26 Years Later, Charles Schulz’s Final Comic Strip Is Still an All-Time Peanuts Classic

While that was the first official Peanuts comic, a similar comic by Charles Schulz predated Peanuts and ran in Minnesota’s St. Paul Pioneer Press. It was called Li’l Folks and it also starred cute little children, although it did not have a regular cast like Peanuts would. Li’l Folks ran from 1947 until 1950, when Schulz quit after his editor refused to give him a raise from the $10 per comic he was making. After that, Schulz brought Li’l Folks to United Feature Syndicate. The national cartoon syndicator liked the comic, but needed to change its name because of a 1930s comic strip called Little Folks. The name Peanuts was chosen because The Howdy Doody Show was popular at the time and the studio audience of children on the show was called the “Peanut gallery.” Thus, Peanuts became the name.