Peanuts is the world’s most famous comic strip, published daily between 1950 and 2000, when its author Charles Schulz died at the age of 77. Today, copies of the strips are still distributed and published daily in newspapers in dozens of countries around the world: in Italy by the Post Office. The popularity and influence of the strip – and its most famous characters, particularly Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus – have spread over time to all media and daily life around the world, through their characters, their jokes, the rootedness of their customs, and an extraordinary amount of very effective aphorisms and quotations. The frustrations, insecurities, illusions and fears of the children’s characters always reflected those of adult readers, adding childlike tenderness that has always fascinated children’s readers: they ensure success with very different generations over time. The name “Peanuts” was chosen by the strip’s distributor, referencing the name of a children’s audience on a television show of the time, and it was always said that Schulz didn’t like it. But as Lucy Van Pelt says, “The older you get, the more unsure you are about a lot of things.”
