As Schulz's first regular cartoon, Li'l Folks can be regarded as an embryonic version of Peanuts, centered around children saying things beyond their years.

Unlike Peanuts, Li'l Folks did not feature any recurring characters, though several themes were carried over to the later strip, including: Beethoven's music (which was applied to Peanuts character Schroeder); dogs resembling Snoopy that appeared in most strips; and the name Charlie Brown.

[1] It then moved to the St. Paul Pioneer Press; Li'l Folks ran in the women's section of the paper.

Schulz quit two years into the strip after the editor turned down his requests for a pay increase and a move of Li'l Folks from the women's section to the comics pages.

By this point, Schulz had redeveloped Li'l Folks with a four-panel strip format and a set cast of characters, rather than different nameless children for each page.