Charles M. Schulz
What failed
A teacher asked him to draw cartoons for the 1940 Central High yearbook. When it came out, they had not been printed at all. He collected rejection slips from the magazines without ever coming close. His mother died of cancer within days of his induction into the Army. A syndicate agreed to take a Sunday feature and its editors reversed the decision at the last minute. When his local paper refused him better placement, daily publication and a raise, he offered to quit and the editor said all right. Several syndicates turned the strip down before one bought it — and then renamed it something he hated.
What happened next
Peanuts appeared in seven newspapers on 2 October 1950, and the syndicate paid him ninety dollars for the first month. He drew it for the next forty-nine years. By 1999 it was running in more than two thousand six hundred papers.
The point
That summer, between selling the strip and its first appearance, the woman he had proposed to turned him down and married someone else. She was the little red-haired girl. His own account of it is the whole thing in four words: losers get started early.
The sequence
6 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1940
The school yearbook does not print the drawings a teacher had asked him for.
- 1941
He collects rejection slips from the magazines without ever coming close.
- 1943
His mother dies of cancer within days of his induction into the Army.
- 1949
A syndicate agrees to take a Sunday feature, then its editors change their minds.
- 1950
His local paper refuses him better placement, daily publication and a raise. He offers to quit and the editor says all right.
- 1950
Several syndicates turn the strip down, and the one that takes it renames it something he hates.
- 1950
The woman he proposes to turns him down and marries someone else. She was the little red-haired girl.
- 1950
Peanuts appears in seven newspapers. The syndicate pays him ninety dollars for the first month.
- 1999
It is running in more than two thousand six hundred newspapers.
Sources
- Timeline: Charles M. Schulz & Peanuts (Charles M. Schulz Museum)
1940: Schulz graduates from high school. The drawings he contributes to the school yearbook are not included in the publication.
- Charles Schulz at 3 O'Clock in the Morning (The Comics Journal 200)
When the high school annual came out, I looked through it anxiously, and they hadn't printed them at all. That was a crushing blow. That was my first major rejection.
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