October 8, 1951: Charge

When Charlie Brown needed a direct antagonist in the earliest days, most often Patty would fill that role. Look at the look on her face in panel four here. There is no mirth in her destruction. Her kick is simply a mechanical process. It is the role of CB's toy soldiers, in this world, to be kicked, and it is CB's role to have his toys abused. This is simply the nature of the Peanuts' universe.

October 6, 1951: See how they run

With this one, I think it's time to stop posting Schroeder-as-musician strips solely on that basis. This one's still interesting for presenting a straight-forward look from Violet, which is rather uncommon.

October 5, 1951: Inconsiderate druggist

How about that spread of comic books? Were those days really all that long ago? It's hard to read it here, but I think the comic in the bottom-right corner of panel 2 is Nancy! And beside it is Tip Top, which appears to be a Universal Features Syndicate comic from that period that featured new adventures of their comic characters. (Universal Features Syndicate is Peanuts' owner and distributor.)

This is as good a time as any to talk about the Peanuts comic books. These weren't compilations; they were actual comic books with material created specifically for them. I don't know much about them, but I do know that some (maybe all?) of them have Peanuts art not drawn by Charles Schulz. I remember seeing one book strip somewhere on the web that I saved a copy of (and was probably lost in a recent hard drive crash, unfortunately) which involved Linus and Snoopy meeting a small robot that grabbed Linus' blanket, inserted it into a slot on the robot's body, made a grinding noise for a panel, then neatly pooped it out into a pile of pastel threads.

Forget about Shermy and Faron. Gimmie back Blanket Pooping Robot!

Some information on them appears to be here. Here's Aaugh.com's history and guide to the books.

October 4, 1951: Editorial judgement

How does crossing the message out in panel three result in its seamless alteration in panel four?

Oh, and happy birthday Dad!

October 3, 1951: Guess I'll go eat some worms

Charlie Brown takes a big step towards his familiar personality with this strip, in which Snoopy rejects him in order to beg for Patty's ice cream cone. The falling leaf in the last panel is a nice touch.

October 2, 1951: Year 2

He doesn't get that the adult piano is so big Schroeder's tiny arms couldn't possibly stretch to the end of the keyboard from his seat?

---

This strip marks the beginning of Peanuts' second year of publication. During that time:

The characters of Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, Snoopy, Violet and Schroeder were introduced, and all are still in rotation, although sights of Shermy are already kind of infrequent.  We've also seen an anonymous bird (chased by Snoopy) and an unknown dog (seen chasing a car).  We've heard Charlie Brown talk about his dad, and characters have also with an unseen druggist.

Charlie Brown's already begun to settle into his eternally-pessimistic personality.  Patty is his main antagonist, and sometimes shows signs of malevolence, but not quite up to Lucy's later volcanic standards.  Violet is more girlish in general.  Shermy's pretty much a non-entity.  Snoopy is very doglike, although he sometimes gains human attributes when it suits a joke.  Schroeder was first the strip baby, but very soon became the strip musician, although he's still obviously younger than the other characters.

We've seen a fence a couple of times that CB's seen things drawn on, and he's drawn on it himself.  The characters have spoken of school, but no school scenes have appeared yet.  

Let's have another look at the first strip for comparison purposes:



Eye ovals have become thicker, characters are overall cuter, heads (except for Charlie Brown's) are less ovoid, and, although it's hard to tell with Schroeder's still ill-defined hair, its shape plays a bigger role in defining a character's head.

October 1, 1951: Visual Splendor

I like this one, mostly, because of the quality of the background art. Usually Peanuts didn't lavish that much attention to it (rightfully focusing on the characters), but earlier on there were some nice scenes. Scenes like these.

While we're here, let's take a moment to look at how the characters post in the frames. One of the things about cartooning is that there's really not a huge number of ways to draw each character, and in Peanuts this is often exacerbated by the extreme stylization of the characters.

There are only three poses in this whole strip: walking, standing, and arms-outspread. What's more, three of the panels the characters do nothing more than walk, and two of them would be identical in graphic content if it weren't for the backgrounds, and the fact that they're at the opposite point in their stride (check panels 2 and 4). Later in Peanuts' history the characters would lose some of this flexibility, so Schulz will provide the visual interest in other ways, like zooming in on one character as they sit beneath the Tree, or by having walking characters visit the Wall for a panel.

The stride is an oft-used cartooning trick to show walking: the character at side-view, slightly in the air, one leg out front and the other behind, the arms positioned opposite. But in panel 1, Schulz uses a three-quarters stride, which is rather uncommon.

