Schulz Museum staff members joined the staff of Peanuts Worldwide, LLC from New York to work at our popular Peanuts booth at Comic Con in San Diego this past weekend. Thousands of people stopped by the booth to purchase exclusive Peanuts-themed Comic-Con product and to say hello to Snoopy, who appeared every day of the event. Snoopy also joined me as I traveled to various TV interviews around San Diego. Snoopy, as usual, stole the show…and I am always happy to have him do so!

Friday afternoon there was a panel celebrating “60 Years of Peanuts” and describing new Peanuts animation on the horizon. The panel was moderated by animation historian Jerry Beck and included me, Paige Braddock (Creative Director of Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates in Santa Rosa), Stephan Pastis (creator of Pearls Before Swine), Marge Dean (General Manager of Wildbrain Studios), and Andy Beall (animation lead for Creative Associates). Andy has many animation credits, most recently with Pixar Studios. It was a typical Peanuts crowd, including parents with children of all ages.

Andy gave a wonderful discussion of how he, the animators, and the color stylists modeled the characters and the backgrounds to mirror the classic 1960s Peanuts animation style. He also discussed the music for the animation, which was created by Mark Mothersbaugh. The newest animated special will be released in 2011. The panel ended with a question and answer period.

On Friday night we attended the annual Eisner Awards, which distinguish artists, writers, publishers, and distributors in the field. One of the traditional Eisner awards is the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, given in memory of the famed animator (he created Beany and Cecil for Warner Bros. Cartoons). I was stunned and honored when I realized that I was being called up for this award. Bob’s daughter, Ruth, presented me with the award—a perfect end for a long and eventful day.

—Jean Schulz