There was a boy nicknamed Sparky, for whom school
was all but impossible. He failed just about every subject
in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school
with a grade of zero!

In sports, Sparky fared not much better. He did manage
to make his high school golf team, but lost the most
important match of the season. He lost the consolation
match, too.

While he wasn't actively disliked by the other students,
he was awkward socially, and it seemed no one really
cared. Sparky never once asked a girl to go out in high
school because he was too afraid of being turned down.

There was one thing that was important to Sparky --
drawing. He drew constantly and felt his artwork was pretty
good. In his senior year of high school, he finally got up the
nerve to submit some of his drawings to the yearbook.
Unfortunately, they were rejected.

Nevertheless, after high school, Sparky got up the nerve
again, to submit some cartoons to the Walt Disney Studios.
Finally, the reply came ... Sparky had been rejected once
again.

Sparky expressed himself the only way he knew how. He
started drawing an autobiography of a little boy who was a
loser, a chronic underachiever, someone who didn't even have
the respect of his own dog. This autobiography might sound
familiar to you. It's the story of the "Peanuts" cartoons,
featuring Charlie Brown, a character based on the early life of
his creator, Charles Schultz, who was known by the nickname
Sparky, and whose work, when he died in February 2000, at
the age of 77, had been known the world over for 50 years.