From: Mg Yit
EMail: bookwormz_99@yahoo.com
FEB 14 2000
Goodbye, Schulz
The creator of the Peanuts comics strip died in his sleep at 77
SAN FRANCISCO -- Charles M. Schulz, the cartoonist who delighted the world with the adventures and adversities of Charlie Brown, his friends and a dog named Snoopy, died on Saturday.
He was 77.
Schulz, who had been diagnosed with colon cancer and suffered a series of small strokes during emergency abdominal surgery in November, died in his sleep on Saturday evening, his son, Mr Craig Schulz, said.
His wildly popular comic strip, Peanuts, made its debut on Oct 2, 1950, and Schulz announced his retirement from the strip a few weeks after undergoing surgery in November.
His death came on the eve of the publication of the last strip he drew, showing Snoopy at his typewriter and other Peanuts regulars along with a "Dear Friends" letter thanking his readers for their support.
In several Sunday newspapers, the strip opens with Charlie Brown on the phone saying, "No, I think he's writing".
In the next panel, Snoopy is shown on his dog house, pecking on a typewriter. "Dear Friends...," it reads.
The final panel, decorated with images from the strip, is its creator's farewell, which first appeared last month when he ended his daily comic strip.
"I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip," it read.
"Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy...how can I ever forget them..."
Classic Peanuts images decorate the letter: Lucy pulling away a football as Charlie Brown tries to kick it, Snoopy trying to steal Linus' blanket and Lucy getting hit on the head by a baseball with a loud "Bonk!"
The cartoonist's contract stipulates that no one else will ever draw the strip, which goes out to an estimated 355 million readers daily in 75 countries.
"I never dreamed that this would happen to me," he said recently of his illness and retirement in an interview with NBC.
"I always had the feeling that I would probably stay with the strip until I was in the early 80s.
"All of a sudden it's gone, it's been taken away from me." -- AP, Reuters