novels and drew his own mysteries.

  In elementary school, Sparky caught on quickly. His teachers wanted him to skip grades so he could learn more challenging material. That worked well in the early years, but by the time he went to junior high school, he started to fall behind and never caught up. By then, he was the youngest and smallest boy in the class.

  No matter how poorly Sparky was doing at school, he continued to work hard at drawing. When he was in seventh grade, he drew some political cartoons. His teacher thought they were wonderful, but she gave them to another student and asked him to make the lines darker. Sparky could draw better than most of the other kids, so he didn’t understand why his teacher would let anyone else touch his work. He never got over that insult.

  Working at home was different. He would move his mother’s handmade crocheted tablecloth from the dining room table, lay out a newspaper, dip his pen into a bottle of black ink, and draw figures all over the cardboards he had taken from his father’s laundered shirts. The ink bled into the cardboard, but that was all he had to use. Better paper cost money.

  Sparky loved to tease his mother. One day, he told her he had spilled ink all over the table. She ran to get a wet towel, but she stopped when she heard him laughing. Sparky had a sense of humor to go along with his drawing talent. He always told people, “There are no artists in the family, but there are a lot of funny people.”

  In addition to being a good artist, Sparky was a good athlete. During the frigid Minnesota winters, Sparky’s father flooded the backyard so it would freeze over and the kids could skate and play hockey.

  When there was no ice, Sparky practiced hockey in the basement using tennis balls instead of a puck. He’d ask his grandmother to play goalie, and she’d keep her broom in constant movement to keep him from scoring.

  Sparky also loved baseball. He and the neighbor kids played on vacant lots. In those days, there were no official Little Leagues. The kids came to the lot with cracked bats and balls held together with black electrical tape, but they always had fun.

  One summer, when Sparky was fourteen, a playground manager organized four teams to play each other. The first game started at nine in the morning but Sparky arrived at seven thirty because he was so eager to play. In the games, Sparky switched from pitcher to catcher, depending on which position was needed.

  SPARKY WITH HIS DAD, A SLED, AND THEIR DOG / C. 1927

  During one amazing game, Sparky pitched a no-hit shutout and his team won the championship. Winning felt wonderful. Soon afterward, the team lost a game 40-0. That didn’t feel as good, but it made for a funnier story.

  In high school, Sparky’s classmates weren’t as impressed with his drawing skills as they had been in elementary school. Back then, they had clamored for him to draw Popeye or other figures on their notebooks. But as they grew older, his classmates became interested in other things, like dating and girls. Sparky didn’t ask girls out on dates. He was skinny as a rail and had pimples all over his face. “Who’d want to date me?” he asked himself. He couldn’t wait to graduate and be done with school.

  When Sparky was a senior in high school, a teacher asked him to create some cartoons for the yearbook. When he got his copy of the book, he searched each page for his drawings, but they were not included. “That was a crushing blow,” he said, almost forty years later.

  Fortunately, he did not stop drawing. His art teacher in high school, Miss Paro, was impressed with his work and encouraged him to keep at it.

  In one assignment, Sparky had illustrated trios of everyday items: golf clubs, coffee cups, cemetery head stones, artists’ palettes, dollar bills, roller skates. He raced through his drawings while the other students were still trying to think of what to draw. Miss Paro felt that Sparky’s mind was “working every minute.” He never turned it off.

  Many years later, a writer, Dan Shanahan, compared Sparky’s trio of golf bags to master painter Rembrandt’s paintings of individual leaves on trees. Shanahan had told Sparky his drawings depicted the same whimsy and beauty. Sparky was pleased to have “someone compare [his] work with Rembrandt’s.”

  SPARKY’S HIGH SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT OF DRAWING “TRIOS” / C. 1938

  (THREE)

  “Do You Like to Draw?”

  Sparky’s parents encouraged him to keep working on his drawing in any way they could. When Sparky was fourteen, they took him to see an exhibit of original cartoons at a St. Paul library. As Sparky walked from one cartoon to the next, he compared his work to the drawings before him. He saw how finished and professional their cartoons were, how sure their pen lines were compared to his own. But he also noticed their work wasn’t perfect. Mistakes were covered with correction fluid or tape, and editors’ comments were penciled lightly all over the pages. He realized that a finished cartoon needed many revisions. As soon as Sparky got home, he tore up all his drawings. He knew it would take more time for him to become a professional cartoonist.

  Once he felt more confident, he sent some of his work to magazines and newspapers. He was first published in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! on February 22, 1937. The drawing was of his dog Spike, with a description of all the things the dog ate.

  Spike not only ate unusual things, he scared all the neighbors. He was not a big dog, but he acted like a ferocious guard dog. When Shermy knocked on the Schulzes’ door, he was afraid Spike was going to eat him. Sparky laughed at Shermy’s fear and bragged that the dog never snarled or turned on him.

  SPARKY’S FIRST PUBLISHED ART IN RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT

  In his senior year of high school, Sparky’s mother noticed an ad in the newspaper for Federal Schools, a correspondenc
e school that gave instruction in drawing. The ad asked, “Do You Like to Draw?” She showed it to Sparky. “Why not fill out the form and show them how well you draw,” she suggested. Sparky did.

  Before long, a man from the school came to meet Sparky and his parents. He told them the course would cost $170. That was a lot of money at the time.

  In St. Paul and throughout the rest of the country, money was still tight in the years following the Great Depression. Men had lost their jobs. They stood in line to get a hot meal. Businesses closed. Banks failed.

  Carl asked if he could pay the amount in small installments, since he could not spare that much money at once. They worked out a payment schedule of ten dollars a month, and Sparky began the class in March 1940.

  THE “DRAW ME” ADVERTISEMENT THAT INSPIRED SPARKY TO STUDY ART

  And as tight as money was, Carl always managed to find enough for Sparky’s art school.

  Students sent their homework by mail and received critiques from the teachers by return mail. Because the school was located in St. Paul, Sparky could have delivered his homework in person. But he didn’t. He worried the teachers might think his work was terrible. How could he stand there and watch them frown when they looked at his drawings? It was easier to mail his assignments to the school and wait for the teachers to write back to him about how he could improve. He was able to take their advice and do well in most of his classes. Ironically, he didn’t do as well in the class that focused on classical ways to draw children. Perhaps even then, he had his own ideas for drawing kids.