Sunday, August 29, 1954: And there on the fence I saw drawn a giant X

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

I find the huge 'X' at the end of Lucy's aborted count to be starkly evocative. Those tally marks could be raindrops, or stars, or maybe lives.

Charlie Brown remembers Lucy counting the stars in previous strips. The spectre of continuity rears its head here, and with it, unavoidably, the characters move closer towards being individuals more than interchangeable placeholder images for jokes.

January 22, 1954: One, two, three....

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Lucy's expression in the first panel may seem silly, but it conceals the seriousness with which she will bring to her task.  Lucy counting stars is a common running gag in the early days of Peanuts.

January 9, 1954: Counting stars gaiden

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Charlie Brown's exasperation at Lucy counting stars is one of the more iconic strip themes of early Peanuts.  So far by my count we've only seen one Lucy star counting strip, and she more guesses than counts in that one.

October 3, 1953: Lucy's continued problems with the number line

If you'll remember, Lucy has had trouble before with getting her numbers right. It's not that she's reciting randomly, she just knows them by other names.

This actually makes it possible that her 6,000 game winning streak at Checkers against Charlie Brown might really be much shorter than we think. (Or, it could be much longer.)

How about Charlie Brown's old-style football helmet?