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Spike, Snoopy’s brother, is a beautiful example of images evoked by a location: we know he lives with the coyotes outside Needles, and that's about all we know. There is about him, with his thin, faintly exotic mustache and soulful eyes, an air of mystery that is totally foreign to what Snoopy is.
~ Charles M. Schulz on Spike[1]

August 13th 1975

The first appearance of Spike in the strip from August 13, 1975.

Spike is a main character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. He is Snoopy's brother who lives alone in the California desert. He first appeared in the strip from August 13, 1975 and has appeared in Peanuts more frequently than any other of Snoopy's siblings. Spike has whiskers which look like a mustache and always wears a hat. In the Sunday strip from October 13, 1996, he is given Mickey Mouse's shoes and often wears them in later strips. He is very skinny in appearance.

History[]

In my comic strip, Snoopy's brother Spike lives near this same desert town [Needles, California], where we usually see him sitting by a saguaro.
~ Charles M. Schulz on Spike and his solitude[2]


Spike is first mentioned on August 4, 1975, when he sends Snoopy a letter saying that he is coming to visit. He is first shown on August 13, and everybody is shocked to see how skinny he is, due to the fact that the coyotes he lives with don't share any food with him. Lucy decides he needs to be fattened up and takes him home, giving him food and milkshakes, letting him sleep in Linus's bed, and lending him Linus's blanket (much to the latter's frustration). When Snoopy tries to threaten the cat next door by claiming his brother who lives with coyotes will fight him, a rather-fattened Spike is scared into running home to Needles by a claw attack on the doghouse.

He returns in a storyline the following November, where he invites Snoopy out to Needles to have Thanksgiving dinner with him and the coyotes. However, due to the two just missing each other Spike ended up coming to Snoopy's house to look for his brother, whereupon Charlie Brown invited Spike to have Thanksgiving dinner (an offer Spike accepted warmly). On his return, he tracked down Linus' blanket (which Snoopy had lost in the desert) and mailed it back.

Originally, he lived with coyotes, but they mistreated Spike, so he moved out, and moved somewhere close to the city of Needles, California, where he lives by himself, with a cactus for company. However, he sometimes leaves Needles to visit Snoopy.

At first, Spike was a minor character, but as time passed, Spike started appearing more frequently. By the 1990s, Spike had arguably become a major character.

In a series of strips from 1996, desperate for a dog of his own, Rerun van Pelt invites Spike to become his pet. After a lengthy trek, Spike arrives at Rerun's home. He does not stay, as Rerun is surprised by how skinny Spike is.

Spike is the main character in the 1988 television special It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown and featured prominently in the specials Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown (1985), Snoopy's Reunion (1991) and I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003). Spike makes a cameo in the credits of The Peanuts Movie (2015), sitting at a table in France with Snoopy, Fifi, and his other siblings.

Quotes[]

SpikeandSchulz

Schulz with his dog Spike

  • The annual meeting of the Cactus Club will now come to order... (Said multiple times)
  • Well, I learned something. Never carry a cactus in a rubber raft. (October 28, 1983)
  • Living in the desert isn't all bad. There's beautiful scenery. And good conversation. Hi rock. (October 12, 1985),
  • When you live on a desert there's nothing more exciting than watching the sun go down. Then what? (January 13, 1992)
  • Sometimes I lie here at night, and it's so lonely so I look up at the stars, and I give them names like they're all friends of mine, and I talk to them. Hi Michelle. (April 11, 1992)
  • Sure life in the desert can be lonely at times. But at least you know you're not going to get hit in the face with a pie. (Gets hit in the face with a pie) Probably. (February 12, 1993)
  • It's hard to explain why balloons are so much fun. (September 3, 1993)
  • Life in the desert is exciting. Last night the sun went down and this morning the sun came up. There's always something happening. (October 12, 1993)

Gallery[]


External links[]

  1. "TV Guide:Feb 23-29"(1980), p26, Triangle Publications
  2. Schulz, C. M. (2010). My Life with Charlie Brown. p58. University Press of Mississippi.
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