Fantagraphics Books (my publisher!) has been issuing volumes of Peanuts strips in collections covering two calendar years. I grew up in Sebastopol, a small Northern California town. I remember being told that Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts lived in town somewhere, that a kid or two I knew had even been to a pool party at this house. If I ever saw Schulz’s house I didn’t know it. So I’m reading vol. 7 of The Complete Peanuts and I come upon a character with a gimmicky name. It seems the boy is named “5.” What is his last name? “95472”
That’s Sebastopol’s zip code. Funny. 5’s sisters’ names are 3 and 4. I have read many collections of Peanuts strips over the years — as well as reading each new strip as it appeared — and I don’t recall these characters. I thought they must have been dropped soon after they were created. There’s not much you can do with such a gimmick. But a little research told me that 5 appeared off and on up to 1983, 20 years after his creation.
Most significantly, the three number-named kids appear in the first Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are three kids who only appear in a dance scene. Two stringy-haired girls face the camera, smiling, and drop their heads from side to side. A boy with short spiky hair juts out his chin, then pulls it in. Those are 5, 4, and 3. None of them have any lines. But with Peanuts’ limited cast, I guess these otherwise seldom used characters helped fill up a crowd scene. (Credit to Karl Heitmuller for putting together the clues.)
source:
The Complete Poems, vol. 7: 1963-1964
by Charles Schulz
2017. Fantagraphics Books, Seattle WA
