Charles Schulz. Peanuts. One and the same.

As the world's most widely syndicated cartoon artist, he brought the phrase "good grief" into popular culture, and was honored by many awards, including International Cartoonist of the Year, (in 1978) and two Reuben Awards (1955 and 1964).

"Peanuts" became the most popular cartoon in history. The 1967 "Life" magazine featured Snoopy and Charlie Brown on the cover. In 1969 the Peanuts gang became NASA mascots.

Schultz himself sketched and wrote every running of Peanuts for 50 years. He insisted on a clause in his contract preventing anyone else from releasing new "Peanuts" cartoons after his death. He died on February 12, 2000.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" has aired every year since 1965. (See below for an advertisement for the book by the same name.) In all, there were 50 TV specials. He published some 1,400 books, selling more than 300 million copies. "Peanuts" ran in approximately 2,600 papers and was read by around 355 million people in 75 countries. The strip was translated into 21 languages. It strip inspired some household phrases: "security blanket" after Linus's prop, and "happiness is a warm puppy," of course, after Snoopy.

Many of his characters were based on real people in Schulz's life. His childhood dog Spike was behind Snoopy. The little red-haired girl was based on a girlfriend who rejected his proposal for marriage. An art-school friend of his inspired the character Charlie Brown.

He was born in St. Paul, Minn, and there took correspondence courses in art upon seeing a "Do you like to draw?" ad. After serving in the Army in World War II, he worked on a church comic book. In 1950 he created "Li'l Folks," renamed "Peanuts" under syndication. The strip enjoyed enormous popularity in 1965 after Snoopy played the Red Baron, using his doghouse as an imaginary Sopwith Camel.

His museum is in Santa Rosa, California.
http://www.schulzmuseum.org/

To see a nice page of his early publications and how to identify first editions, go here:
http://www.peanutscollectorclub.com/books.html

A note to collectors: "Peanuts," Schulz's first collection, was reprinted umpteen times with god-only-knows how many copies circulating. But true first printings -- bearing the Rinehart colophon -- are exceedingly scarce. I've seen only three copies in many years of active looking.

And how valuable is his stuff? His 1950s and 1960s -era dailies typically sell for between $8,000 and $20,000. His Sundays might go for twice that much. Take a look at the one below that in November of 2007 sold for $95,000 at Heritage -- NOT counting the buyer's premium (customarily 20%)!