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The legacy of Charles M. Schulz will long outlive the man himself, with his iconic Peanuts comic strip transforming the landscape of the medium. His depiction of a primary group of kids, their vulnerabilities, and various existential woes of daily life proved immensely successful, indicating a way forward for creators without the usual generic gags found in lesser stories. But for such a legendary series, it’s still a surprisingly common factoid known by fans that Schulz didn’t care much for the name Peanuts, initially having conceived it as Li’l Folks.
But as it turns out, while Schulz’s distaste for his newspaper syndication service’s replacement name is well-documented such as via TIME Magazine, there’s one comic strip with a title Schulz comically hated more. Originally launched in 1997 by Baby Blues co-creator Jerry Scott and Wonk City artist Jim Borgman, Zits quickly rose to popularity, and within a year it was circulating in over 1,700 newspapers across 45 countries. Even so, despite the strong reception for such a popular series originating from the 1990s, perhaps the perfect criticism came about when Schulz was quoted saying Zits was a worse title than even his own comic strip, and Scott and Borgman clearly loved it.
Charles Schulz Confirmed 26 Years Ago The One Worse Comic Strip Name Than Peanuts
By 2000, Zits had been running for two and a half years, already garnering a significant following, establishing a steady cadence of sketchbook and compilation releases while its series ran in newspapers worldwide. It debuted its first treasury, or large collection of comic strips, on March 1, 2000, with Humongous Zits, containing one singular blurb from the Peanuts creator himself, having made a playful jab at the contemporary comic strip’s unappealing title. But with a series primarily focused on its central teenager, Jeremy Duncan, his friends, and his parents, Connie and Walt, as they stay sharp to his antics while being perceived as uncool and behind the times, Zits perfectly captures an unfiltered portrayal of adolescence.
Zits is the worst name for a comic strip since Peanuts.
Given that the quote is featured on the back cover, Scott and Borgman clearly loved the ironic endorsement, turning it into a self-deprecating badge of honor commemorating the first major collection of their work. Truthfully, Peanuts fans can easily find enjoyment in Zits, despite radically different art styles and worlds in play. Rather than focusing on a group of kids devoid of direct input from adults, Zits focuses instead on teenagers like Jeremy, his recurring girlfriend Sara, and best friends Pierce and Hector, their mutual struggles at the interstice of childhood and adulthood, as if separate worlds are in constant interaction and communication, with Jeremy caught in the middle.
Zits is a uniquely memorable comic strip which, while certainly in no position to ever overtake Peanuts’ popularity, deserves wider recognition on its own. It’s remained consistently entertaining and heartfelt, and will generally be looked upon fondly as having aged well in the world of comic strips that originated from or gained prominence in the 1990s. It does, admittedly, have possibly the most unappealing name of all time, but in an uncomfortable way, it stays with the readers, and as the back cover also illustrates, it’s far punchier and more effective than any of their other proposed names.
Peanuts Emerged As Schulz’s Title Despite Him Disliking It
Originally the followup to Schulz’s first cartoon accepted by the Saturday Evening Post, Schulz’s iconic series that would endure for 50 years and decades beyond his passing was originally titled Li’l Folks, with him struggling to find a reliable syndication contract for it, per TIME. But the name presented a conflict and an interesting intersection of two other similarly-titled comic strips, Li’l Abner by Al Capp, and Little Folks by Tack Knight. It’s especially amusing as Wee Pals would be launched 15 years later in 1965 without nearly as much of a problem.
But while avoiding this dispute was understandable, it seemed that the United Feature Syndicate, Schulz’s agency, had their editor choose the title Peanuts at the end, without considering the creator’s opinions on the matter.
But in keeping with the resilience of his created characters, Schulz stuck to the series through the end. He was, after all, a stubborn creator in the end, continuing to show his distaste for the Peanuts title to the point of these words being printed to promote other comic strips mere weeks after his passing. But this, too, is consistent with his personality, and one of his more endearing traits; after all, it’s this same stubbornness that let him win a standoff over the inclusion of his character Franklin in Peanuts going forward. So for other creators to have chosen a name that Schulz hates even more must have felt like a true victory, as the series winds down to conclude in the coming months after 30 years of success.
- Cast
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Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Bill Melendez, Sally Dryer, Peter Robbins, Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Mariel Sheets, Lisa DeFaria, Venus Omega Schultheis
- Created by
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Charles M. Schulz
- Movie(s)
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The Peanuts Movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown’s All Stars!, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
- Character(s)
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Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt, Sally Brown, Pig-Pen, Marcie (Peanuts), Peppermint Patty, Woodstock