More than 80 farms across the U.S. and Canada have trimmed their hedges in honor of “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz and his timeless characters.
The Corn Maze Farmers have partnered with Peanuts Worldwide to create a “Peanuts”-themed attraction, the Associated Press reported.
According to the Schulz Museum, Schulz published his first cartoon 75 years ago, in October 1950, when he was 27 years old. It was serialized in seven newspapers across the country.
Popular characters from the Peanuts brand include Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and Peppermint Patty.
The Peanuts comics, which the Schulz Museum describes as “observant, wry, nostalgic, bittersweet and silly,” were distributed in more than 2,600 newspapers worldwide by December 1999.
Jill Schulz, the actress and daughter of Charles M. Schulz, told The Associated Press that seeing farmers dedicate their land to her father and his work keeps his “legacy” alive.
She joked that she couldn’t grow houseplants, but respected farmers’ hard work and dedication to their work.
Each maze was specially designed for each farm, which ranges from 1.5 to 20 acres and is primarily grown in corn and sunflowers.
Each maze was custom built by MAiZE Inc.
According to the Associated Press, the company’s past campaigns have included those for presidential candidates, Oprah Winfrey and John Wayne.
This October marks the 75th anniversary of the debut of “Peanuts” and will mark the end of Schulz’s illustrious career.
The Schulz Museum noted that while full-page cartoons were more common in the 1920s and 1930s, newspapers in the 1940s and 1950s were promoting minimalism, which prompted Schulz to change the direction of his cartooning.
“But newspaper editors in the late 1940s and ’50s promoted the postwar minimalist model, pressuring cartoonists to reduce the size of their strips, minimize pen strokes and sharpen their humor with everyday gags and intellectual humor for an increasingly cultured readership,” the Schulz Museum says on the organization’s website.
Since then, the “Peanuts” phenomenon has expanded beyond newspapers to books, animated television specials, theme parks and a Broadway musical.
Schulz has received many honors throughout his career, including an Emmy Award for his animated television specials.
He has been recognized by the U.S. government, had a NASA spacecraft named after him and inspired a concert performance at Carnegie Hall, according to the museum’s website.
Schultz retired just one month before his death in February 2000 in Santa Rosa, California.
