Some of the Characters in the Peanuts Comic Strip




The Peanuts Gang had many interesting characters. Find out
here about: Franklin, Sally, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder,
Pig Pen, the Little Red Haired Girl, Marcie, Frieda, Violet,
and Shermy.



Woodstock

Woodstock is the smallest of the Peanuts gang characters but has
a big presence for a little bird. He's a little inept, his flying and
logic are erratic, but he can type and take shorthand and usually
is game for anything Snoopy wants to do. Although he's the butt of
many of Snoopy's practical jokes, he's the beagle's closest
friend and confidant- and has made attempts at retaliation.

Because of his size and the company he keeps, Woodstock is an accident waiting to happen. Being a bird and tiny, he gets a little
insecure around Thanksgiving and big moving objects. He's the
only baseball player who gets an automatic walk if the ball rolls
over him. Woodstock talks bird speak only, and finds an alphabet
made up entirely of exclamation points quite adequate to express
such emotions as distress, frustration and a real temper. His
flocking friends are Bill, Harriet, Olivier and Conrad.

While Snoopy had many bird friends early on in the comic strip,
Woodstock was first bird to be mentioned by name on June 22,
1970. Woodstock quickly evolved into Snoopy's best friend. 
Together they share in each other's fantasy world. A couple of
examples would be Woodstock typing for the World Famous Literary
Ace and Snoopy helping Woodstock and the other birds play hockey
on the frozen bird bath. Woodstock can only speak in a series of
chirps that only Snoopy and other bird can translate. Woodstock
also enjoys the Beagle Scouts where he and his other bird friends
(Harriet, Bill, Oliver, Raymond, Fred, Roy, and Conrad) join
Snoopy on camping adventures




Franklin

Franklin met Charlie Brown at the beach in 1968. They'd never met
before because they went to different schools, but they had fun
playing ball so Charlie Brown invited Franklin to visit him at his
house across town for another play session. Later, Franklin turned
up as center-fielder on Peppermint Patty's baseball team and sits
in front of her at school. Franklin is thoughtful and can quote
the Old Testament as effectively as Linus. In contrast with the
other characters, Franklin has the fewest anxieties and
obsessions. He and Charlie Brown spend quite a bit of time talking
about their respective grandfathers. When Franklin first appeared
in the late60s, his noticeably darker skin set some readers
in search of a political meaning. However, the remarkable becomes
unremarkable when readers learn that Schulz simply introduced
Franklin as another character, not a political statement.




Sally

On May 25, 1959 Charlie Brown got a new baby sister. He was
so pleased and proud when she was born that he passed out
chocolate cigars. Since then he's been trying to understand her.
She always looks for the easy way out, particularly at school,
where her view of life reflects much of the frustration and
confusion kids experience.

Her speech is riddled with malapropisms. Uninhibited,
and precocious, she has a school girl crush on Linus, her
"Sweet Babboo." She may never win Linus' heart, but she has her
big brother wrapped around her little finger. Sally, writing letters
or doing homework, causes pain and joy to her fans in roughly
equal proportions.

Sally didn't make an appearance in the Peanuts comic strip
until August 23, 1959. Sally has her own (ever changing) philosophy
on life, but always is worked up about attending school.
It's no surprise since she is easily confused and has mangled
the English language in more than one "show and tell" episode
that went wrong.




Peppermint Patty

Peppermint Patty's real name is Patricia Reichardt and she was
introduced into the comic strip on August 22, 1966. She shares
Charlie Brown's (whom she calls "Chuck") enthusiasm for all
sports, but she has the ability to excel at all of them, unlike
Charlie Brown.

Peppermint Patty lives across town from Charlie Brown and attends
a different school, along with Marcie and Franklin. However,
through sporting events, summer camp and holiday parties,
Peppermint Patty has plenty of interaction with the Peanuts gang.
She is a perpetual D-minus student in class, but a best friend
to Marcie (even though Marcie calls Patty "sir"), Charlie Brown
(whom she has a secret crush on) and Snoopy (whom she believed
was a just a funny looking kid with a big nose for many years).


She wears a green striped shirt and black shorts most of the time
and is into sports very much. She also calls Charlie Brown
"chuck" when she talks to him.

Peppermint also falls asleep in class all the time. Marcie says
it's ok, she will not slip down her desk because there is a safety
catch, that being her nose catching on the edge of the desk
when she falls asleep.


While she has trouble staying awake in class; most of her waking
hours in the school room are spent analyzing the probability
patterns of true-false tests.





Schroeder

Schroeder loves Chopin and Brahms, but idolizes Beethoven....
he brought classical music to the Peanuts strip. Reserved and
usually unruffled, Schroeder reacts only when Woodstock tries
to make his grand piano into a playground, or Lucy seeks to
make it her courting grounds. The latter can lead to minor violence.


He is also one of Charlie Brown's best friends. On the baseball
team,  he catches as Charlie Brown pitches.


Schroeder started out in the strip as an infant on May 30, 1951.
While he began as a normal child, he soon showed his great talent
for the piano and his devotion to all things Beethoven. More
specifically he is able to play any Beethoven composition (or
seemingly anything at all) on his favorite toy piano. Schroeder
also spends time dodging the affections of Lucy who often leans
on his toy piano in admiration.




Pig Pen

Pig Pen showed up in a cloud of dust in the comic strip on July
13, 1954. His real name is a mystery, as is the reason for his
continuous messiness. On one rare occasion he actually cleaned
up and headed outside, only to discover he was a "dust magnet"
who could not stay clean for more than a few minuets. A costume
at Halloween does Pig Pen little good, since everyone knows he's
under it with his cloud of dust. Even in the winter, Pig Pen is
an absolute mess and makes the world's dirtiest snowmen. 

