"Peanuts"

From President Emeritus Tom Sito:

Oct 2, 1950- Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip debuts.

Good ol' Charlie Brown was the name of a fellow post office worker all the guy's liked to play jokes on. Schulz's idea 'little folks' was initially rejected by all the major comic syndicates. Three months before the strip was accepted his girlfriend broke off their engagement. He had left his job at the post office and she was convinced he would never amount to anything.

" Charlie Brown must be the one who suffers, because he’s a caricature of the average person. Most of us are much more acquainted with losing than winning. Winning is great, but it isn’t funny."- Charles Schulz

At the time of his death, Charles Schulz was arguably the richest visual artist on earth. About $450 million dollars worth. Pretty good for a guy who started with just a pencil and an idea. ...

Allow me to add that Schulz enabled a lot of animation artists to gain long-term employment because the Bill Melendez Studios was so adept at translating Sparky's comic strip vision into animated cartoons for over forty years.

And, of course, as noted up top, Charles Schulz is STILL providing work to animators.