The creator of 'Peanuts' died 25 years ago. His creation remains popular

AP

Charles Schulz, creator of the iconic comic strip Peanuts, died 25 years ago.

His creation, featuring beloved characters Charlie Brown, Lucy van Pelt and, of course, Snoopy, is still going strong.

When it premiered in 1950, though, Schulz said he didn't think it would last long.

"Peanuts was originally sold as a space saving comic strip at the time. It was probably the smallest comic strip around," Schulz told Morning Edition in 1995. "I've always said there was no room for adults because if they had stood up, they would have bumped their heads on the top of the panel."

But the strip did more than just survive.

Eventually, the Peanuts gang was everywhere. T-shirts, lunchboxes, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. NASA even named the two modules of the Apollo 10 spacecraft after Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The craft flew on a mission to orbit the moon in 1969.

Benjamin Clark, curator of the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., said the Peanuts comic strip had 100 million readers at its peak. Key to the strip's popularity was that the characters expressed emotion.

"The newspaper comic strips that Schulz grew up reading were nothing like this," Clark said. "Schulz was so revolutionary in being so emotionally honest."

Some of that emotion, Schulz said in 1995, was derived from his own childhood growing up in Minneapolis in the 1920s.

"There were episodes in our neighborhood where there were some cruel children, and it's very difficult out there in the playground to survive," he told NPR.

Clark said the museum is seeing record-high attendance these days. From June 2023 to June 2024, the museum reported having 100,000 visitors – the most ever in its 22-year history.

Clark credits social media for the comic strip's latest bump in popularity. In recent years, Snoopy sparked a Gen Z frenzy as teens and other youth scoured stores for merchandise featuring the beagle. Amid that Snoopy excitement, the character's official TikTok account following ballooned.

"You know, they're using it to make memes and they're able to use it in fashion and design – and they're doing fun stuff with it," Clark said. "And it's really interesting to see where this creative drive and this influence and inspiration will take everyone."

Last year, Apple TV+ began streaming a special about the origin of Franklin, the first Black character on the Peanuts comic strip. Schulz first drew the character in 1968.

A new Peanuts film that began production last year is also in the works at Apple TV+.

Reena Advani edited the radio version of this story.