March 14-19, 1955: ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH

March 14

Lucy sticks with this fussbudget thing for a good while.  I don't think she ever gets it into her head that her mother wasn't complimenting her.

March 15

Back in the first fussbudget strip, Charlie Brown seemed like he understood that Lucy's mother was complaining when she called her daughter a fussbudget.  It's not as obvious here if Charlie Brown is in on the joke.  He's either forgotten, or he's exceptionally straight-faced in his sarcasm.  It could really be either -- there are other strips in which Peanuts characters say sarcastic things without breaking expression even slightly.  When I saw the fussbudget strips as a kid, I didn't get that the joke was on Lucy.  (And to this day, I'm not sure on the origins of the word, or even how it's said.  Is it really "fuss-bud-jet"?)

March 16

Snoopy seems awfully pleased about his pink collar.  I dunno, it doesn't seem really like a Snoopy sort of color.  

March 17

Schroeder's mania continues.  His Beethoven fixation is slowing being made an object of fun, which culminates, I think, in his carring around signs informing people as to how many shopping days it is until Beethover's birthday.

March 18

Why is Charlie Brown sighing here?  Should that be coming from Schroeder instead?

March 19

I think this is the first time Lucy really, really rags on Charlie Brown, which of course becomes a common event in the strip.  It's a chase strip, but going by the rather silly and idiosyncratic rules I've made up, not really a turnabout strip.

Sunday, September 19, 1954: It's no fun if you just give it to him

The week of September 13-18 is missing from gocomics.com. It's just completely gone; the strip browse sequence goes directly from the Sunday strip of September 12 to the following Sunday.

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

This is a good strip to contemplate how Snoopy's design has changed so far.

He began as a very puppyish dog, much smaller than any of the other characters. While very cute, he looked almost like a piece of clip-art. Many strips these days use images of their characters in various stock poses, but not Peanuts. Schulz gradually began loosening up the design of the characters. Snoopy is the character that would develop into the loosest, and although he's not there yet, he's a lot more flexible here than he was in those first comics.

Snoopy becomes quite thin (especially when standing upright) before expanding into the "balloon animal" shape of later strips. The drawings of him in the first panels are particularly engaging. The wide smile is a distinctive mark of classic Snoopy. I notice in panels six and eight, where you can't see his mouth at all, his snout looks a little thicker than in the other strips.

Week of August 16-21, 1954: Airplanes must fly around clouds or else crash

August 16

It is odd to think of Pig-Pen as going to kids and bumming sand off of them. I can understand if he's unnaturally attuned to the stuff, but it can't be that expensive can it?
August 17

Lucy is kinder here than she was back on February 15 16, but it's still a mean trick.
August 18

At this point Pig-Pen is rolling along as if he's going to become a major character. It won't be for too much longer I think.
August 19

One problem with the week-at-a-time format is, often there's just not much to say about a strip. I'll probably start leaving some out before long -- I didn't mean this to become a repost of every strip....
August 20

If Peanuts were still being printed er, I meant written today, Lucy would be denying climate change. Charlie Brown's reaction is priceless. I find this kind of reaction funnier than the headaches and stomaches the poor kid's afflicted with later.
In the last panel, Lucy's laughing expression, with the slanted eyebrows, is atypical for Peanuts.
August 21

Charlie Brown brings his hand to mouth in wonder in the third panel is nice. Peanuts kid arms are usually drawn as simple tubes, so I find the shape of his arm there interesting. Not hugely interesting, but still.

March 1-3, 1954: Three by necessity

Read these strips at gocomics.com.

Er, I think someone messed up.  These three strips are presented like this on gocomics' page.  Remember when some strips turned up missing a couple of weeks ago?  I think they were gone in order to fix another situation like this one, where multiple strips are glued together in a single image.  This probably happened when the strips were scanned out of a book; whoever did the scanning neglected to crop the other strips out of the one for March 1 (which is the one with Schroeder and Snoopy here).  The other strips are also in their respective places in gocomics' procession, but we might as well do all three now.

March 1: Not too interesting, although it is a Schroeder strip with nothing to do with music.  I do wonder how the car managed to make it up Snoopy's head; it's not a smooth trip between panels three and four.

March 2: This one's pretty funny.  The boys and girls in Peanuts, physically at least, are on equal standing, but it's still embarrassing for a young boy to be outmatched by a girl.  Notice the wavy lines around the feet; they're there to draw the eye and so confirm to the reader that they're standing on tip-toe.

March 3: Chase strip.  Also pretty funny.  In a way this one works as a joke on the size of Charlie Brown's head, which needs a large object like a stop sign to cover it up.  Oh, and isn't it very short for a stop sign?

Sunday, January 24, 1954: Lucy flips out

Lucy goes on a glorious campaign of destruction here.  It's the closest she's yet gotten to her malevolent destiny.

I think maybe part of the reason Schulz drew this one is just so he could draw lots of tiny little things flying around the room.  Anyway, I didn't know Violet had a stamp collection.

