Or his future may turn out to be considerably darker.
With the exception of Charlie Brown and possibly Linus (who isn’t really unhappy, but spends a lot of time contemplating larger issues of faith and the human condition…) I think most of the kids are perfectly happy. They may have some specific recurring challenges (Lucy doesn’t own enough real estate, Sally’s unrequited love for Linus, etc) but they seem generally ok.
I do not recall that, with the exception of the one strip “Happiness is a Warm Puppy” (said by Lucy after she hugs Snoopy).
There was a “Happiness is a Warm Puppy” book, which made millions for Schulz, but I don’t recall those “Happiness Is…” bits of treacle in strips.
This is much more typical.
When I was much younger, I wrote to Mr. Schultz and scolded him for that one.
Well there ya go. I find that funny now and would have as a kid too (can’t remember reading that one specifically). It treats a kid’s world as somewhat real, instead of coddling & totally safe. We could use more of this these days, people think kid’s self esteem is so fragile that any & everything is constantly a threat to it!
Or as “Chuck” put it: “I’m going to drown my sorrows in a haircut.”
And since you spelled his name wrong, your letter made him more insecure in two different ways.
Childhood is pretty stressful for kids. Mine certainly was. Trying to fit in, making friends, doing well on schoolwork and sports isn’t easy when you’re eight or nine. Peanuts did a good job portraying these kids in a somewhat realistic way.
The most up lifting Peanuts special is the Christmas special and it airs tomorrow night. 
I look forward to it every year and it always puts a smile on my face.
Good grief is Sally both stacked AND pert!
Or even DARKER than that. Behold:
Link to the first strip. – There are more than 300 by now. Caveat: until strip 14 or so of this comic, the archive system inserts other, non-related strips by the same author. Once you hit strip 15, though, the “next” button keeps you on this comic 
Childhood in THIS universe is miserable, as near as I can tell. Art reflects reality.
Really though, I think Peanuts was more about adult anxiety than a child’s.
For Peppermint Patty, you’d need a wheelbarrow! 
Man, I am having a HELL of a time navigating that site. The random stuff I’m finding looks pretty good, and I liked the writing a bit, but I can’t find my way to the part where it’s all Weapon Brown. I clicked way more than 15 times, and fiddling with the URL by incrementing the number didn’t work out. When you have a comic you obviously put a great deal of effort into, you shouldn’t make it so difficult for people who want to see it. That website is ass.
Ha ha, not so far from the truth.
Woah. I was just going to make a little post about how I never “got” Peanuts, and then I clicked the link in Thudlow Boink’s post, and realized that OP was me, saying the same thing 5 years ago.
Click on “Comic Archive” in the main page and you should have a list of comics clearly labelled, from which you can make sure to find the ones you want.
The problem is that the author made something like 3 different comics at the same time (before concentrating on the one we are talking about) and didn’t separate them at all.
Thanks, that works much better.
Same here, although I don’t think of it so much as dark as brooding. The characters are children but have adult thoughts. It’s not blatantly funny but there’s usually humor in the situations that develop. As for bullies, I assume you are referring to Lucy, who is often intimidating. Although this is true I don’t see her as a true bully because she remains central character within the group. A real bully would be a (usually) much bigger kid who appears as an occasional, menacing force, like Moe in Calvin And Hobbes.
Sitnam: A marathon? I didn’t think there were enough animated Peanuts cartoons to make up a marathon. Was there a regular TV series I never knew about?
I never really cared for the TV specials.
I did used to buy the CB comic strip books. (Loved them)
I remember in one of them Sally Brown found council in talking to the school building. I vaguely remember the building being quite fond of Sally, as the building would drop bricks on people’s head who were not in Sally’s good graces.
(I think that’s how it went.)
Yes. But there were only 18 episodes.
On the other hand, there have been a HELL of a lot of specials.