July 10-16, 1955: Snoopy and Croquet

Sunday, July 10:

How did Linus get into that crib so easily? Other than that, not a lot to say about this. Except maybe that "lap, lap, lap" and "smack, smack, smack" seem a little weird.

July 11:

Up to this point, class distinctions haven't really entered into Peanuts that much. We had that strip in which Shermy plays with his elaborate train set, then Charlie Brown goes home to play with his simple oval. This is just another version of that really. Still, it takes some effort to piece it together, but one can eventually detect a continuity effort to depict Charlie Brown's family as less well-off as the other kids. This comes to a head in a memorable Sunday strip in which Violet, after bragging about her dad, is dressed down quite effectively by Charlie Brown showing her where his barber dad works.

July 12:

Well you know what they say a stopped watch is still right twice a day, unless it's a daylight savings day, in which case it is possible that it could instead be right one or three times depending on circumstances.

July 13:

Snoopy seems to have an innate perching instinct which eventually finds expression atop his doghouse.

July 14:

Snoopy is a fun character to see in weird poses, which I suspect is the inspiration behind his imaginative flights of fancy in upcoming years. He's not there yet, but this is a step along the way.

July 15:

As Snoopy becomes more "filled out," and more humanoid, he also becomes much less mobile, which I think eventually comes to harm the fun of the character. Well, you're free to disagree with me.

July 16:

I'm reminded of that earlier Sunday strip in which Charlie Brown fills a wading pool from a hose, runs over to turn off the water, comes back to find Snoopy sitting in the water, and is so disgusted that he empties the pool and starts over. What's wrong with Snoopy sitting in the pool too? Is it wet dog smell?

August 2, 1952: Lucy Channels Prometheus

Lucy discovers that skill which is forbidden to the very young: the awesome ability to get out of the crib by herself. This is, I think, one of the last strips in which Lucy interacts with her unseen father. Linus is showing up very soon, freeing Lucy for use in other capacities.

Lucy's eyes are still part-way between their evolution from circles with dots inside them to full parenthesis. Of all the major characters in Peanuts, only Lucy, Linus and Rerun have parenthesis around their eyes. This gives them subtly stronger powers of expression than the other characters, since we can always see the assumed corner of their eyes, instead of only when characters are looking in a direction other than they're facing (which produces eyes-as-apostrophes).

Sunday, May 25, 1952: Listen: Lucy Van Pelt has become unstuck in time.

The title refers to the fact that, in this era of the strip, she is still maturing. For behold: she has stopped referring to herself in third person! If all the characters did that, then Charlie Brown would be over fifty in the last strip Charles Schulz drew.

The lettering on the crib is interesting. I can't help but think such a thing must seem awfully melancholy when the occupant grows out of it, and it takes up too much room, and it has sold or donated to charity, and so the named crib remains, forever a mute reminder of the childhood of someone obscure we you'll never meet and for all we know died a century ago.

How many stuffed toys does that girl have?!

In the logo in the first panel, there is a weird extra line between the A and the N in PEANUTS. Do you see where the line comes from? Here's a hint: look at the "b" in the word "by" below it.

April 2, 1952: Lucy Pimps Out Her Crib

This strip is something that wouldn't work as well as a later-day Peanuts strip, since a lot of the appeal is in the illustration. The characters gained emotional maturity, but their world lost some of its physical flexibility.

Aren't those records at Lucy's feet in panel three? Didn't she just destroy Charlie Brown's just yesterday? Why can't she eat her own?

Lucy seems to be longing for sleeping in a bed, but once she gets one, she won't be able to keep herself from falling out of it for a while.

March 24, 1952: Bring me my bear, servant!

The fifth sixth Lucy strip. Another instance of Lucy's demanding interactions with her unseen father. Apparently Schulz got the idea for these strips from his then-newbown daughter, Lisa. I hope he didn't get the idea for Lucy's later personality from her as well!

March 17, 1952: Lucy Lucy Quite Contrary

This is Lucy's fifth strip, and the earliest that tends to show up in abridged anthologies seeing as how it's the earliest glimmer of her fully-developed, ultra-antagonistic personality, and how it still has her saucer-eyes.

Those are some big thought balloons.