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Comic strip artist Robb Armstrong was 6 when Franklin, the first Black "Peanuts" character, debuted in Charles M. Schulz's beloved comic strip on July 31, 1968.
A schoolteacher, Harriet Glickman, had written to Schulz after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that April.
She believed that introducing a Black character into Charlie Brown's world would have a positive effect on a society that was so racially divided. The correspondence eventually led to the creation of Franklin.
"I know seeing Franklin in a newspaper changed my life," Armstrong says. "The month he came into 'Peanuts' was the same month my brother was killed in an accident. I remember feeling a ray of hope. At that time, you didn't see this representation in the newspaper."
Now almost 56 years later, viewers will finally learn what brought Franklin to the "Peanuts" world in a new Apple TV+ special premiering Friday, "Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin." Armstrong, who went on to form a friendship with the legendary Schulz, co-wrote the special.
Armstrong met Schulz, whom he refers to by his nickname "Sparky," a few months after his comic strip "JumpStart" was syndicated in 1989.
A lifelong "Peanuts" fan, he named the comic's two main characters, Marcy and Joe, after Peppermint Patty's best friend, Marcie, and Snoopy's alter ego, Joe Cool.
Schulz invited Armstrong to his home after Armstrong sent him a "JumpStart" comic that found Marcy mistaking the lyrics to "Hang on Sloopy" as "Hang on Snoopy."
"He said, 'Robb your strip is great. "JumpStart" has what "Peanuts" has -- great characters.' I remember that and save that for whenever I have to sit down and do this job," Armstrong says. "He had a professional respect for me and always dealt with me as if I was on his level."
Still, Armstrong says he was unprepared when Schulz called him to say that Franklin would be getting the last name "Armstrong" as an homage to him in the 1994 TV special "You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown."
"I was very close to this character long before this opportunity arose," he says of getting to write Franklin's origin story.
Craig Schulz is continuing...