The Dog on the Denim

The Peanuts Christmas special is one of those things I’ve probably seen fifty times and would watch again tonight without a second thought. Same with the 3D film. And if I spot a Peanuts paperback at a train station newsstand, I buy it immediately—I’ve never once regretted it. There’s something about Charles Schulz’s strip that doesn’t age the way other childhood things do. The summer camp anxieties, the first crush humiliations, the small daily defeats: they were never really children’s stories. They were just life, drawn small and given a beagle.

Schulz first published under the title "Li’l Folks" in 1947, signing early strips with his nickname Sparky. Peanuts ran from October 2, 1950 until February 13, 2000—the last Sunday strip. He died the day before it ran, February 12, as if he’d arranged it. He’d also specified that the strip should end with him: no continuation, no new hands. Hergé said the same about Tintin. Some creators understand that a thing becomes something else the moment its author leaves.

So what we get instead are collaborations, and most of them are cynical—the IP on a phone case, Snoopy’s face on a fast-food cup. The Levi’s x Peanuts collection is better than that. The characters appear on jeans, tees, hoodies, trucker jackets, and accessories with enough restraint that the clothes still feel wearable rather than costumed. There’s a linen tote bag with a Snoopy graphic and the word "Totes" printed across the top, which is exactly the kind of quiet visual joke Schulz himself might have appreciated. These characters were always a little melancholy under the cute. Good denim, too.