Saturday, October 23, 2010

May 27, 1953: Falling off the Tricycle

Peanuts

This is a funny strip I think.

Charlie Brown is the most versatile, by far, member of the cast. He can by turns be a smart-aleck, a victim, a bit of a jerk, a bit stupid, sly, witty, determined or hopeful.

Patty is becoming less of a foil for Charlie Brown, and Violet is turning against him generally. Those two characters mostly exist to bounce off of CB; Schulz seems less able to think of things for them to do on their own. Shermy has even less of his own existence.

Schroeder probably has the deepest private life of all the characters. Lucy and Linus sometimes each get strips to themselves, although, strangely, not too many with just the two of them. Snoopy gets his own strip sometimes too; he hasn't made a habit of having his own thoughts yet, though, so most of the time his strips have to be pantomime which is harder to write.

How do you fall off a tricycle?

2 comments:

  1. Yet another strip that I remember from the Fawcett collections...

    This one is interesting because it illustrates how the Peanuts characters are still very much children and have not yet evolved into miniature adults. A kid getting hurt -- however superficially -- would be big news in a tightly-knit group of small children. Moreover, as the strip progresses, toys and most other childhood trappings disappear for the most part... and this would include tricycles.

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