The explanatory arms-outstretched post in panel 3 I like. Why does this pose seem natural to us?

October 1, 1951: Visual Splendor

I like this one, mostly, because of the quality of the background art. Usually Peanuts didn't lavish that much attention to it (rightfully focusing on the characters), but earlier on there were some nice scenes. Scenes like these.

While we're here, let's take a moment to look at how the characters post in the frames. One of the things about cartooning is that there's really not a huge number of ways to draw each character, and in Peanuts this is often exacerbated by the extreme stylization of the characters.

There are only three poses in this whole strip: walking, standing, and arms-outspread. What's more, three of the panels the characters do nothing more than walk, and two of them would be identical in graphic content if it weren't for the backgrounds, and the fact that they're at the opposite point in their stride (check panels 2 and 4). Later in Peanuts' history the characters would lose some of this flexibility, so Schulz will provide the visual interest in other ways, like zooming in on one character as they sit beneath the Tree, or by having walking characters visit the Wall for a panel.

The stride is an oft-used cartooning trick to show walking: the character at side-view, slightly in the air, one leg out front and the other behind, the arms positioned opposite. But in panel 1, Schulz uses a three-quarters stride, which is rather uncommon.

The explanatory arms-outstretched post in panel 3 I like. Why does this pose seem natural to us?

September 29, 1951: Shermy's dog?

In this strip, it seems that Shermy is Snoopy's owner.

I like this one for the cross-hatching work on the rain in the second and third panels. It's just a really cool effect!

September 28, 1951: Can I have two tens for a five?

This is another of my favorite early strips. It's enough to make me wonder if Charlie Brown has a touch of dyslexia.

The root of this joke, alluded to in the title, is the same as in the old vaudeville routine where a sharp asks a rube for incorrect change. We take more notice that all the necessary things are in the proposition than of whether they're in the correct places.

September 27, 1951: Cigar-Box Banjo

Schroeder actually doesn't do much in the past three strips other than play the piano. The humor comes mostly from the other characters reacting to it. A tremendously silly thing is not as funny as people dealing with it.

As the strip gets older, the characters eventually kind of become creatures of their settings. Schroeder eventually becomes seen in few places other than before his piano, which also means that Lucy, the other resident of their little two-kid pocket universe, becomes his main contact with the rest of the Peanuts world.

September 26, 1951: Yeah, That'd Probably Be Asking Too Much

Another in the Schroeder-as-musical-prodigy series. There is also a first in this strip: it's the first time a character is represented as participating in a real-world organization or event, long before Snoopy's games at Wimbledon.

Let's note the progression of the joke:
Strip 1: Charlie Brown introduces Schroeder to the Piano. The gag: he takes to it immediately, and brilliantly. The punch comes from the suddenness of the ludicrous situation.

Strip 2: Strip beings with the ludicrous situation, set up by the past strip. The gag comes from examining its consequences. Punch is added by making it even more ludicrous, by taking the already-amazing event of a baby playing piano extremely well and making him a composer, one who's even titled his work despite being barely verbal.

Strip 3: Begins again with the ludicrous situation, but now takes it for granted. The punch comes from putting a lampshade on it; Schroeder is talented enough to tackle Braham's First Concerto but not the second because he's "only a baby," even though no baby (except maybe Mozart) could do any of these things. This also subtly normalizes the situation.

In tomorrow's strip it'll be completely normalized, and the humor will come from another character interacting with the bizarre sitation.

September 25, 1951: More Schroeder at the Keys

Look at the piano score in the first panel. Intense. Schulz had been quoted as saying he took time to make the scores accurate and loved how they looked on the page. Keep in mind, at this point Schroeder has only said a couple of words, yet he's already titling his compositions.

Another subtle innovation in these strips is a recurring gag template for Peanuts, the blatantly bizarre thing that is somehow real that the other characters can react to. Snoopy is a particular focus for these kinds of shenanigans later (I remember the "whirlidog" sequence, coincidentally also featuring Schroeder), but Lucy gets into some of it too. It works best if the bizarre character possesses an elemental, "force of nature" style of personality for it's a good way to illustrate their strength of will, by presenting it as triumphing over reality itself.

September 24, 1951: The Ceremonial Changing of the Archetypes

AH, it's Schroeder's first time in front of a toy piano, cementing his long-term role in the strip. We even get a good blush out of Charlie Brown while we're at it.

