Sunday, September 19, 1954: It's no fun if you just give it to him

The week of September 13-18 is missing from gocomics.com. It's just completely gone; the strip browse sequence goes directly from the Sunday strip of September 12 to the following Sunday.

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

This is a good strip to contemplate how Snoopy's design has changed so far.

He began as a very puppyish dog, much smaller than any of the other characters. While very cute, he looked almost like a piece of clip-art. Many strips these days use images of their characters in various stock poses, but not Peanuts. Schulz gradually began loosening up the design of the characters. Snoopy is the character that would develop into the loosest, and although he's not there yet, he's a lot more flexible here than he was in those first comics.

Snoopy becomes quite thin (especially when standing upright) before expanding into the "balloon animal" shape of later strips. The drawings of him in the first panels are particularly engaging. The wide smile is a distinctive mark of classic Snoopy. I notice in panels six and eight, where you can't see his mouth at all, his snout looks a little thicker than in the other strips.

April 7, 1954: Snoopy doesn't "do" fetch

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Snoopy is both centered a bit more as being owned by Charlie Brown here, he uses a thought balloon, and shows some of the Snoopy-like personality at the end.

On the matter of Snoopy's ownership, there is a quite informative, unofficial FAQ on Peanuts hosted on www.fivecentsplease.org.  It is item 4.29.  It is detailed and informative and is probably the definitive statement on the growing certitude over who owns Snoopy, and I'm pasting that item here.  It's seems to be pretty much the last word on the matter:

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Casual fans generally assume that Snoopy always has belonged to Charlie Brown, at least since the beagle was returned to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm after briefly being taken homeby his first owner, a little girl named Lila (this story lending itself to the second big-screen Peanuts film, "Snoopy Come Home").

But it didn't start out that way. When Peanuts first began in late 1950, with its small roster of characters, Snoopy was more a "neighborhood dog" who might pop up with any of the newspaper strip's first stars: Charlie Brown, Patty or Shermy. On October 25, 1950, for example, Snoopy can be seen eavesdropping as Patty makes a call from her toy telephone ... which definitely seems to be inside her house. In the November 7 strip that year, Snoopy is in Charlie Brown's house; and on several occasions Snoopy is shown keeping company with Shermy. On February 2, 1951, Patty quite clearly tells Charlie Brown that Snoopy lives in "that direction" ... which does NOT point to Charlie Brown's house.

The first suggestion that Snoopy might have a specific connection to Charlie Brown comes on April 11, 1951, when the beagle shows up dressed in a zig-zag shirt just like Charlie Brown. But even here, it's hard to be sure; Snoopy might simply be making fun of poor ol' Chuck.

Stronger evidence comes September 12, 1951, when we see that Charlie Brown has a picture of Snoopy in his room ... which seems to suggest that the beagle is, at last, specifically bonded with Chuck. (Or maybe not. A few weeks later, Snoopy goes "home" ... to Shermy's house!)

On December 15, 1951, Charlie Brown repairs Snoopy's doghouse ... which certainly suggests that our beagle's home is in Chuck's yard. Unfortunately, on April 3, 1953, Patty and Schroeder ask a passing Charlie Brown what color he thinks THEY should paint Snoopy's house!

That latter incident notwithstanding, by 1953 Snoopy still is visiting other kids in their homes, but there are no strong indications that he lives with anybody except Charlie Brown. On November 28, 1953, for example, Charlie Brown tells Snoopy to go to bed, and both definitely are in Chuck's house.

But ambiguity creeps in once more. On December 5, 1954, after slipping Snoopy a piece of candy that came from Pig Pen's pocket, Charlie Brown says, "Psst ... Snoopy, ol' pal ... you'd better come home with me, and have a drink of water." Take note of the words "with me" ... one would think, if Snoopy lives with Charlie Brown, that Chuck would simply say, "You'd better come home."

Finally, on October 15, 1955, Charlie Brown gives Snoopy some food from the dinner table, while saying, "There you are, old friend" ... a phrase that strongly suggests ownership. A few weeks later, on November 1, Charlie Brown gives Snoopy his dinner in front of the family TV set ... definitely in Chuck's house. On November 3, Charlie Brown tells Violet that "All the dogs in the city [now] have to be kept tied up." Violet asks if he has tied up Snoopy, and Charlie Brown says "Of course ... what else could I do?" Clearly, at this point, Violet is identifying Snoopy as Charlie Brown's dog. And a few weeks later, on November 18, Charlie Brown tells Patty that he has Snoopy (who's no longer roped to a tree) "tied up with a sense of obligation" ... another strong indication of ownership.

