June 1, 1953: Lucy's infatuation grows

More storm clouds on the horizon for poor Schroeder.

Compare, for a moment, the length of Schroeder's arms (the only straight arms in this strip) with those of the girls. It points out a notable quirk of Peanuts' art style, one that I seem to remember reading somewhere Schulz lamenting. That is, the normal length of the kids' arms only works if they're held straight. If they're bent they're obviously too short, so Schulz has to cheat them longer a bit. If he drew them longer when held straight they'd reach down too far, almost to the knees.

March 28, 1951: The artistic challenges inherent in jumping rope

Schulz continues to work out the problem of how to handle character arm lengths when doing things like jumping rope.  This one's a little better than Patty's early jump rope session, but her head still seems to shrink in size in the forward-facing frame.

Another thing that's difficult with these jump rope strips is what to do with character legs when facing forward while jumping. The first panel here is good, but the second, the legs don't seem to be in the same places.

It's possible to see some simularities between Schulz's art style and the later Japanese manga/anime style called "super-deformed," and I think there may be something to that. However, I can't help but thinking if it had been a stereotypical manga artist who had rendered the second panel here, regardless of appropriateness, he wouldn't have been able to resist giving little Violet an upskirt shot.