Charles Schulz (1922-2000)
Over nearly fifty years, Schulz drew every one of his 17,897 Peanuts comic strips by himself, without the aid of assistants. The demands of producing six daily strips and a Sunday page required a regular schedule, and Schulz fulfilled his duties in a businesslike manner, devoting seven hours a day, five days a week, to Peanuts. On weekdays he rose at daybreak, took a shower, shaved, and woke his children for breakfast (usually pancakes, prepared by his wife). At 8:20, Schulz drove the kids to school in the family station wagon, stopping to pick up the neighbor’s children on the way. Then it was time to sit down at the drawing board, in the private studio beside his house. He would begin by doodling in pencil while he let his mind wander; his usual method was to “just sit there and think about the past, kind of dredge up ugly memories and things like that.” Once he had a good idea, however, he would work quickly and with intense concentration to get it onto paper before the inspiration dried up.
Schulz stayed in his studio for lunch–almost always a ham sandwich and a glass of milk–and continued working until around 4:00, when the kids returned home from school. The regularity of the work suited his temperament and helped him cope with the chronic anxiety he suffered throughout his life. “I would feel just terrible if I couldn’t draw comic strips,” Schulz once said. “I would feel very empty if I were not allowed to do this sort of thing.”
* Source: Daily Rituals by Mason Currey