Cartoonists honor Charles Schulz's 100th birthday with comic strip tributes

Saturday, November 26, 2022, is the 100th anniversary of Charles Schulz's birth.  To celebrate, Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell has organized a tribute with help from his fellow cartoonists - on November 26, more than 75 comic strips will feature tributes, Easter eggs and references to "Peanuts."  For more information and background, see this Associated Press article.

So be sure to buy a copy of your local newspaper and check out their comics page!  But of course, no one paper will carry all the strips.  Fortunately, the Schulz Museum has set up a webpage that will showcase the entire collection of strips.

Needless to say, there have been quite a few news articles and other items on the subject of Charles Schulz's 100th birthday.  Here's a sampling of them:

• A nice article from Sonoma Magazine about Charles Schulz's contributions and legacy in his home county of Sonoma, California.
• The Washington Post ran an article titled Schulz at 100: How ‘Peanuts’ lifts those on stage, on ice and in space .
• The Santa Rosa Press Democrat - the local newspaper of the town where Schulz lived, and where the Charles Schulz Museum is located - had a special section celebrating Charles Schulz; see this post from The Daily Cartoonist for the links.
• A short video tour of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in honor of Schulz's 100th birthday, hosted by curator Benjamin Clark, courtesy of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
• As part of their celebration, the Schulz Museum has published a new book titled Charles M. Schulz: The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects.  "This heavily illustrated volume reveals the art and life of Charles M. Schulz through 100 objects from the Schulz Museum's expansive collection—from Schulz's childhood drawings to NASA's Silver Snoopy Award that is still used today.  Alongside commentary by Curator Benjamin L. Clark and Peanuts historian Nat Gertler, Schulz's family, friends, and colleagues share their favorite objects and provide an intimate look at the cartoonist's creative legacy."  For a limited time, if you order the book directly from the Schulz Museum, you'll get a copy signed by Jean Schulz, widow of Charles M. Schulz and also president of the museum's board of directors.
• Check out this BBC article about the recent Artemis I spacecraft, which features a video titled, "Can you see Snoopy moving around inside the Orion capsule?" - a brief look at the Astronaut Snoopy zero-g indicator in action.  Also see this NASA Photo of the Day,  this CollectSpace article with more info about Snoopy's mission.

US Postal Service to issue new Peanuts stamps on September 30, 2022

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Charles Schulz's birth, on Friday, September 30, 2022 the United States Postal Service will be issuing a new set of first class stamps featuring the Peanuts characters.

The stamps will feature 10 different Peanuts character designs, and each sheet will have 20 stamps (two sets of the 10 designs).  Like all first class US stamps released in recent years, they will be "forever" stamps, always good for mailing a first class letter regardless of future price increases.

This is the third time the USPS has issued stamps celebrating Peanuts - the first was a Snoopy "flying ace" stamp in 2001, and the second was a set of stamps celebrating "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in 2015.

The official release and first day ceremony for the new Schulz centennial Peanuts stamps will take place at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California on Friday September 30. The event is free; for details see the Museum website and this USPS announcement.

You should be able to buy the new stamps at your local post office, or they can also be ordered online from the USPS website.

In addition to the stamps themselves, you can also order a variety of related merchandise at the USPS website - such as first day covers, a stamp pin, collectible stamp stationery sets and portfolios, "field notes" notebooks, and a 48-page book reprinting a variety of mail-themed Peanuts strips.

Time to order that Snoopy license plate!

We haven’t checked in on California’s drive to issue a Snoopy license plate since Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to launch the effort back in October 2013, and it’s definitely time for an update.

Since then, progress has been both hopeful ... and a bit discouraging.

You might want to read this earlier post, for some back-story. (Go ahead; we’ll wait for you to come back.)

All set? Very good.

First of all, it’s necessary to understand that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has a policy of not stamping a specialty plate until it’s ordered by at least 7,500 people. While well over that number officially expressed interest in the plate via its web site, the next phase — securing a $50 deposit from at least 7,500 of those folks — hasn’t been moving as rapidly. As these words are typed, slightly more than 5,500 people have done so.

