Sunday, July 31, 2012: 1,000 posts!

This strip is a solid point of development towards Snoopy's status as a foil to Charlie Brown. There's a lot of other classic elements in this strip: Charlie Brown's failures as a ball player, Schroeder's role as catcher, Snoopy kind of playing a role as a fielder and his playfulness, and CB's impotent reaction to it at the end.

Notice:

* The short distance between the pitcher's "mound" and home plate, and how Charlie Brown has to throw the ball in an arc to avoid the strip's title.

* Snoopy's cloud of "R"s in panel five.

* The tiny Patty off the field in panel six. There's another tiny figure in the background, but I can't tell who it is.

* Panel nine: "Oh good grief!"

* The vigor and looseness of the entire sequence. I think this is Peanuts art at its height right here.

* Snoopy's smug expression in the last panel. That dog!

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And that's 1,000 posts, I think! (Blogger's numbering might be counting some future posts I have scheduled that haven't appeared yet.) Posts have been slow as of late, and for that I apologize, but it's been some weird times out here. We've got some interesting strips coming up though so it should pick up for a while, hopefully I can keep up the energy through the next thousand.

EXTRA: The Peanuts Wiki

There is one, a Peanuts Wiki that is, and it's pretty good! Check out the article on Shermy, where it notes:

Schulz said he had no regrets about dropping Shermy from the cast, and stated many years later that it had gotten to the point by then where he only used Shermy in situations where he "needed a character with very little personality".

EXTRA: Early Peanuts newspaper ads

Found skimming through Reddit's Comics discussion, Comics Alliance found some early newspaper ads used to popularize Peanuts in the early days.

Some basic character illustrations.  That goofy grin on Shermy's face might be the most personality that character ever displayed.

This one uses the earliest style of character art.  I like how the "PEANUTS" logo is largely the same as it was used even towards the later years of the strip.  Have any of you been captured by their cuteness and amazed by their antics yet?  Remember to WATCH FOR THEM beginning (date)!

There's more at the original page:  I might inline them later, but until them I encourage you to check the out at the original site.


Well, go on!  Encourage, encourage!

EXTRA: From Metafilter Music, it's Linus and Lucifer!

Metafilter user doubtfulpalace contributed this excellent version of the classic Peanuts cartoon tune Linus and Lucy last year for a Christmas music competition. It is quite an awesome little remix! Despite the name, the song really doesn't have anything to do with Satan... unless you consider Lucy herself to be allied with the forces of darkness, which doesn't seem too implausible really.

Linus and Lucifer

EXTRA: Old-school Peanuts figures

Thanks to RAB of Estoreal for pointing me to these figures Dark Horse is putting out of Peanuts characters then and now.

Of course there is nothing wrong, exactly, with the modern representations. But there is a charm in the old depictions that is missing in the newer ones, and that's especially evident in Old-School Snoopy.

The evolution of a comic strip is an interesting thing.  The Garfield of today is unrecognizable compared to the Garfield of the strip's beginnings, and that was in 1978.  In that case, they began as remarkably unattractive characters, enough so that one can only think they were intended to be ugly.  Peanuts went the other way; strikingly composed and sharply designed characters, over the first few years of the strip, transitioned into slightly more realistic, yet definitely less attractive realizations.

Why would Charles Schulz move towards lessening the cute-factor of his characters? My theory is to stave off a perception that his work was kid's stuff, which would be especially important as the strip began to lift off to philosophical heights and cultural relevance. Of course, you may have different ideas.

EXTRA: The least-accurate depiction of Charlie Brown ever drawn

His shirt is much less stylish (and much more cloying), but at least the kid finally grew some hair!

Don't believe me that this is actually a drawing of ol' Chuck? See for yourself. Found on musical oddities site Way Out Junk, it's from the cover of a rendition of the music from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Evidently they got the rights to the music but not the strip, so I'm guessing they had to purposely draw characters that looked nothing like the kids we all know.