What happened to Pig Pen in the Peanuts comics?

A 4th grade student reads during class at La Salle Primary...
A 4th grade student reads during class at La Salle Primary... | Gerhard Joren/GettyImages

When it comes to the Peanuts comics, we think of certain characters more than others. Obviously Snoopy and Charlie Brown are the focal point of the comics, but there are other well-known characters that come to mind as well.

One character that many comic readers might remember is Pig Pen. This character was a friend of Charlie Brown's who was known for being covered in dirt and dust, even minutes after getting clean. But if you are a true comic faithful, then you might have noticed that Pig Pen seems to be missing from the comic rotation.

It turns out that poor Pig Pen was actually written out of the comics. That being said, the character did have a decently long run.

Pig Pen was ultimately written out of the Peanuts comics over the years

According to CBR, Pig Pen was removed over time. While the character was first introduced in July of 1954, over the years it seems that Charles Shulz (the man behind Peanuts) had seemingly run out of ideas for the little boy. And Pig Pen's final appearance in a new comic took place on September 8, 1999.

We were shocked to realize that it has been 25 years since Pig Pen appeared in a Peanuts comic. Perhaps it is the popularity of Peanuts and its characters that made us miss out on the fact that there were no new storylines featuring this character. And even the times he did show up in the later years were mostly just cameo moments, which means that it really did make sense to stop writing the character into the comics.

In a lot of ways, Pig Pen is pretty iconic in his own right. But it turns out that there simply aren't any stories that work for a little boy who can't or won't stay clean, at least not anymore.

At least we have the old comics and specials featuring Pig Pen to look back at when we want to see this character. Although we admit that most of our focus is on Snoopy and Woodstock at this point. But it is clear that there won't be anything new and fresh featuring Pig Pen.