Snoopy

October 4, 1950 — first strip. Charlie Brown's pet beagle, purchased from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.

Vain, imaginative, philosophical, and deeply unbothered. Lives entirely in his own head — which is almost always more interesting than reality.

His iconic red doghouse — which inexplicably has a pool table, a Van Gogh, and a guest room inside. He also sleeps on top of it.

Nickname "Sparky" came from a comic strip horse. Grew up shy, introverted, and obsessed with drawing.

Schulz's childhood dog — a black-and-white mixed breed with a wild imagination. Directly inspired Snoopy.

Sold his first cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post in 1948. Peanuts launched Oct 2, 1950 in 7 papers. By peak: 2,600 papers, 75 countries, 355 million readers.

Snoopy dons his leather helmet and goggles, climbs atop his doghouse "Sopwith Camel," and battles the Red Baron over the skies of France.

"Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. Sold over 2 million copies.

Vietnam War was escalating. Millions of Americans had fathers, brothers, and husbands overseas. Snoopy's safe fantasy-battle was cathartic.

Snoopy puts on sunglasses, leans against a wall, and becomes the ultimate college cool guy — effortless, unbothered, completely above it all.

Joe Cool never does anything. He just leans. He's "too cool" to attend class, join clubs, or explain himself. Every strip ends with him back at the wall.

Joe Cool is arguably Snoopy's most merchandised persona. The sunglasses silhouette became a standalone brand. T-shirts, phone cases, Funko Pops — all today.

NASA adopted Snoopy as their safety mascot in 1968 — the year of Apollo 1's fatal fire. The beagle became a symbol of rigorous safety culture.

The lunar module was actually named "Snoopy." It flew to within 8.4 miles of the moon — the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11's landing.

NASA's highest employee honor for safety and mission success. Given by astronauts personally. An actual sterling silver Snoopy pin that flew in space.

A Snoopy plush flew on Artemis 1 as the zero-gravity indicator — officially floating through the cabin on camera, 268,000 miles from Earth.

Astronauts loved Peanuts. The strip ran in every major newspaper — they read it during training. Snoopy just made sense.

An unnamed baby bird who kept nesting on Snoopy's stomach. Named "Woodstock" in June 1970 — after the festival — by Schulz.

Woodstock's speech is rendered as vertical hash marks: "///// |||". Only Snoopy can understand him. Even the reader is locked out.

Woodstock is Snoopy's secretary, confidant, and adventure partner. He's tiny, clumsy, and chronically unlucky — but fiercely loyal.

Franklin met Charlie Brown on a beach, returning his runaway ball. He was immediately treated as an equal — no lesson, no big moment. Just a kid.

After MLK Jr.'s assassination, teacher Harriet Glickman wrote Schulz urging him to add Black characters. He acted — and faced real pushback from Southern newspaper editors who threatened to drop the strip.

One editor threatened to pull Peanuts. Schulz reportedly said: run it as-is, or I pull the strip entirely. Franklin stayed. His dad was in Vietnam. He sat with Peppermint Patty. He just was.

Peppermint Patty & Marcie

• Widely embraced by LGBTQ+ readers as coded representation
• Marcie calls Patty "Sir" — Schulz said he just thought it was funny, Marcie was "a very strange little girl"
• Marcie was partly inspired by Schulz's friend, tennis legend Billie Jean King
• 2022 Apple TV+ special confirmed the franchise's modern pro-LGBTQ+ stance explicitly

Pre-Title IX Feminism

Peppermint Patty (1966) was an athletic girl who dominated every sport — 6 years before Title IX. Schulz advocated explicitly for gender equity in athletics through her character.

Mixed Swedish & Mexican heritage. Introduced on Charlie Brown's baseball team before Franklin, though almost entirely forgotten today. Schulz was quietly diversifying the strip from multiple angles simultaneously.

The TV special "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" featured Janice, a classmate with leukemia. It was a groundbreaking, unflinching look at childhood cancer and chemotherapy — rare for any children's media in 1990.

Snoopy has appeared every single year. He holds the record for most Macy's Parade balloon appearances of any character — over 10 different balloon versions.

CBS almost didn't air it — too slow, too quiet, too religious. Became one of the highest-rated TV specials in history. Still airs 60+ years later. The jazz soundtrack sold 5 million copies.

From 1965 to today. The Peanuts Movie (2015) grossed $246M worldwide. Apple TV+ now produces new Peanuts content.