Peanuts introduced an existential element to the funnies, unspooling koans about human behavior in a handful of panels. Yet against this bland backdrop, the brave new world of the baby boom unfolded, with adults occupying a barely discernable spot on the periphery. As Peanuts developed, Schulz introduced surprisingly sophisticated philosophical dilemmas into the strip, which his motley bunch of neurotic kids address in endless Socratic dialogues. Linus's vigils in wait of the Great Pumpkin read like Beckett for kids, while his sermon on the birth of Jesus in the Peanuts Christmas special is among the most religious moments on television. There is raw quality to Peanuts , a pathos that appears again and again.
Psychology is laid utterly bare.
In this regard, Lucy's double role as Charlie Brown's tormentor and psychiatrist is especially rich. Here, as everywhere, Schulz employs an iconic drawing style, one that conveys a seemingly infinite vocabulary of emotion with a very limited set of pen strokes. Having reached its zenith by the beginning of the 1960s, Peanuts became that decade's flagship comic strip, a message about the human condition read daily by millions. Schulz, meanwhile, having become quite successful, hightailed it out of Minnesota, eventually settling in California. There, he became wealthy beyond belief by turning his work into a merchandising phenomenon.