Schulz by Michael Bowers
Back in my college days we were tasked to come up with biographical comics about our personal heroes and people we deemed influential. That was when I attended the School of Visual Arts and took a class called Principles of Cartooning, taught by cartoonist Tom Hart. This happened during my spring semester in 2008 and the comic would later be featured in a gallery! The gallery was called Kings and Queens, as illustrators and comic artists focused on particular kings of their field. I always considered Charles Schulz to be a king in cartooning, so naturally I chose him. It didn’t help that I read his biography Schulz and Peanuts, written by David Michaelis, the summer before. The Kings and Queens exhibition took place in the SVA Chelsea Gallery on April 10, 2008, where my comic was featured. You can read more about the Kings and Queens exhibition at the SVA website.
In this particular comic Charles Schulz interacts with the Peanuts Gallery and provides insight on how his personal life affected his work, where he got his inspiration, and what went into the creative process. I had to practice sketching the Peanuts characters for a few days so I could keep them as on-model as I could. I wrote the script myself using Schulz and Peanuts as reference. Peanuts is owned by Andrews McMeel Syndication.
The comic was done on Bristol paper using traditional cartooning tools such as pencils, ink, brushes, and pen nibs.