The lead panels, as usual, aren't needed to get the joke, although they do explain why Schroeder is involved in the mob.  (Linus is too young for such things.)  Of all the offended chasers, everyone seems to be yelling at Lucy except for Charlie Brown, who is uncharacteristically grim-faced.

January 23, 1953: Snoopy vs. The Yard: The Newspaper

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Another strip showing the dog getting stymied by some artifact of human civilization.  These are kind of boring I think, except for panel two, which is the closest I think we've gotten to this point to the "classic" look for Snoopy, that is to say the late 50s-to-60s look where Snoopy was long, lean and drawn loosely.

By the way, sorry for being a little slow with posts, shepherding the Kickstarter project has consumed a lot of my time over the past two weeks.

Sunday, January 10, 1954: Snoopy and a Baby #1

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

The times when there's a baby on hand for Snoopy to wordlessly react with are relatively short when compared to the length of Peanuts, which is a shame because I think they're among the funniest, most whimsical strips of its run.  Snoopy develops a great double-team act with Sally when she arrives on the scene.

Snoopy's head drawn in profile in panel 5 is archetypal Snoopy.  There is just a hint of the direction the character would be taken in later there.

November 24, 1953: Charlie Brown *still* has a big, round head

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Maybe I should start categorizing these.  This is a type of joke we've seen several times before, beginning with the beach ball strip.  That began as a kind of comment Schulz made about his art style.  This is Lucy's second time making a joke at the expense of Charlie Brown's head.  The "WHEE!" is new however.

This is a chase strip, but it's not a "turnabout" strip because Charlie Brown has a reaction shot in the penultimate panel.

September 29, 1953: Snoopy vs. The Yard: The leafpile

At least Snoopy isn't being splashed, tumbled, knocked about or chased this time. Just confused.

September 15, 1953: Snoopy. vs the Yard: Butterfly II

Be careful what you want!

I like this one for the variety of sounds Snoopy makes in the last one. Especially "fooey." Very descriptive.

September 1, 1953: BIRD

I've seen this happen to cats. Probably on YouTube. It's really kind of a plain strip though. The premise is really just "Birds can dive on things that annoy them."

It is another step along the road to Woodstock, though.

June 18, 1953: Lucy in a chase strip

Charlie Brown is enjoying that ice cream a little too ostentatiously, isn't he? That's why this strip is funny.

Although Lucy certainly becomes the most rancorous Peanuts character, this kind of harassment is not really what we think of as her "style," I think.

May 4, 1953: Charlie Brown has a big, round head

More turnabout/chase shenanigans with Lucy. It's another version of the beach ball strip. (And in fact, it seems fairly easy to get CB's goat.)

By the way, May 3 is not up at comics.com. Does anyone know if the strip is in Fantagraphics' compilations?

April 22, 1953: Another chase strip

Usually turnabout/chase strips only concern two characters, but Patty in this one is just a bystander.

So, let's return to the subject of the implications when one character chases another. Why does a character do so? It usually happens when the chased insults the chaser, or uses an exceptionally bad joke, usually appears angry while chasing, and it is implied that the chaser seeks violence. (Otherwise, what would that character do if he catches the other? Make him or her see reason through argument?)

Because of this, when a girl chases a boy it is funnier than when a boy chases a girl. We have reason to believe that Schulz saw it this way too; he has been recorded as saying a girl punching a boy is funny, but a boy punching a girl is disturbing.

The implications here are slightly allayed due to Lucy's spirited "WHEEE" in the last panel. At the very least she doesn't seem to feel threatened.

Sunday, November 2, 1952: I've been tricked!!

A favorite strip of mine! Also a chase, this time after Lucy who is beginning to show her true colors.

October 9, 1952: Paper Chase

I'm not sure if this strip should have ended on the second panel or as it's written. I think the real joke is in panel two; extending it further is just explaining the punchline.

September 27, 1952: "Well! If it isn't Charlie Brown!"

A funny strip. Lucy is certainly enjoying herself in this one!

September 20, 1952: Snoopy the Daschund

Snoopy gets longer when he runs or lays down. Look at his appearance two days ago:



He has a much greater volume when he's in motion! It's easier to draw a larger animal when moving; it's hard to picture a little lump like Sitting Snoopy getting up and having a stroll. I expect that Schulz noticed this too, which may be why the dog gradually increases in size.

The strip itself is another on the theme of Snoopy steals something then eludes his human pursuers in some manner. Kind of light as far as gags go.

The "YIPE!" is a little interesting. Schulz has been using these outline letters for onomatopoeia for a while, and they, like the fancy question-marks, are a subtle trademark of the early strip. They're fairly striking.

July 19, 1952: Dog speech addendum: Heh, heh, heh

Snoopy can also laugh derisively!

A very cute strip involving the dog. His ears, particularly, are adorable here. They're like little wings.

Sunday, July 6, 1952: Group picture

Lucy still has her round eyes (which look even weirder than usual in the second panel). Snoopy says "Shh!" And it's another turnabout/chase strip, demonstrating that, while Charlie Brown has been seeming depressed lately, he's still got a lot of his old self in there.