The Horrific Demise of a Peanuts Character

Charles Schulz drew 17,897 Peanuts comic strips over nearly 50 years. In the 1950s, though, he was still experimenting with the Peanuts gang. One of the characters he introduced in 1954 was named Charlotte Braun, who was loud, extroverted, and everything the beloved Charlie Brown was not. She was obviously intended to be the anti-Charlie Brown. The problem was that Charlotte had no redeeming qualities, nor any underlying issues that readers could relate to, and they really disliked her. She only appeared in ten strips, and then disappeared forever. Charlotte's absence was never addressed in the strip, and no one thought much of it.

Fast forward to the year 2000. Following Schultz's death, 66-year-old Elizabeth Swaim submitted a letter that she had received from Schulz in 1955 to the Library of Congress. It was Schultz's response to her complaint about Charlotte Braun. No doubt it wasn't the only complaint that Schulz received about the character, but it may be the only reply that revealed what happened to her behind the scenes. Read the story of Charlotte Braun and her untimely death at the hands of Charles Schulz at Mental Floss. -via Strange Company