The Best 'Peanuts' Great Pumpkin Comic Strip Came Out 2 Years Before the Famous TV Special

In 1966, CBS debuted the now-classic television special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. In it, all the kids in the Peanuts gang take part in typical Halloween activities, including trick-or-treating and pumpkin-carving — except for Linus. Instead, Linus is preparing for the arrival of a mythical being known as the “Great Pumpkin.” As Linus explains, “Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere,” then he distributes toys to the children waiting for him.

Linus spends the special writing letters to the Great Pumpkin and trying to convince others of its existence. Then he spends Halloween night in a pumpkin patch, awaiting the Great Pumpkin’s arrival. Of course, the Great Pumpkin never emerges, but Linus still vows to wait again next year.

To the casual Peanuts fan, that may be all they ever know of Linus and the Great Pumpkin, but dedicated readers of the Peanuts comic strip know there’s much, much more to the story. The Great Pumpkin was first mentioned in a Peanuts comic on Oct. 26, 1959. In it, Linus is writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin when Lucy asks, “What in the world are you doing?” In reply, Linus says, “Don’t you know?

This is the time of year when we all write to the ‘Great Pumpkin’ and tell him what we want for Halloween. The ‘Great Pumpkin’ loves little children. I can see him now, rising up out of the pumpkin patch with his big bag of toys!” Meanwhile, Lucy just stares at him, dumbfounded.

The very next day, Charles Schulz released a similar strip with Linus again chattering on about the Great Pumpkin, while Charlie Brown stares blankly at him. There are a few more strips where people just stare at Linus in disbelief. Charlie Brown eventually tells him, “You’re crazy.” Of course, the Great Pumpkin never arises out of the earth to disperse presents.

And it certainly doesn’t respond to any letters. Charlie Brown and Lucy even tease Linus about it after Halloween. For the next few years, Schulz would repeat the pattern.