I’ve said it before, but with gift-gathering time impending, I shall say it again: beware fake Schulz art. There is a lot of counterfeit on the market. I would say that the majority of single-image Peanuts pieces being sold as Schulz on eBay are fake, generally tracings/recreations of Schulz-drawn images.
And it’s not just online sales, either. Elsewhere, I think that a group of us managed to convince someone out of spending thousands of dollars at a gallery for some “Schulz” art that gave us plenty of reason to believe had never come within a hundred miles of Sparky. This wasn’t just one of those cases where someone who has a signed print doesn’t realize it’s a print; some faker had reproduced rather random images out of context and imperfectly.
I haven’t seen much in the way of forged strips; I guess that takes too much work, and the source can be easily identified and examined. But one image’s worth of Schulz (or Seuss, or other cartoonists) is a pretty easy thing to copy. Unless you really know what you’re doing in terms of art authentication, single-image cartoon art is an easy place to get taken advantage of.
(But hey, you know what is a good way to toss your money? Original art commissions. There are plenty of skilled young artists online who would be willing to create a drawing for you at an affordable price. It’s custom, it’s unique, and it’s to your specifications!)
