For a comic strip that its creator declared was ‘about nothing’, made up only of ‘little incidents’, Peanuts’ influence on culture and society is nothing short of seismic. The cultural footprint of Charles Schulz is unlike anything else. For the second half of the 20th century, from 1950 to 2000, Schulz’s creation dominated the comics page, becoming the most popular comic strip of all time and exerting a huge influence on society and pop culture.

Peanuts’ appeal was universal: It was beloved by young and old, by the intelligentsia as well as the masses; it was the definition of mainstream, yet it was also embraced by the counterculture. It was bitterly pessimistic, yet never succumbed to despair and nihilism. Schulz had existentialist and humanist leanings worthy of Jean-Paul Sartre or Samuel Beckett. The philosophy of existentialism suggests that we live in an empty universe and have no choice but to strive to make sense out of it. (Try again, fail again, fail better, says Beckett.) Schulz was never one to shy away from difficult questions.

This season we celebrate the deft, subtle humour of Schulz inherent in some of our favourite single panels collected from strips spanning 3 decades.