Charles M. Schulz and his life's work, Peanuts, expired at virtually the same moment the night of Feb. 12. As delivery trucks dropped off early editions of papers containing the farewell Sunday Peanuts strip, Schulz suffered a fatal heart attack and passed away in his sleep in his Santa Rosa home at 9:35 p.m.

Schulz had chosen to retire the strip after being diagnosed with colon cancer in mid-November. The cancer had been discovered in the course of abdominal surgery, during which Schulz had suffered a series of small strokes.

The final daily strip appeared Jan. 3, but, because of the longer lead time required for the color strip, the final Sunday strip did not appear until Feb. 13. Schulz' attorney and friend Ed Anderson told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat Schulz had been anxious about the appearance of the final strip and the ending of his career as a cartoonist. In several interviews, Schulz had described cartooning as "my life." The strip is continuing with reprints drawn from 1974 and later.

After the announcement of his illness and retirement, Schulz had been witness to an outpouring of support and affection from his readers and countless tributes by fellow artists, the most recent of which included a three-page strip by Art Spiegelman in the Feb. 14 New Yorker and the current edition of Chris Ware's syndicated strip for alternative weeklies.

(See TCJ #221 for a full report.)

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