For purpose of winning trivia quizzes later, note: it is Charlie Brown who introduces Schroeder to the piano.

September 22, 1951: Why is everybody always picking on me?

Stuff like this can't be good for a little round-headed kid's self-esteem. His long-term personality is settling into place. By the way, that's a particularly Calvin-like drawing of him in the second panel.

September 21, 1951: Camping In

How big is that tent? In the first panel Patty is obviously taller than it; in the last, it's taller than her.

September 20, 1951: War of the Sexes, Tricycle Front

Wow. First the girl takes his bicycle, then she basically mugs him for his tricycle! It's almost like they're married! zing!

But do you feel it? That tremor in the ground? That chill in the air? Yes, Patty here is a rehearsal for one of Charles Schulz's great creations: the magnificent, malevolent LUCY.

September 19, 1951: Kitty

Schroeder's first word is "Kitty."

NOT "BEETHOVEN."

September 17, 1951: More forthright than Bill O'Reilly

The key here is Charlie Brown's awareness of his own mental state, and the humor derives from the fact that he knows it and yet refuses to do anything about it.

September 15, 1951: Because Charlie Brown stands in the way?

It's funny, but also seems to suggest that either Charlie Brown is incredibly accident prone, or the other characters are resigned to him standing between them and the post.

September 14, 1951: The wrath of Violet

This is the first strip (or one of them, anyway, I don't remember any others) in which one of the female characters shows unequivocal anger towards Charlie Brown without cause. Later strips would focus on the feelings of the wounded CB in these cases, but here it's just used as a punchline. So even though the subject is similar to modern Peanuts, the strip doesn't yet have the depth of introspection for which people remember it.

If I keep linking every strip like this, we'll be going through it roughly in real time!

September 13, 1951: War of the Sexes, Bicycle Front

There's a Thurber-like quality to this one. Obviously, Patty is a girl who's thinking two moves ahead.

September 12, 1951: Dog vs. Girl

This one's pretty funny, but it's also worth examination due to the subtle way Schulz shows CB's relationship with Snoopy in the first panel. Of course, Snoopy's opinion of the kid declines in the coming years... as does Patty's and Violet's.

September 11, 1951: Snoopy the Lion

Snoopy's animal mimicry talents lead him towards the wild animal fancy that kindles his prodigious imagination.

September 8, 1951: Slide, Charlie Brown, Slide!

For contrast, nine years later on May 20, 1960:

September 7, 1951: Shhh!

This is not the first thing Snoopy has ever said. It is the second. (The first, if you'll remember was "Boo!")

How human is Snoopy? Later he can do just about everything the other characters can except talk, and can even do some other things they cannot, some of them apparently quite special like the "Cheshire Beagle" trick he shows off on multiple occasions. Here he's not gotten his thought balloons yet, but it's obvious he's thinking something. We're just not told what.

September 6, 1951: Another dog?!

It's a dog other than Snoopy or his brothers! This strip establishes that, for now at least, Snoopy is noticeably smaller than other dogs.

September 5, 1951: Before the fall

This strip is sort of like a middle-era strip in theme, except instead of Charlie Brown being left at the end to endure his rejection in solitude, Violet makes up with him immediately.

September 4, 1951: Snoopy's yard

This one shows us, again, that Charlie Brown is probably not Snoopy's owner yet, but that someone owns him, or where else would he have gotten that doghouse? The expectation that his yard should be mown expands Snoopy's personality further; in the middle-era, when his doghouse burned down, it would be revealed that he lost a pool table and a Van Gogh in the fire.

The dial of a rotary phone is also visible here, which things, as I mentioned before, are now receding into memory.

September 3, 1951: Music notation

This is the first strip in which Schulz draws complex music notation, which he said in Peanuts: A Golden Celebration he found challenging yet satisfying to draw. Schroeder's still playing the generic baby, so the two haven't met yet.

I remember that there is a similar early Garfield strip along these lines. Garfield and Odie sing with each other. Jon comes along singing something different, represented by a different note. In the last panel, the animals shout their note at him while Jon reacts in surprise. It's one of the more entertaining early Garfield strips, I seem to remember.

August 31, 1951: A familiar shirt

It's the first use of Schroeder's trademark striped shirt, which is similar to Linus's later. It's the beginning of the character's progression out of babyhood.

August 29, 1951: Dog as shark

Ah-ha! It is the first glimmer of Snoopy's capacity for imagination, which if memory serves began when Snoopy fantasized being different kinds of dangerous wild animals.