Introduction
Dr.
is one of my favorite Substackers for a variety of reasons, but it was her “Horror Moments” series of articles examining the horror elements of various pop culture properties that was the lure that got me to bite the hook and become a true fan. Dr. King is witty and insightful and I enjoy reading her takes on horror and society. Recently, she’s covered one of the great horror and illustrators Edward Gorey in a string of articles that opened with a discussion comparing Edward Gorey to illustrator and cartoonist Charles Addams. The opening piece in that series was called “Killing Cartoon Children” and it immediately brought to mind one of the strangest bits of trivia regarding Charles Schulz’s Peanuts Universe. You see, there is an Ax Murderer somewhere in Charlie Brown’s neighborhood.
Did You Say Ax Murderer?
That’s right, there is an Ax Murderer living in Charlie Brown’s neighborhood with one confirmed kill, but possibly more depending on how you interpret the disappearances of various characters from the Peanuts timeline.
It all started on November 30th of 1954 when Charles Schulz introduced a new character to the Peanuts strip named Charlotte Braun. Schulz had been looking for a female foil/counterpart to the Charlie Brown character who was a polar opposite in a variety of ways. After all, irony and tension are the root of comedy and what better irony than a directly contrasting character. Where Charlie Brown was quiet and unassuming, Charlotte Braun was loud and unbearable.
Charlotte Braun only appeared in 10 total Peanuts strips and she never built a real connection with audiences. She did, however, annoy a young reader named Elizabeth Swaim. Elizabeth, who was 19 or 20 at the time (she was 66 when she died in 2000), write Schulz a letter complaining about Charlotte Braun and asked Schulz to “give her the ax.” Schulz responded to Swaim’s letter in January of 1955 where he stated, “I am taking your suggestion regarding Charlotte Braun, I will eventually discard her.” He adds that Charlotte will only appear in the future if it was in an already written/drawn story that had been submitted (cartoonists typically submit in advance), or if Schulz receives fan mail from someone saying they like her.
It’s somewhat reminiscent of what DC Comics would do decades later with the Jason Todd Robin. If fans wanted to keep Robin alive, he’d live, otherwise the Joker would kill him. In this case, Schulz was more forgiving than DC in that he only required a single fan to say they like the character to forestall the death. I looks like no one ever wrote in as a fan though because on February 1, 1955 she uttered her last words, afterwards she faced the Ax. As you can see from the picture below, she was literally given an Ax to the head and Schulz reminded Swaim that the death was on her conscience.
What makes this Ax death all the more chilling is that Charlotte’s final words were straight out of a horror film like Black Phone. She is saying goodbye to Charlie Brown and says, “I’M SORRY I CAN’T STAY AN’ TALK.. I HAV TO GET HOME..” Notice the ellipses there. There’s a kind of open ended dread to this encounter. Charlotte would only be featured in 10 total Peanuts strips before she was given the Ax.
But Charlotte is not the only character to mysteriously disappear from the panels of Peanuts. She’s just the only one where we know her actual fate. She was hit in the head with the Ax while on the way home. We only know her real fate because Ms. Swaim shared the letter she received from Mr. Schulz, but what was the fate of the other characters who disappeared?
What happened to 5 and his family of number named siblings? He was introduced as a friend of Linus in 1963, but he and his family were last seen in 1983. Did they meet a similar fate to Charlotte? Were they too, given the Ax?
What of Molly Volley who appeared from 1977 to 1990. After losing a doubles match where she was partnered with Snoopy, she declares she will never partner with him again and she is never seen from that day forward.
Lydia, who was a romantic interest of Linus’s when she was first introduced in 1986, but she rejects Linus, only to pursue him later, and eventually vanishes from Peanuts in 1999 (close to the end of the strip so that’s less mysterious).
The original Patty, not Peppermint Patty, was one of the original Peanuts characters in 1950 and was the first Peanuts character to interact with Snoopy. She eventually faded into the background and her final appearance was in 1997. Still, 47 years is a good run, but we must remember that since the Peanuts characters don’t really age that her disappearance happens in the mysterious “perpetual youth” of the series.
The other original Peanuts character, Shermy, was a mainstay for a while and then disappeared from 1954 to 1959 as other characters came to the fore. He did reappear for a while before disappearing forever in 1969.
There are other characters, to be sure, but I want to focus on a character central to Snoopy’s life and the focus of one of the animated specials. Lila was Snoopy’s original owner, a young girl who adopted him but had to return him when her parent’s landlord forbade pets. In August of 1968, Snoopy receives a letter that she is in the hospital and that she needs him. He visits her in the hospital on August 24, 1968 where she has her one and only visual appearance in the comic strip. Why is she in the hospital? We don’t know. What is her fate? We can guess because of Snoopy’s demeanor on the 26th of August 1968. He is sad and quiet. Her disappearance is probably health related, but it is evidence that Schulz was willing to touch on sad and darker subjects in his cartoon strip.
As for the others who disappeared…were they given the Ax? Is there an Ax murderer in Charlie Brown’s neighborhood? What secrets lie in the shadows of the Pumpkin Patch?
Look, Schulz had a very large cast of characters by comic strip standards. If he felt he'd exhausted a character's potential (which I think was what really happened in these cases), he wouldn't use them again. I seriously cannot picture him wielding a blood-soaked axe by any means...