How the Peanuts comic strip became racially integrated 47 years ago

Well, yes. Franklin WAS ordinary.
But what else could Schultz do with the Character that wouldn't be construed or second-guessed as negative?
Make him a loser like Charlie Brown?
Make him dumb and lethargic like Peppermint Patty?
Make him mean and bossy like Lucy?
Give him insecurity issues like Linus?

Did we think less of any of these characters because of their foibles?
No, they just each had their individual shortcomings, we didn't attribute it to anything but their personalities.
Would it have been the same if Franklin was portrayed as having a character fault?
Just asking the question.

 

....also, Pigpen's "funk"

 

They've seated him in a chair. Looks like they're all in chairs.

 

I don't think PP was ever portrayed as "dumb" - I don't think Schulz made any of his characters overtly "dumb". She was a tomboy who didn't excel in school, but not "dumb".

No idea how you view PP as "lethargic", though. All she cared about was playing sports and she was a terrific athlete!

 

I had to do a double-take. I must admit, the first thing my mind "saw" was Franklin reclining in a chair draped with the American flag. Of course, impossible.

 

Constantly sleeping during class. Only waking up when Marcie pokes her, or the teacher calls on her and then she shouts out several wrong answers which have nothing to do with the question. Constantly getting D's in school.

Here is Peppermint Patty and Marcie in their own words talking about her deficiencies.
I am through on this sidetrack. You can argue with Marcie, Patty and Charles Schultz.


And now we should return to the topic of this thread.

 

That drawing has a very powerful message.

 

Franklin sitting on the "opposite side" of the table. By himself.

 

Disinterested student doesn't equal "dumb"...

 

I'm thinking that was Charles Schultz's answer to the southern region who opposed Franklin.

 

Yes, I'd have to think so, too.

 

Every Christmas play it was the same for Shermy- he always ended up playing a shepherd!

I think it was Schulz' intention to keep Shermy bland. A straight man to Charlie Brown's and Lucy's strong traits.

 

It's a shame that Franklin's skin got a little lighter for the new Peanuts movie.

 

That was my point.

 

Gone, or joined the Manson family?

 

He went missing when he told everyone he was going to Woodstock.

 

Also: the chair apparently collapsed in the second frame. Which the other kids surely arranged on purpose. Right?

 

The jury's still out on that one. Could've been just a lone beagle.

 

I'm glad Franklin existed. I certainly remember Shermy, I was a Peanuts fanatic and since Fawcett reissued a lot of the earlier books, I probably read at least 80% of them.

Franklin was underwritten and so was Frieda, Schroder and Linus wasn't exactly doing anything spectacular after 1975 either. I grew tired of Peanuts when they made Charlie Brown even more boring and did a bit too much with Peppermint Patty and Marcie--I didn't like either of them.

 

My local newspaper still runs "Classic Peanuts" strips on its comic page and this past week they re-ran the series of strips where Franklin and Charlie Brown met for the first time at the beach.

 

There should be some kind of law where Peanuts re-runs must be on all comics pages until the end of time. It's often still the best (if not one of the best) things on the comics page.

 

I think you're confusing Franklin with Oblio.

 

Online is fine, but I think the limited space in the dwindling papers should be given over to current comics. BTW, the latest volume of The Complete Peanuts just came out. 1995-1996.

 

Probably, though Shermy is the one who insults Charlie Brown in the first strip, and Lucy didn't appear for a while. It was CB, Shermy, Patti and Violet. Also, Snoopy was Shermy's dog and when Lucy first picked up a baseball bat, she was good at it!

 

Charlie Brown stole Sherman's dog! Then Snoopy became a star and forgot all about poor Shermy. No wonder he split and hooked up with Squeeky!