May 27, 1952: A new voice is (not) heard in the land

Snoopy gets his first thought balloon that contains English words.

This must have been a hard decision for Schulz. It isn't just that Snoopy is the dog character, it's that, until now, we never found out what he was actually thinking. We usually found out through his pantomime actions: laughing, angry looks, dancing, and so on. Having a character like that can be useful from a joke-writing standpoint. Now, he can just directly tell us, and so if he doesn't the joke doesn't quite work.

And yet, it is obviously a good choice for the character. If we weren't told what's happening inside Snoopy's head, then his later imagination sequences would become a lot weirder. That is to say, his thought balloons are what make those strips comprehensible, and this possible. Those flights of fancy are one of the most distinguishing and fondly remembered aspects of Peanuts. That put this strip here among the most important ones in the entire sequence.

March 3, 1952: Dear god, it's HER

Aww, isn't she cute? Little did anyone, least of all Schulz himself, know that with the introduction of that (literally) wide-eyed little girl jumping rope, there was created perhaps the most concentrated entity of wrath ever to grace the comics page.

The Fuss-Budget. The Mistress Crabby. The Atom Bomb. She that doth provide the football, and she that taketh it hence.

So faint not dear reader, but yet be warned! It has awakened!

LUCY APPROACHES.

January 6, 1952: The First Sunday

And here we have the very first Sunday strip of Peanuts' 49 year run.

Already we see the effects of the unique format requirements of the Sunday edition. The top panels of the strip must not be essential to understanding the whole, since some newspapers don't run those to save space. Since the first panel can't be too important to the story, later Schulz would play around with clever bits of stylized art in the first panel, but here it's just used to extend the lead-up.

The characters look a little funny here, possibly due to their being rendered a bit larger than usual.

Notice, four of the five characters are named in this strip! Could this have been a concession to papers that only ran Peanuts on Sundays?

I like the quotes around "Tag" and "It" in all the panels. Especially "It," I'm going to start using scare quotes around all my pronouns! Not really

September 26, 1951: Yeah, That'd Probably Be Asking Too Much

Another in the Schroeder-as-musical-prodigy series. There is also a first in this strip: it's the first time a character is represented as participating in a real-world organization or event, long before Snoopy's games at Wimbledon.

Let's note the progression of the joke:
Strip 1: Charlie Brown introduces Schroeder to the Piano. The gag: he takes to it immediately, and brilliantly. The punch comes from the suddenness of the ludicrous situation.

Strip 2: Strip beings with the ludicrous situation, set up by the past strip. The gag comes from examining its consequences. Punch is added by making it even more ludicrous, by taking the already-amazing event of a baby playing piano extremely well and making him a composer, one who's even titled his work despite being barely verbal.

Strip 3: Begins again with the ludicrous situation, but now takes it for granted. The punch comes from putting a lampshade on it; Schroeder is talented enough to tackle Braham's First Concerto but not the second because he's "only a baby," even though no baby (except maybe Mozart) could do any of these things. This also subtly normalizes the situation.

In tomorrow's strip it'll be completely normalized, and the humor will come from another character interacting with the bizarre sitation.

September 24, 1951: The Ceremonial Changing of the Archetypes

AH, it's Schroeder's first time in front of a toy piano, cementing his long-term role in the strip. We even get a good blush out of Charlie Brown while we're at it.

For purpose of winning trivia quizzes later, note: it is Charlie Brown who introduces Schroeder to the piano.

September 19, 1951: Kitty

Schroeder's first word is "Kitty."

NOT "BEETHOVEN."

September 4, 1951: Snoopy's yard

This one shows us, again, that Charlie Brown is probably not Snoopy's owner yet, but that someone owns him, or where else would he have gotten that doghouse? The expectation that his yard should be mown expands Snoopy's personality further; in the middle-era, when his doghouse burned down, it would be revealed that he lost a pool table and a Van Gogh in the fire.

The dial of a rotary phone is also visible here, which things, as I mentioned before, are now receding into memory.

August 31, 1951: A familiar shirt

It's the first use of Schroeder's trademark striped shirt, which is similar to Linus's later. It's the beginning of the character's progression out of babyhood.

August 29, 1951: Dog as shark

Ah-ha! It is the first glimmer of Snoopy's capacity for imagination, which if memory serves began when Snoopy fantasized being different kinds of dangerous wild animals.

July 11, 1951: Schroeder's first words

They are "bye-bye."

Note: NOT "Beethoven!"

July 10, 1951: Charlie Brown in a baseball game

This is the second reference to baseball in the strip, and the first that shows the kids actually playing. It looks like Patty can really belt the ball, just like her later namesake Peppermint Patty.