Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sparky

It was August of 1973, 7 years since I first wrote a fan letter to Schulz. And now I was going to visit with him in his studio in Santa Rosa. 






I read the recent biography of Schulz (the one a lot of people seemed to think painted a pretty dismal view of the man and his life), and I really liked it, showing the sensitive reality of his private life. I was emotionally moved by it, and appreciate the struggles he had in life, even when he seemed to have it all. How did he get work done when fans like me kept showing up at his door? When I called him Mr. Schulz he said I could call him Sparky. 

Thanks Sparky!

Politely looking over my drawings . . .

Wow, my boyhood idol, looking at my drawings!

The letter he sent, arranging for me to receive an original strip.

The original that came in the mail from the syndicate. I always like to think that this is Woodstock's birth nest, but I don't remember the actual continuity.

1 comment:

John said...

Wow! Amazing! I'll never get the chance. The best I can hope for is a visit to the museum on my fiftieth birthday.

The whole episode you describe is lovely and fits right in with how I imagined Sparky to be (I would have called him Mr Schulz, too).

Thank you for sharing this with us. It's - amazing!