gocomic's archive is missing strips for the 7th through the 9th of April, 1955. Can anyone tell us what the Fantagraphics collections have for those days?
Sunday, February 5, 2012
April 4-6 & Sunday April 10, 1955
April 4A bit of simple wordplay, but one could take it to provide a lesson on the difficulty in living up to the divine. If one was disposed that way, that is."Pig-Pen" was the first minor character introduced into Peanuts, and is by far the longest-lived. Although present only in a very small proportion of strips, Schulz obviously found the character more compelling even than later "major" characters like Frieda and Eudora. Unlike the rather bland Eudora however (about the most I can remember about her is that she wore a hat and was a girl), Pig-Pen still has a strong personality, and is almost unique among the Peanuts kids in that he doesn't really seem to have any hangups. Linus is the closest to that blissful state, but even he had the blanket for a while, and the Great Pumpkin too.A weird hanging question ends this strip. The point is clear -- there is nothing to say what we believe now won't be seen as similarly bizarre to people hundreds of years from now.I think the Neighborhood League, if such an organization actually exists, should probably reconsider their retaping regulations.This is probably a joke on kids playing with laughably decrepit baseballs, but not having had what one might call a sporting childhood I am unfamiliar with the lore in that area.Oh, what a tremendously formative strip. It's not the first time Charlie Brown has expressed a mania for baseball (I think we've had one other strip so far where he's wanted to play while everyone else has gone inside), but this one seems rather more Charlie Browny, especially his expression in panel 7, that's pretty iconic right there.
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7 Apr 1955 Lucy distracts Charlie Brown with her ambitions while he fields in a game of baseball. "Do they ever have lady mayors, Charlie Brown? When I grow up I'm going to be mayor of the United States" In a rather understated simultaneous sight gag, Charlie Brown catches an American football - yesterday's taped-up ball must have finally unravelled.
ReplyDelete8 Apr 1955. Later on, Charlie Brown and Lucy; "YOU CAN'T BE MAYOR OF THE UNITED STATES! THe United States doesn't HAVE a mayor!" "Oh? How about superintendent?"
9 Apr 1955. It starts to rain. Lucy, Charlie Brown and Violet hold out their hands to gauge the weather, watched by Snoopy. Snoopy then sticks out his ear to test the rain.