John Martz

The Great Unifier

There’s a new interview with book designer Chip Kidd over at the Onion A.V. Club. It’s a decent read, with lots of comics-talk, including his explanation of his fascination with Batman and how he has struggled to legitimize it (and legitimizing comics as a whole).  He also talks a bit about Charles Schulz and he’s asked if he was a Peanuts fan before working on The Art of Charles M. Schulz.  He says:

The thing that I came to realize was that Schulz is the great unifier. Here’s the one cartoonist that pretty much everybody can agree on. Here’s the cartoonist that’s beloved by both Dan Clowes and my mother. I can’t think of anybody else that could fit that description. It’s edgy and neurotic in a timeless way, and it’s heartwarming and sweet to other people--to the greater global population, I guess you would say. There’s just some great common denominator. After doing this book, I don’t think I encountered anybody who said to me, “Oh, I never got Peanuts,” or “I wasn’t into it.”

This is pretty much true, except I have met people who complain to me, “I just don’t think it’s funny.” These are the people who fail to understand that just because it’s on the comics page, Peanuts isn’t something you read to laugh at—it’s something you read to relate to.

I fell in love with Peanuts because of the heartbreak, the anxiety, the failure, and the sadness.  But for the record—it does make me laugh.  The two characters who never fail to crack me up are Sally and Rerun.  It has something to do with their naive confidence and determination—the fact they’re oblivious to how ridiculous they are.

One of my favourite strips was from Schulz’s last years.  Rerun was getting in trouble in preschool for creating underground comics in art class.  Forced to describe his work to the off-screen principal, Rerun explains, “...and this is Tarzan beating up Mickey Mouse.”