Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Week of July 19-24: Some more Pig-Pen

July 19:

There are certain problems with having a genius for a friend. Sometimes, when a melody strikes your head at just the right angle, you just have to get it out, your prized copy of Detective Comics #1 not withstanding.

I like how Charlie Brown still calls it a "comic magazine." I guess that term was current at the time.

July 20:

This is before Pig-Pen's messiness becomes a quasi-magical ability in later strips, where dirt appears on him spontaneously while he walks down the street.

July 21:

Snoopy's ear doesn't really have the pointy tip that a shark's fin has. But, then, it's a wading pool.

July 22:

Heh heh, I like this one. Reminds me of Lucy's gray jellybeans.

Pig-Pen is remarkably forward with his request for candy. Charlie Brown will hint and plead, but Pig-Pen (I'm not abbreviating it for what I take will be obvious reasons) just says "Gonna give me some?" Most Pig-Pen strips end up being about his messiness, which is really a shame because he has a unique personality among all the Peanuts cast.

July 23:

This is very much classic Lucy in personality. I joke about her incredible wrath and compare her to Cthulhu, but she's not all bad. She is funnier that way though. This is a pretty funny strip in all. It's not hard to invent gags about a really dirty kid, although later on they become less about the raw fact of his dirt and more about how comfortable Pig-Pen is in his own skin (and the layer of grime that covers it).

July 24:

I love the way Lucy looks at Snoopy in the third panel. I have to wonder about the source of Charlie Brown's "imitation people" comment though. Maybe it was something in the cultural air at the time.

3 comments:

  1. No, people in the Industry (like Schulz) called them "magazines"...everyone else called them "comic books"../

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  2. One aspect of Pig Pen that hasn't emerged yet is the trademark dust cloud that always follows him around.

    CB's observation about dogs in the 7/24 strip has a weird existential quality to it... the kind of thinking that fans would embrace as Peanuts matured.

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  3. How can Pig-Pen possibly be considered a major character of the Peanuts cast, when he has only made about 140 appearances throughout the entire run of the strip (which is less appearances than Snoopy makes in a single year)? Now, don't get me wrong, I love Pig-Pen, but he just *doesn't* appear in the strip enough! To illustrate even further, he made just TWO appearances throughout the entire decade of the 1970s. If he was a major character, you'd have expected him to appear 400 times, at least. Even Schulz stated that he didn't consider Pig-Pen to really be a member of the Peanuts gang in interviews: "I don't like to draw him (...) he's only useful if you've got dust and dirt, but I don't have many ideas on that".

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