Schulz introduced Snoopy's most famous alter ego, the World War I flying ace in the mid 60s as a way of commenting on the Vietnam War. But at the very moment this anti-war momentum picks up, Charles Schulz kills this storyline. In 1968, Schulz added a new character, a black character, to the strip,. And I was really blown away to learn the backstory behind this introduction.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Charlie Brown's America, Historian Blake Scott Ball uses the strip (and the fan mail archive at the Schulz museum) to illuminate the Wishy-Washy politics of Cold War America.