It’s been over 20 years since the death of legendary cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, but his work continues to captivate and amuse readers around the world. Schulz is, of course, best known for creating Peanuts, which in turn featured some of the most beloved characters in the world of comics. But it turns out that Peanuts wasn’t his only project — and some newly-uncovered comics show off a slightly different side of his sense of humor.
Writing at The Washington Post, Michael Cavna has details on a trio of previously-unseen Schulz comics that focus on adult characters — including one, Miss Hamhock, who has more than a few things in common with one Lucy Van Pelt.
Miss Hamhock and her employee Hagemeyer are at the center of these 3 strips, which join 4 others featuring the same characters in the collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum. Cavna reports that the museum purchased the 3 strips at auction last year; taken together, they believe that they were examples of a new feature that Schulz attempted to pitch in the 1950s. (It was the U.S. Acres to Peanuts‘ Garfield, perhaps.)
Next month, the Charles M. Schulz Museum will feature all 7 of the Hagemeyer strips as part of a new exhibition, Adults by Schulz. It’s not hard to see the appeal here — getting to see Schulz’s style in a different context sounds incredibly fascinating.
Experts in Schulz’s work have avoided drawing too many parallels between these strips and Schulz’s most famous work. “He’s thinking as a comic-strip connoisseur, and I don’t think of them as grown-up Peanuts,” said curator Benjamin L. Clark. All told, it’s a fascinating glimpse into the full scope of Schulz’s bibliography.
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