Unfortunately, the clock is ticking. The first “soft deadline” for sign-ups was January 24 of this year. The California Cultural Historical Endowment was granted an extension, but — and here we’re quoting — “Typically, the DMV issues a one-year extension.”

Existing DMV rules don’t allow for more than one extension, so that means a final deadline of January 2016 ... roughly seven months away. The bottom line is obvious: California’s Peanuts fans need to more aggressively promote this program to their families, friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Public service has been a great selling point, from the very beginning. Once the sign-up threshold is achieved, every non-personalized Snoopy plate sold will give $40 to the California Cultural and Historical Endowment, which expects (hopes) to collect roughly $300,000 for California’s museums, during the first year the plates are stamped. The news is even better when purchasing a personalized plate: $50 to museums, and $48 to the California Environmental License Fund.

In an effort to further sweeten the deal, the program recently introduced a “Beagle Backer” bonus. The first 7,500 purchasers will become Beagle Backers, and receive one-time discounted or free admission to 58 museums throughout the Golden State. The list of participating museums keeps climbing, and the current retail value of this incentive is more than $850 ... which is a pretty sweet return for the initial license plate fee.

Granted, you’d need to travel a bit, to take advantage of every opportunity ... but who wouldn’t enjoy an ambitious museum road trip? On top of which, the participating venues are an impressively varied bunch, including the California Science Center, the Japanese American National Museum, the Aerospace Museum of California, San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Western Railway Museum and — of course — the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. You can see a complete list of participants here.

As of 2013, California boasted 24,390,236 licensed drivers. We find it hard to believe that there aren’t at least 7,500 eager to put a beagle on their vehicle of choice.

Consider this a reminder, then: Encourage all your California Peanuts fans to stand up and be counted. Send ’em to snoopyplate.com, to sign up.

As California goes, so goes the nation ... and the faster we get the World-Famous Beagle on those plates, the sooner folks in the other 49 states may be inspired to do the same!

Put a beagle on your car!

California Peanuts fans have waited a long time for this moment, and it finally has arrived; they'll soon be able to travel in the company of the World-Famous Driving Ace.

The World-Famous Beagle sits at the California State Capitol, holding a prototype of
his very own specialized license plate; the text along the bottom reads "Museums are
for everyone." (Photo by Steven Hoffman/California Association of Museums)

On October 5, Golden State Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation — carried by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego — to launch a specialized license plate that features Charlie Brown's favorite companion, Snoopy.

You can read additional details here. Information on ordering the plate can be found at snoopyplate.com, linked below.

Alas, this wonderful news applies only to California; Peanuts fans in the other 49 states will need to mobilize their efforts!

The campaign to add Snoopy to California's roster of special-interest license plates officially kicked off in the spring of 2010, with the debut of the web site snoopyplate.com ... but those of us living close to Santa Rosa's Charles M. Schulz Museum know that plans were afoot quite a bit earlier. We sat (im)patiently as California drivers expressed interest by signing up for the program, and then watched as that number slowly approached the 7,500 threshold demanded by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

At that point, the politicians got involved. The California State Assembly passed a bill to established the Snoopy license plate — AB 482 — this past spring, on May 30. The bill then went to the State Senate, which passed it on September 11, sending it to Gov. Brown's desk.

Dog-lovers up and down the state felt pretty secure at that point, knowing full well that Jerry Brown often can be seen at the Capitol with his beloved corgi, Sutter.

Now that the plate has become an official option, California's Peanuts fans will be scrambling to dream up a 6-character phrase that characterizes their devotion to Charles M. Schulz and his classic newspaper strip. (And yes, folks: six characters. Although other California plates have room for up to seven characters, with a space, the placement of Snoopy limits your options a bit.)

The Snoopy license plate will generate funding to help support California's many diverse museums. The California Cultural and Historical Endowment, a state entity, will administer the California Museum Grant Program with these funds.