December 23, 1953: 10,000 games

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

I think this strip marks the end of the checkers winning streak series.  Poor Charlie Brown should have quit while he was (less) behind.

This strip implies strongly that all of Lucy and C.B.'s games have been against each other.  If the two tried playing against other opponents, maybe it wouldn't have gotten to 10,000 games?  Of course Lucy prefers it this way.

It's like Paper playing against Rock.

Sunday, November 22, 1953: Yes, Lucy is still beating Charlie Brown at checkers

Read this comic at gocomics.com.

8,000 games now.  So, Lucy plays because Charlie Brown takes losing personally, eh?  She does make it to an even 10,000.  That day isn't very far off even.

The background grass seen back when Charlie Brown lost 7,000 games is seen here again, this time behind Lucy in the next-to-last panel.

Nice abstract drawing in the lead panel, although it looks like Schulz is cheating Charlie Brown's arm a little.

Looks like a chagrimace in panel 7.

Sunday, November 1, 1953: 7,000 games

1. How cool is it that Schulz has kept increasing the number of games Lucy has won? This is one of the first definite signs of continuity, other than character introductions, in the strip.

2. Nice abstract intro panel. You can tell the smiling faces are Lucy because of the parenthesis around the eyes. You can tell the CHAGRIMACEd face is Charlie Brown because of his twirly hair thingy.

3. To the show the shock of realization in panel 5, why did Schulz decide to show Charlie Brown standing in tall grass?

4. This, I think, is the first solid depiction of Charlie Brown's loser personality. The key revelation here is that Charlie Brown is noticing that he's actually not very good at a number of things, and that he's not happy about this fact.

5. But still, seriously, seven thousand games? He maybe should move on to Bridge.

6. I can't wait for the day the total gets up to 10,000.

P.S. Thanks for the donation, Michael!

August 21, 1953: 6,000 games now

6,000 games now.

If we accept that Lucy is by now maybe five years old, and assume that she was somehow playing from birth, that makes for 100 games a day month. Somehow I think they might have counted wrong.

August 19 is a duplicate. Anyone with access to the Fantagraphics collections able to fill us in on it?

EDIT: Joshua Probert mentions in the comments that "day" is way off. He's correct, it's more like per month. Still, considering the ostensible amount of time these kinds have been alive (which already looks silly compared to the time the strip's been running), 6,000 games is still fairly ludicrous, you must admit.

June 16-17, 1953: We Love Lucy: WINNAR FOREVAR

June 16, 1953


This is a brilliant strip. Lucy's ludicrous winning streak inflates bizarrely into megalomania, and all Charlie Brown can do is close his eyes in dismay. Sublimely silly!

June 17, 1953


Well at least he's charitable about it. Why should he deny Lucy the experience of winning another game of checkers?

April 20,1953: Lucy's winning streak continues

We return to Lucy and CB's checkers rivalry. We're still establishing Charlie Brown's loser personality here. There's persistence, and there's stubbornness, and then there's this. It's like it's not even admirable anymore. I mean, sheesh. There comes a time when you just have to give up, you know?

I'd think the most aggravating thing, to them, about their rivalry here would be that every so often they have to pick up the board and move a little further down the fence as they fill up the vicinity with tally marks.

December 20, 1952: 4,000 games

The key difference between this strip and prior "Oh Those Kids" strips is the expression on Charlie Brown's face in the last two panels. Before, if Schulz did a strip like this, Charlie Brown would have a neutral expression at the end. Here, he's speaking sarcastically. With just a lowered eyebrow drawn over the eye, the entire point of the joke has changed.

The Peanuts characters are unusually difficult to draw in complex poses, due to their short arms and legs, but Schulz does a good job with CB's legs in the last panel.

November 22, 1952: Lucy shows pity

This is far from the end of the gag; evidently they don't consider this to be a real win on Charlie Brown's part.

November 19-21, 1952: Lucy's winning streak

Lucy's winning streak continues. If you think that's an unlikely number of wins, wait until you see what it gets up to.

August 22, 1952: A Grand Coup

The second strip with Lucy beating Charlie Brown at checkers. "A grand coup!" sounds awkward to me, maybe it was some gaming lingo that was going around Schulz's bridge circle, or something?

Sunday, August 17, 1952: Ragequit

This is the beginning of a running gag in which Lucy builds up an incredible winning streak against Charlie Brown at checkers. It's a major part of the building of CB's defeatest attitude.

It is interesting to note Charlie Brown's reaction to his own behavior in panel 7. When he went on a rage tirade a few weeks ago, enough that the girls hid behind trees to get away (similar to Lucy's reaction here), we accepted it even though it'd look pretty disturbing in real life because comics exaggerate and illustrate emotions to enable us readers to more easily see them. Here, however, the comic takes his behavior and has him react to it with realistic dismay. It's a rather cool little deconstruction of the form.

August 8, 1952: Charlie Brown wins one

Is Snoopy actually playing, or is Charlie Brown playing both sides? For the most part the dog has shown mostly dog-like abilities. But if he's not really playing, then why does he seem invested in the game?

Charlie Brown certainly put the game away fast in the last panel.

June 2, 1952: Sore Winner

I imagine that Puerto Rico would drive the poor girl insane.