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-------- Original Message -------- Subject: FYI per your request Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 14:41:21 EST From: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] Creator Charles Schulz; On His Retirement:All I Care About Now Is Tomorrow; I Want To Feel Better Tomorrow' NEW YORK, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, who announced his retirement last week, tells Newsweek, "All I care about now is tomorrow; I want to feel better tomorrow." Schulz, already suffering from Parkinson's disease, had several small strokes in November and underwent surgery, during which doctors diagnosed colon cancer. Hardly able to draw, he announced that there would be no daily "Peanuts" strips after Jan. 3 and none for Sundays after Feb. 13. The ideas do not come anymore, and since his strokes he often struggles to find the right expression, reports Senior Editor Sharon Begley. "Words are just gone," he tells Newsweek in the current issue. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991218/HSSU002 ) In an interview with West Coast Editor Mark Miller, which appears as part of the cover package, "Good Grief: After 50 Years, the Creator of 'Peanuts' Says Farewell to Charlie Brown," in the January 1, 2000 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, December 20), Schulz says his decision to retire was not hard to make. "I used to think of cartoons all the time. Lying in bed at night, or driving in my car. Right now? Not a bit." Schulz also weighs in on the competition. When asked to compare his strip to the more satirical or cynical comics of today, like "South Park," he says: "Lee Mendelson [his longtime animation producer] and I keep saying, 'We don't care what those other people do, we can still do something that is decent,' and we have beaten every one of them." Schulz, who says the strips were always his ideas and that he lettered every one, admits there is a melancholy streak running through his work. He tells Miller, "I'm glad you bring that word up because I have said that about myself a lot. It's just who I am ... I wouldn't doubt that it is a part of a lot of other cartoonists or comedians. I think it is part of all of us ..." He adds, "Have you noticed that I do a lot of spiritual things? [On the CBS Christmas Special] I said, 'We cannot do this show without the passage from St. Luke. I don't care what CBS thinks.' I liked Biblical things," he tells Miller. (Article attached. Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.com . Click "Pressroom.") For 50 years, 'Peanuts' has tickled America's funny bone. But more than that, Charles Schulz's characters mirrored our lives and taught us timeless lessons about faith, hope and love. You were a good man, Charlie Brown.