People

By Guy D. Garcia

"Life is full of choices," Charlie Brown once observed, "but you never get any." That bit of wisdom might also be applied to the life of his creator, Charles Schulz, 64, who notes, "It seems beyond the comprehension of people that someone can be born to draw comic strips, but I think I was." Last week the soft-spoken artist was inducted into the Cartoonists Hall of Fame for 37 years of his Peanuts comic strip, which is carried in some 2,000 papers in 36 countries. Schulz is characteristically reflective about the enduring popularity of Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. "They're nice little kids," he explains, "not overly sweet -- people you can live with day after day." Nonetheless, Schulz bridles at critics who suggest that the strip has gone stale in recent years, insisting, "It is better drawn, and it has more depth than ever." What's more, Schulz still works from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., five days a week. Says he: "It's one of the few situations in my life where I feel totally secure." Linus would understand.

With reporting by David E. Thigpen/New York