Riverside Museum Exhibit Focuses on Peanuts Creator Charles Schulz

Nearly a decade after his death, the memorable comic strip characters of Charles Schulz still appear daily in newspapers across the globe. One sign of their staying power is a "Peanuts" exhibit on display at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. It focuses on baseball, the game that was a lifelong obsession for Schulz, and a life lesson for his alter ego, Charlie Brown. KPCC's Steven Cuevas reports.

Steven Cuevas: The first "Peanuts" strip appeared in 1950. It established Charlie Brown as the perennial but resilient outsider.

["Peanuts" music by Vine Guaraldi plays]

Cuevas: In that debut, Shermy and Patty sit on the curb as Charlie Brown approaches. Only Shermy speaks.

Sherman (voiceover: James): Well, here comes ol' Charlie Brown... good ol' Charlie Brown, yes sir. Good ol' Charlie Brown. How I hate him!

Charles Schulz: The first strip that ever appeared, I wish I had never drawn. I don't think he should have said something like, "How I hate him!" It's a little too strong. Nowadays, I think I would make it more mild.

Cuevas: Charles Schulz spoke to "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross in 1990.

Schulz: It's very difficult out there on the playground to survive. Children are defenseless. And if they are forced to be out on that playground, and they are too small, or they're inadequate in some ways, it can be a very miserable life.

[Sound of Charlie Brown swinging and missing]

Kids: Strike one!

Peppermint Patty: Ooh, come on, Charlie Brown! Hit it! For once in your life, hit it!

[Sound of Charlie Brown swinging and missing]

Kids: Strike two!

Cuevas: The baseball diamond, the focus of the "Peanuts at Bat" exhibit, was an ideal setting for Schulz to explore his main character's playground miseries, and his steely determination.

Charlie Brown: If I'm going to be a hero, I've got to try to steal home. Here I go!

Kids: That crazy Charlie Brown is trying to steal home! Oh you blockhead! We lost the game because of Charlie Brown! Waaaaahhh!

Danielle Leland: And we've all felt that way, like Charlie Brown has felt, especially with the baseball strips.

Kid: Why, you blockhead!

Cuevas: Danielle Leland is curator of education at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum.

Leland: You see failure, and the team, and it sparks humor, but at the same time, you can relate to it on a serious note.

Charlie Brown: If I had stolen home, I'd have been the hero! Instead, I'm the goat! Why, why, why, why?!

Cuevas: "Peanuts at Bat" features original Schulz sketches, banner-size reproductions of comic panels, and a huge selection of knick-knacks like this 1974 record album, "Charlie Brown's All-Stars"... actually from my own collection. Curator Maggie Weatherbee says people from across the Southland came forward to loan the museum precious vintage memorabilia. Like, who doesn't have a stuffed Snoopy, or a Charlie Brown lunchbox?

Maggie Weatherbee: And all of the staff under 40 had a Snoopy Snow Cone Maker, and a Snoopy Lunchbox, and I think it's just a very universal kind of cultural phenomenon from the time period. And everyone has a character that they can relate to at some point in their life.

Steven Weissman: You know, I've always liked Lucies, but I'm not a Lucy. I married a Lucy! I'm probably more of a Charlie Brown. But I've always really identified with Sally, a little bit.

Cuevas: Steven Weissman is the creator of "Yikes!" It's a comic series that follows a group of ghoulish but sweet-natured kids that could have spilled from the same inkwell as "Peanuts," except these tykes include an irresistibly cute zombie, a high-strung little vampire, and a boy stitched together from the dead. Setting the horror element of "Yikes!" aside, Weissman says a huge and obvious inspiration for his comic art was "Peanuts."

Weissman: You know, there are other things that seep into your work, and when you realize what's sort of driving you here, you know, you may not like it, or you may try and push away from it, but with "Peanuts" it was, "This is something I can work towards. This is a guy I really like and admire, and would like to head toward."

Cuevas: As I move through the gallery with Steven Weissman, we come upon the strips Schulz drew late in life. His vision was going, his hand increasingly unsteady. The lines are shaky, but still confident.

Weissman: As his body was sort of in decline, he didn't switch to assistants. He just let his art keep going. And I really like that, because most people wouldn't. They'd bring in people to kind of just emulate their style. But there's something really great about someone who does it all themselves. It's really, you know, it's very pure.

[Music plays]

Cuevas: Charles Schulz drew the last "Peanuts" strip in 1999. It famously appeared a few months later, the day after he died at the age of 77. Examples from a half-century of Peanuts are on display at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum through September.