Schulz's drawings were first published by Robert Ripley in his Ripley's Believe It or Not!, then in a Catholic comic book series called Topix. His first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1949 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post; seventeen single-panel cartoons by Schulz would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped in 1949. The next year, Schulz approached the United Features Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game, but abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. Original hand-inked ten panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, dated October 29, 1989, on a 22.5 x 15 piece of off-white artist’s cardstock. Strip shows Linus trespassing in a girls pumpkin patch, attempting to videotape the Great Pumpkin rising out of the patch. However, the young lady has different plans, with Snoopy winding up with the camera recording Linus’s final results. Signed in black ink in the last panel “Schulz,” as well as in the title panel. Double matted and framed to an overall size of 29.25 x 22. Wonderfully drawn, this has everything you would want in a Great Pumpkin-themed strip, including Linus’ retelling of the Great Pumpkin’s legendary arrival and Snoopy playing a pivotal role in the plot. In very fine condition. R&R COA.
