New exhibition at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center unveils unpublished comic strip featuring adults

Adults by Schulz (June 17, 2021–January 16, 2022)

Charles M. Schulz created some of the world’s most recognizable young characters, but Peanuts was not his only foray into the funny pages. Adults by Schulz, on view June 17, 2021 through January 16, 2022 at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, shares Schulz’s process and experimentation in portraying teen and adult characters.

Sometime in the mid-1950s, Schulz developed a concept for a workplace humor strip featuring adults. He titled it Hagemeyer after his close friend from the Army. The strip was proposed to United Feature Syndicate as a new strip by Charles Schulz and was drawn on blank Peanuts frame templates from this era. Until now, all seven strips have never been seen together in person or in publication.

“You don’t get to say, ‘Here is a brand-new strip from Charles M. Schulz,’ many times in your life, but that is exactly what we have,” said Curator Benjamin L. Clark. “The stretched out lanky characters would never fit in a Peanuts strip, but looking at them, we can’t help but recognize that they can only be from the pen of Charles Schulz.”

Adults by Schulz allows visitors a rare opportunity to see characters differing from the beloved Peanuts Gang. While the Museum owned four of the Hagemeyer strips already in its collection, the additional three were previously not known to exist prior to acquiring them at auction in 2020.

The exhibition will also feature artwork by Schulz from the Saturday Evening Post, along with Young Pillars, a single panel comic whose characters resemble Peanuts characters as teenagers, and It’s Only a Game, one of Schulz’s only collaborations with another artist.

“Schulz started out drawing adults but ultimately found success drawing children, though we can’t help but daydream ‘what if’,” said Clark. “It’s just extraordinary to unveil four sets of different adult artwork and consider the possibility that one of them could have ended up being the worldwide comic phenomenon.”

Courtesy of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California

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Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center
2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa, CA  95403
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The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in August 2002 to fulfill its mission of preserving, displaying, and interpreting the art of Charles M. Schulz. Located 50 miles north of San Francisco in Santa Rosa, California, the Schulz Museum presents changing exhibitions and programming that build an understanding of cartoonists and cartoon art; illustrate the scope of Schulz’s multi-faceted career; communicate the stories, inspirations, and influences of Schulz; and celebrate the life of Schulz and the Peanuts characters.

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Starting March 24, 2021:
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