There is very little else from the landscape of American popular culture that serves as a direct emotional bridge to my childhood like Charles Schulz’s eternally beloved comic strip Peanuts and the classic animated specials inspired by it. As such, you can imagine my feeling as I turned onto West Steele Lane in picturesque Santa Rosa, California (an hour north of San Francisco) after a road trip of nearly 450 miles, to see the image of a contentedly skating Snoopy telling me I’ve arrived at the amazing Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center. The Museum opened in 2002, two years after Schulz’s passing, and stands as a testament to the life’s work of the most beloved comic strip creator of all time. It might sound silly to some, but seeing the beagle’s familiar image at the entrance of the parking lot really felt like an old friend, not seen for a long time, was standing there welcoming me.
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Playing fast and loose with histories both real and imagined can be fertile ground for dry comedy and offer opportunities for moments of real poignancy as well. Both are found in abundance in the new chapbook by Francois Ayroles titled Key Moments From The History Of Comics. Presented in a series of single panel cartoons, comic creators from the distant past and the contemporary present are shown in small scenes of inspiration and isolation, melancholy and triumph.
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