The Peanuts comic strip debuted in 1950.

"Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz was paid $90 for his first month of strips, the initial debut of which occurred in seven newspapers across the country. Since then, "Peanuts" has become one of the most famous comic strips in the U.S., and many of Schulz’s characters, such as Snoopy and Charlie Brown, are well known to both children and adults alike. Over the years since 1950, there have been many events in the evolution of these characters. November 16, 1952 was the first time that Lucy held a football for Charlie Brown; June 1, 1954 saw Linus shown for the first time with his security blanket; and Snoopy didn’t walk on two legs until January 5, 1956. On February 12, 2000, Charles Schulz died, and his final strip appeared the next day in newspapers around the world.

ARTSEDGE
In Creating Comic Strips (K–4), students analyze the literary and artistic elements of comic strips and then apply their knowledge to create original comic strips.

Although "Peanuts" was not known for its political commentary, many other comic strips do focus on politics. In Drawing Political Cartoons (9–12), students explore background information on current events, analyze a political cartoon or drawing and then create a political cartoon based on a current event.

ReadWriteThink
In Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares (6–8), students create comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books. Students are encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events and themes as they attempt to crystallize the significant points of the book in a few short scenes.

In Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Genre Study (3–5), students examine the genre and subgenres of comics, including their uses and purposes.

In Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using Comic Books to Teach Onomatopoeia (3–5), students explore onomatopoeia—words that imitate the natural sound associated with an action or an object. Using comic books and strips, they find onomatopoetic words, develop a vocabulary list from the words and discuss why writers, especially writers of comics, use onomatopoeia. Students then use an online tool to create their own comic strips using onomatopoeia.

In Comic Makeovers: Examining Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Media (9–12), students explore representations of race, class, ethnicity and gender by analyzing comics over a two-week period and then re-envisioning them with a "comic character makeover."

The Comic Creator (K–12) student interactive invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (e.g. prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature). The organizers focus on the key elements of comic strips by allowing students to choose backgrounds, characters and props, as well as to compose related dialogue.

Students examine the plot and narrative structure of a story through the use of comic strip frames in Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure (3–5). They then write their own original narratives after creating comic strip storyboards as a prewriting exercise.

In The Comic Book Show and Tell (9–12), students write comic book scripts using detailed, descriptive language and exciting dialogue. This authentic writing experience prompts them to think about their choices as writers and how they can best get their mental images out of their head and onto the page.

In Book Report Alternative: Examining Story Elements Using Story Map Comic Strips (3–5), students use a six-paneled comic strip to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've read, either as a class or independently.