I read your strip in this week's Village Voice today, and it brought tears to my eyes. At first I thought it was going to be some sick, inappropriate joke about a dead man, but I was clearly wrong. I want to commend you on writing such a heartfelt strip in memory of Charles Schulz. It was beautiful . . .
-Heather
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Subject: Schulz
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 13:25:10 -0500
Hi...just saw your strip about Charles Schulz in today's FLAGPOLE here in Athens. It speaks highly of Schulz that he would meet with you like that. Thanks for the story and best wishes.
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Subject: Schulz
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 12:33:31 -0600
Though I generally loathe your politics, I admire your wit and your work. I write to thank you for an excellent tribute to Charles Schulz, who for me penned one of the five all time greats (along with Krazy Kat, Pogo, Bloom County, and Calvin & Hobbes).
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Subject: Schulz tribute
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 19:54:46 -0800
Tom,
I'm just writing to express my appreciation for your This Modern World strip about Charles Schulz. Reading your strip in Willamette Week was a reminder of what this remarkable man was like and what his life and work can teach us.
Right now the Oregonian is running "back strips" of Peanuts because they just can't let go. I'm ambivalent about that. Reading these old strips being passed off as new ones seems somewhat morbid now for some reason.
There was something moving about some of what Schulz did with the strip in his final years as well. The dedication to continue alone was impressive enough, but it made the strip continue to be a uniquely personal expression. It was informed by his own life experiences; Snoopy's reminiscences of WWII were especially moving as a reminder of the last "good war" and the sacrifices endured in winning it.
Thank you for the tribute, and thanks for delivering a strip that is a constant antidote to what I see every day in the conventional media, which would have you believe that all the liberals have been driven out of the country by now.
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Subject: Tribute to Charles Schulz
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 23:16:56 EST
Tom:
I just picked up this week's issue of the Memphis Flyer and saw your tribute to Charles Schulz. It is very cool. Thanks for taking the time to honor him.
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Subject: Charles Schulz
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 23:27:41 -0500
I just read you piece in the Feb. 19th Creative Loafing about your experience with Charles Schulz. It hit home for me. I am 37 now but when I was in 3rd grade my teacher gave us a project to write someone that was important to us. I was a Snoopy fanatic. I drew Snoopy all day long and had all of the little soft back books. I wasn't that good but at that age I thought I was. I drew several pictures of Snoopy and sent them in a letter to Mr. Schulz. To my surprise he wrote back. He also sent me a drawing he had done. God, I wish I knew where they were now. I never became a cartoonist and for good reason, but I will never forget the fact that he took time to write me back. When I read about your experience it hit home because I was nobody, just a 3rd grader, but he took the time to respond. I am sure you had an incredible afternoon with him.
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Subject: follow-up on Sparky
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 23:36:48 -0600
Dear Tom/Dan,
Although I typically devour every well-deserved swipe you take at our media and political thugs, I found your recent TMW appreciation of Charles Schulz (City Pages, 2/16/00) to be genuine and moving. I didn't know what to expect when I saw the strip would address Schulz's passing, and your approach was quite appropriate.
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Subject: this modern world
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 17:53:11 -0800 (PST)
Just wanted to say how much I appreciated your tribute to Charles Schulz in our paper today. Also really enjoyed your interview in the same paper (ILLINOIS TIMES) a few weeks back. I wait for the paper's arrival for new reasons now.
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Subject: Schultz tribute
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 08:28:11 -0500
Dear Mr. Tomorrow, I am from Dayton, Ohio and I read your comic in the local weekly independent newspaper called the Impact Weekly. While I do not agree with all of your political or social views, I am a fairly conservative Republican and you seem to be a liberal Independent, I do appreciate your humor and sense of irony. I also like that you sometimes pick on liberals as well. Unlike a lot of liberal editorial cartoonist, when you make a point you at least seem to have done your research and have a well thought out position, and I respect that( even if I don't agree with it).
However, this message is not about any political or social topic. It is about your tribute to the late Charles Schultz. I found your tribute to him this week one of the most moving and heart warming anecdotes I have ever heard. I thank you for sharing it with us.
Keep up the good work.
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Subject: Your Tribute to Schulz
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 21:48:54 -0800
Hi -
Just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your tribute to Charles Schulz - too many other cartoonists, while obviously well-intentioned, have been doing variations on the same basic (and cloyingly sentimental) gag about "Charlie Brown goes to heaven." Yours is one of the few that actually focuses on the man, the cartoonist, the great talent that's gone forever.
Thanks, from a fan - of both of you.
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Subject: Schulz Tribute
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 00:25:02 PST
Dear Tom,
Though I have been a fan of your strip for quite some time, I have never felt as compelled to write to you as I do now. I just saw the wonderful tribute to Charles Schulz that you did, and I feel that we both had very similar experiences.
I am currently an animator for Disney, and reside in Orlando.
Though I am not in the comic strip field, it was "Peanuts" that made me want to become an artist in the first place. I wrote a fan letter to Sparky last summer, saying that I was planning a trip to California and was wondering if I could meet him while I was there. Little did he know that I was going to be nowhere near Santa Rosa, and that I'd gladly spend a full day's drive to get there. He generously invited me to come to his studio, where we had a conversation pertaining to art and artists as well (his greatest quote: "Isn't 'Garfield' terrible?")
It was a day that I will never forget, and your strip made me realize just how many artists he probably spent his valuable time meeting so selflessly. I wish you much success with "This Modern World" - Thanks for the great tribute.
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Subject: couldn't get it off my mind....
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 05:14:30 -0800 (PST)
I was brousing through the RFT the other day when I ran across your strip in memory to Charles Schulz. The first time I read it, I thought it was impressive. Not to long or short, and not to "wordy." My real appreciation of it came over the weekend when I saw Mr. Schulz draw a picture of Snoopy. That "gentle breeze" pinstroke rememded me of how artful an image you painted of him in your cartoon. That reflection conjured up memories of the background music usually heard in his cartoon episodes I so fond of growing up.
In all, exellent piece of work.
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Subject: A Tribute To Charles Schulz
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 14:57:20 -0600
Your work is always amusing and entertaining, and generally thought-provoking as well. I don't think anything I write will sufficiently impart my appreciation and admiration of TMW. Describing Schulz's line work as trembling "like leaves in a gentle breeze" reminds me of the beautiful and moving haiku of Basho.
Thank you for sharing your talent with me and your other readers.
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Subject: Charles Schulz comic
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 07:36:49 -500
Mr. Tomorrow-
I have been a fan of Charles Schulzs' for many years. And when he died I read all the tributes and write-ups in all the papers in North Carolina. But of all I read, your comic tribute to Mr. Schulz was by far the best. I must say, you actually inspired a tear to my eye. And that is not an easy feat. So, I would just like to say thank you for dedicating a minute to the man who I could always depend on to make me smile...
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Subject: Schulz strip
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 13:21:53 -0500 (EST)
I've been a "This Modern World" reader for a long time. I just read the strip commemorating Charles Schulz, and I thought it was the best I've seen yet.
I read somewhere, "scratch a cynic, find an idealist." Your tribute managed to be touchingly genuine, and to show the humanity that your strip usually buries beneath Sparky's shades and acerbic demeanor.
Thanks.