He doesn't try to explain it, hide it, fight it. For him, it's
just a fact of life.




The Little Red Haired Girl

A character mentioned but never seen in the "Peanuts" comic strip
by Charles M. Schulz. She was admired from afar by Charlie Brown,
who was never able to get up enough courage to actually talk to
her. Heck, he could barely bring himself to put Valentines in
her mailbox. She was never actually given a name either; everyone
just called her "the little red-haired girl."

The little red-haired girl did show up in one of the "Peanuts" TV
specials. In 1977's "It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown", she
appeared, she was very pretty, and her name was Heather.


The little red haired girl was Schulz' most enduring symbol of
unrequited love, even more so than Sally's unreturned love for
Linus or Lucy's infatuation with Schroeder. Unlike those others,
though, the little red-haired girl's primary importance is not as
a character but as a plot element. After all, we know almost
nothing about her, beyond the fact that Charlie Brown loves her.
(And god knows, good ol' Charlie Brown should've been chasing
after Peppermint Patty or Marcie--they actually loved him, if
only that blockhead had been paying attention)


The only reason the little red-haired girl is important to
us is because we've all had someone like her in our lives--
maybe not a redhead, maybe not a girl, but someone who we've
loved with all the childhood innocence we could muster up
but who we could never actually have, someone who we gave
anonymous Valentines and Christmas presents to, someone who
we pined over, someone who we daydreamed about, someone who
we know will break Charlie's heart without ever actually
realizing she's done anything wrong.


The little red-haired girl is important to us because we all know how
Charlie Brown feels for her--and because without one little
red-haired girl, we might never have had a comic strip called
"Peanuts" in the first place...

In 1947, before he started drawing his famous strip, Sparky
Schulz met Donna Mae Johnson while he was working as an art
instructor. She was a pretty redhead in the school's accounting
department who often wore a pale shirt with a black zigzag around
the middle. Sparky fell head-over-heels in love with her. They
dated, but she ended up turning down his marriage proposal to
marry another man. Sparky was devastated and haunted by the
event for years afterwards. Years later, Donna (now Donna Wold)
immediately recognized herself as the little red-haired girl when
Charlie Brown started pining for her in the strip.




Marcie

While she appears to have bumped into Peppermint Patty at summer
camp in the comic strip on June 18, 1968, Marcie was not
mentioned by name until October 11, 1971. 
Marcie is the best friend to Peppermint Patty, and they are
complete opposites. While Peppermint Patty is good at sports,
Marcie is terrible.  While Peppermint Patty gets bad grades,
Marcie is well adept at scholastics and the fine arts.

Marcie also has a weird habit of usually calling Peppermint Patty
"sir" or "Patricia." Marcie, like Peppermint Patty,  has a
secret crush on Charlie Brown.


Frieda

She has "naturally curly hair" and often tries to induce Snoopy
to chase rabbits.



Violet

Violet is Patty's best friend. She enjoys teasing Charlie Brown,
especially by telling him she's not going to invite him to her
parties, or shouting out 'nyaah's at him. Like Patty, she
also loves to roller skate.



Patty

She was in the first-ever Peanuts cartoon, with Charlie Brown and
Shermy. Always wears a ribbon in her hair. She usually takes
over the task of insulting Charlie Brown if Violet has to
be home, and loves showing off her roller skating talents.


Shermy

Shermy was one of the first characters in Peanuts. His first appearance
was  in the comic strip's inaugural strip on
October 2, 1950, alongside Charlie Brown and Patty, and he holds
the distinct honor of uttering the only speech in the entire
four-panel strip.


Shermy was vital in the strip's early days, as he was the only
male in the strip's supporting cast while Frieda (1951), Violet
(1951), and Lucy van Pelt (1952) were expanding its female
character base. Many of Schulz's early jokes relied on Shermy,
since there were no other boys around to talk to Charlie Brown,
but the character remained largely undeveloped.

When the Peanuts characters appeared

Charlie Brown - 1950
Snoopy - 1950
Shermy - 1950
Patty - 1950

Violet - 1951
Schroeder - 1951

Lucy - 1952
Linus - 1952


Pig Pen - 1954

Sally - 1959

Frieda - 1961
Faron - 1961 (Frieda's cat)
The Little Red Haired Girl - 1961

Roy - 1965

Peppermint Patty - 1966

Jose Peterson - 1967
Woodstock - 1967

Marcie - 1968
Sophie and Shirley - 1968
Franklin - 1968
Lila - 1968

Thibault - 1970

Poochie - 1973
Re Run - 1973

Loretta - 1974
The Beagle Scouts - 1974

Truffles - 1975
Spike - 1975

Belle - 1976
Floyd - 1976

Ruby, Austin, Leland, and Milo - 1977
Molly Volley - 1977

Eudora - 1978
Crybaby Boobie - 1978

Joe Richkid - 1981

Bad Call Benny - 1982
Marbles - 1982

Harold Angel - 1983
Lydia - 1986
Maynard - 1986
Tapioca Pudding - 1986

Olaf - 1989

Peggy Jean - 1990


Larry - 1991

Cormac - 1992

Royanne - 1993
Ethan - 1993

Andy - 1994

Emily - 1995
Joe Agate - 1995

Justin - 1996

Naomi - 1998
Joe Cactus - 1998


ALL PEANUTS CHARACTERS Copyright United Features Syndicate, Inc


Back To Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Peanuts Index






For Awesome Pet Related Gift Items

     Our Pet Gift Shop



Cute as Buttons Plush Stuffed Animals



Free Dog Care Tips

Free Cat Care Tips

Free Horse Care Tips


Home


Copyright ©
Choose To Prosper