Li'l Beginnings cover



Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings



Li’l Folks, the weekly comic panel that Charles Schulz produced before turning his attention to Peanuts, is the subject of a book released February 21, 2004, by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center.

Charles M. Schulz: Li’l Beginnings, with a foreword by Jean Schulz and annotations, editorial commentary and an introduction by Derrick Bang, includes all 135 of the panels that Schulz created for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, his hometown paper, between June 22, 1947, and January 22, 1950. This is the first time all the Li’l Folks cartoons have been reproduced in one volume, giving Schulz fans a rare glimpse of the early evolution of the influential cartoonist’s craft.

Aside from shedding light on a formative early period of Schulz’s creative output, these Li’l Folks strips also are noteworthy for their use of characters and themes that later reappeared in Peanuts: a well-dressed young man with a fondness for Beethoven, a dog with a striking resemblance to Snoopy, and a boy named Charlie Brown, among others.

The 298-page book also includes the two Just Keep Laughing cartoon panels that Schulz produced for the Catholic comic book Topix; the two Sparky’s Li’l Folks panels that ran in the Minneapolis Tribune (and anticipated his series in the St. Paul Pioneer Press); and examples of single-panel cartoons that were published in The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s.

Museum Director Ruth Gardner Begell said this about the Museum publication: "One of the treasures in the Museum’s archives is a fragile scrapbook that contains more than two years' worth of Li’l Folks cartoons clipped from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Assembled by a young Charles Schulz more than 50 years ago, each page contains a cartoon panel neatly affixed with strips of clear tape. Prior to the publication of Charles M. Schulz: Li’l Beginnings, this scrapbook was the most complete collection of Schulz’s first major body of work. All of us at the Charles M. Schulz Museum are excited to share this collection of rarely seen cartoons in a more accessible format. These published images of Li’l Folks are further enhanced by the commentary of Derrick Bang, whose broad knowledge of Peanuts and extraordinary sensitivity to the nuances of Schulz's work are apparent." Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings features:

Some sample pages (click on each image to enlarge):


page 18 page 19 page 26 page 27


Specifications:

The book is available only from the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Internet orders can be placed via the Museum Gift Shop; visit them here. The book is toward the top.



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