Farmers carve ‘Peanuts’ comic characters in corn mazes nationwide to celebrate 75-year anniversary
Over 80 farms in the United States and Canada have trimmed their hedges to honor "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz and his timeless, beloved characters.
Corn maze farmers have teamed up with Peanuts Worldwide to create "Peanuts"-themed attractions, as the Associated Press noted.
Schulz released the first strip 75 years ago in Oct. 1950, across seven newspapers nationwide, according to the Schulz Museum, when he was just 27 years old.
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Popular characters in the "Peanuts" brand include Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and Peppermint Patty.
With "observational, wry, sarcastic, nostalgic, bittersweet, silly" and other characteristics used by the Schulz Museum to describe the creation, the "Peanuts" comic strip was syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide by Dec. 1999.
Gull Meadow Farms showed off a corn maze honoring the 75th anniversary of the "Peanuts" comic strip in Richland, Michigan. (Justin Wendzel/Gull Meadow Farms/AP)
Jill Schulz, actress and daughter of Charles M. Shulz, told the AP that seeing farmers dedicate their land to her father and his body of work keeps her dad's "legacy alive."
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She joked about how she can’t keep houseplants alive — but respected the farmers for their hard work and dedication to their craft.
Jill Schulz said she respected the farmers for their hard work and dedication to the craft.
Each maze was designed specifically for each farm — anywhere from 1.5 to 20 acres of mostly corn and sunflowers.
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The MAiZE Inc. company custom-created each maze.
It's done others in the past — with some dedicated to presidential candidates, Oprah Winfrey, John Wayne and others, according to the AP.
Downey's Farm in Caledon, Ontario showed a corn maze honoring the 75th anniversary of the "Peanuts" comic strip. (Joanne Strom/Downey's Farm/AP)
This October marks the 75th anniversary of the first "Peanuts" strip appearance — a moment that puts a bow on Schulz’s celebrated career.
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The Schulz Museum noted that although full-page comics were more common in the 1920s and 1930s, newspapers in the 1940s and 1950s were promoting minimalism — which caused Schulz to shift his practice.
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"Newspaper editors in the late 1940s and 50s, however, promoted a post-war minimalist model, pushing their cartoonists to shrink strip size, minimize pen strokes and sharpen their humor with daily gags and cerebral humor for an ever-increasingly educated audience," the Schulz Museum states on the organization’s website.
Over 80 farmers across the United States and Canada have tailored their corn mazes to honor late "Peanuts" creator Schulz. (AP; Getty Images)
Since then, the "Peanuts" phenomenon has extended beyond newspapers to include books, animated television specials, theme parks and a Broadway musical.
Schulz received many honors throughout his career, including Emmy Awards for his animated TV specials.
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He was recognized by the U.S. government, had NASA spacecraft named after his characters and even inspired a concert performance at Carnegie Hall, the museum website notes.
Schulz retired just one month before he passed away in Feb 2000 in Santa Rosa, California.
The Associated Press, as well as Erica Lamberg, contributed reporting.
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