Feeding Snoopy becomes more of a habit; on December 8, Charlie Brown tells Shermy that he'll be out in a minute, after he "attends to the hound." On March 10, 1956, Charlie Brown tells Lucy that Snoopy always brings his supper dish to him when he (Snoopy) is hungry.

On December 14, 1956, Charlie Brown buys Snoopy a new collar ("...something more masculine"). On November 14, 1957, Charlie Brown refers to Snoopy as "My pal" and says that "Everyone should have a dog to greet him when he comes home."

And finally -- FINALLY -- we get the smoking gun on September 1, 1958, as Charlie Brown is writing a letter to his pencil-pal. As his faithful friend peers onto the table to see what's going on, Charlie Brown adds, "Oh, yes, I also have a dog named Snoopy. He's kind of crazy." As of that moment, Snoopy is -- without question -- Charlie Brown's dog!

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Wow, not until September, 1958 huh?

August 15, 1953: Snoopy punches the clock

This one's linked mostly for the perfect view of Snoopy from a three-quarter perspective. We don't see him in the hand puppet pose anymore, but still this is an unusual depiction of the dog if you look closely. Snoopy's face appears to be narrower when viewed from the side than from an angle. Notice, you only rarely see a character's face straight-on; they're almost always at least a little angle in there. In most of the kids' cases this is probably so their nose doesn't look funny since that C-shape best reads as a nose in profile. Although Snoopy doesn't have the nose problem, his snout is even harder to read straight on. It's like how Mickey Mouse, in cartoons, his ears are always shown in profile, and sometimes artists depicting the mouse have to be clever so they read correctly.

Sunday, May 31, 1953: Snoopy's not fond of fetch

Another of the earliest strips in which Snoopy gets thought balloons. He becomes much more of a real character with them, instead of just a creature that does funny things and has funny things happen to him.

Snoopy refers to chasing the ball as a way of making a living. Is kind of a throwaway line, but it does imply that Charlie Brown must be feeding him, putting another point in the owner column.

I'm not sure why I'm fascinated by the symmetrical gasping and panting in panel six. Seems a bit overdone, though.

April 28, 1953: How does a cotton ball fly like that?

Other than from showing Peanuts' continued fascination with golf, the only real reason I picked this strip is that it has some nice drawings of Snoopy. All the versions of all the characters have their strong points, but in Snoopy's case I think I prefer this style most of all. It's a long time until the long, lean Snoopy of the "Snoopy dance" arrives, and longer still until we see the "balloon animal" Snoopy of the most recent era.

February 21, 1953: Snoopy fetches

A simple, elegant strip.

October 27, 1952: Snoopy and Linus

Snoopy and Linus get to be a double-act at times. When Sally joins the strip later, she and Snoopy team up occasionally, sometimes against Linus.

October 23, 1952: Snoopy fails to get the paper

The first panel contains an excellent drawing of Snoopy walking. You can plainly see here that he's changed a lot since his original appearance:



Although, looking at Patty there, he's not changed nearly as much as the other characters. If Peanuts' art style remained like that throughout the strip's run, would it be as popular? It does look very fifties.

September 1, 1952: Snoopy's sense of dignity

Charlie Brown is known to remark, later on, "Why can't I have a normal dog like everyone else?" Such is his enthusiasm for the game of Fetch that he describes it out loud. Snoopy will have no part of it.

Impressing stick fetching upon the reader's mind in a form that sounds somewhat demeaning is essential to the joke. Phrasing it like that, and posing that exposition as Charlie Brown's excited words, that is not I'd call standard joke construction. Jokes have constructions you know, and there are fewer ways for putting them together than you might think. Finding a new way of building a gag is a difficult task. One of the aspects of Schulz's work I enjoy the most is his ability to so often to construct new kinds of gags. Many things about Peanuts seem to express a kind of genius, but to me this may be the greatest thing about it, Schulz's ability to present a joke to us in a clean, iconic way, that is understandable but not overstated. It is wonderful.

February 21, 1952: *sigh*

I think this is the first "sigh" in Peanuts, but I could have missed one. It is another step along the way for Snoopy's personality though, growing out of the state in which something as simple as fetch could occupy him.