Sunday, January 3, 1954: More of Lucy's infatuation with Schroeder

Read this comic at gocomics.com.

We've recently seen more hints about Lucy's developing self-centered personality.  We've seen a little of it before in one prior strip, but this here is the true beginning of Lucy's long-running crush on Schroeder, what Charles Schulz had been known to call her "weakness."

While Lucy can be bossy, crabby and fussy, in some ways she's rather admirable.  She has a very strong personality, is (usually) very confident, and doesn't often take 'no' for an answer.  The second panel here is a good depiction of this side of her.  Generally the Schroeder strips depict Lucy at her best, although this is far from universal.

Panel three is rather abrupt if the first two panels, which newspapers sometimes remove, are missing.  The only previous hint of Lucy having a crush on Schroeder was that other strip almost a whole year back.





Most Lucy vs. Schroeder strips make the musician a bit more inscrutable.  We're usually on Lucy's side in the struggle.  That had yet to develop in this strip, which is more egalitarian in presenting clash of the characters' wants.

We get another somersault here.

Sunday, August 2, 1953: Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the hose

Linked for Snoopy cuteness.

April 19, 1952: Snoopy running

I have been trying to skip over some of these, but I've been doing a poor job of that. I would not doubt that I have linked to every Snoopy strip so far, the reason being he's so adorable in these early strips! I really think I prefer this version over the modern Snoopy.

November 24, 1951: Cute, Too

Rather a strange thing for Charlie Brown to be jealous about. The exclamation point over Snoop's head is a nice touch.

April 19, 1951: A dog without gravity

Later on, Snoopy would lose his ability to experience, or express, this kind of enthusiasm, although he'd pick up other means. But we do get another three-quarter perspective leap out of him while he's still capable of it.

February 5, 1951: Sitting at the kids' table

More Snoopy cuteness here.  Here we see him begging and standing in a normal dog-like pose.  Awww.

But the real reason I picked this strip out is the size of Charlie Brown's table.  Not only is it his size, but it looks a little funny in order to squeeze his legs under it and have his arms above it.  Notice that he's pulled a bit away, probably because he can't sit close to it!  Visual puzzles like this must have been a tremendous test for Charles Schulz's ingenuity in the early days.

December 22, 1950: Put your hand inside the Snoopy head

Another somewhat pointless strip, Schulz must have been close to his deadline for some of these.  Snoopy is especially cute and puppet-like in this one however, especially in panel two, where we get a three-quarter perspective into his smiling mouth, and in panel four, where his eyes are winningly far apart.  As Snoopy became a much stranger creature later on, Schulz would lose the ability to draw him like this; Snoopy became a creature of imagination far more than a placeholder dog in a world of child jokes.

November 15, 1950: Could have been a dog

More character angst, more Snoopy cute.  Snoopy's ears would keep that trick much later.  Notice that in the surprise shot Snoopy has a visible mouth, which is uncommon for him.

November 13, 1950: Snoopy as coat-rack

More Snoopy ultra-cute.  From the first panel with the three-quarters, behind-the-head perspective, to the last panel with Charlie Brown's coat on his snout.  But what's he doing at Patty's place?  Snoopy is often just sort of "there" in those days.

By the way, I've mentioned these characters' names frequently, but Patty's name has only been mentioned once so far, and Shermy and Snoopy have yet to be named.  Charlie Brown, on the other hand, is named frequently.

Note: A friend noted that Comics.com offers a mechanism for embedding a strip into a page.  This seems as close to an endorsement for putting 'em in the blog as any, and their embed code additionally links to the strip's page.  Two stones, one bird!