Fans and fellow cartoonists have been paying tribute to Charles M Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, who has died aged 77.

"In a couple of centuries, when people talk about American artists, he'll be one of the very few remembered," said long-time friend Sergio Aragones, an illustrator for Mad magazine.

"And when they talk about comic strips, probably his will be the only one ever mentioned."

Many readers of BBC News Online also sent in their tributes to Mr Schulz - a few of the estimated 350 million people who read his strips.

Extraordinarily, the cartoonist's death was announced the very day that his final Peanuts strip appeared in American newspapers.

Mr Schulz was diagnosed with colon cancer and suffered a series of small strokes during emergency abdominal surgery last November. He announced his retirement soon afterwards.

50th anniversary

The Peanuts comic strip first appeared in October 1950. It eventually ran in more than 2,400 newspapers, reaching readers in 68 countries.

There will be no new Peanuts cartoons. Under the terms of Mr Schulz's contract, no other artist can take on the strip after his death.

Mr Schulz twice won the Reuben Award, comic art's highest honour. In 1978, he was named International Cartoonist of the Year, an award voted by 700 of his peers from around the world.

"He worked every day. He never ran out of ideas," Mr Aragones said. "He was a cartoonist, a true cartoonist."

Mr Schulz was to have been honoured with a lifetime achievement award on 27 May at the National Cartoonists Society convention in New York.

Lynn Johnston, the creator of For Better or For Worse, was among the many cartoonists to consider Mr Schulz a mentor.

"He was every single one of the characters he drew. And he used to say, 'If you want to know me, read my work.' And that's the truth."

Much-loved characters

BBC News Online readers wrote in with fond memories of the Peanuts cartoons.

Al Samujh, of England, said: "My very first wages, at age 13, were spent on Peanuts anthologies. Twenty-two years later, they are still on the shelf here, a little dog-eared and thumbed, but still here."

An American Peanuts fan, Mike, of Boston, wrote: "Your passing made me, a 40-year-old man, cry like a child. Charlie Brown will never pitch that no-hitter, but you hit one out of the park".

Gretl Coudrille, of the UK, simply said: "Is there a Nobel Prize for bringing JOY?"