The Man Behind the Strip

The cartoonist Charles Schulz brought to life the daily existence of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and the assorted inhabitants of the celebrated Peanuts comic strip. Schulz, (9) .......... to those closest to him as 'Sparky', devoted nearly half a century to producing the strip without interruption. Its unmistakably American sensibility (10) .......... nothing to impede its extraordinary international reach. The strip was widely credited with having (11) .......... Schulz enormously wealthy. Throughout his career, he demonstrated an unfailingly perceptive eye and a comedy of understated, if occasionally melancholy, precision. He was constitutionally prone (12) .......... anxiety and despondency, and a vein of quiet sorrow ran through his work — a bittersweet quality that seemed only to deepen the affection of his readership. During the 1950s, the strip acquired a devoted following (13) .......... intellectuals and cultural commentators, though Schulz was characteristically quick to point (14) .......... that he had himself failed algebra, Latin, English and physics at school. On one occasion, when a reader (15) .......... him an existentialist, he was obliged to enquire (16) .......... exactly the term was meant to signify.