Snoopy, Schultz
EVERHART, Tom
Tom Everhart is the only artist with full creative rights to the "Peanuts" characters created by Charles Schulz (1922 –2000). In 1980 Tom graduated from the School of Art and Architecture at Yale University. He got a freelance job drawing renderings of Schulz's characters. Everhart then began working with "Peanuts" imagery exclusively.
In 1980, he was introduced to cartoonist Charles Schulz at Schulz's studios in Santa Rosa, Calif. A few weeks prior to their meeting, Everhart, having no education in cartooning, found himself involved in a freelance project that required him to draw and present Peanuts renderings to Schulz's studios. Preparing as he would the drawings and studies for his large-scale nature related paintings; he blew up the cartoonist's strips on a 25-foot wall in his studio which eliminated the perimeter lines of the cartoon box, leaving only the marks of the cartoonist.
His first show was at the famous Paris Louvre Museum in January 1990. In 1991, Schulz & United Media, drafted a legal pact allowing Tom exclusive rights to use subject matter from Schulz's "Peanuts" strip in his art for "the term of his life.” "Peanuts" is the most popular & influential strip in the history of the genre, and earned Schulz over $1 billion. His decision to tap Everhart as the sole steward of his creation is an honor the artist happily devoted his life.