January 13, 1953: Schroeder has standards

This is a rather funny strip; the turnabout in the last panel is pretty sharp. Again, for this one to work you have to know about Schroeder's music snobbery, which isn't information you can glean from this strip by itself. Of course now we all know about Schroeder and his peccadilloes, but Peanuts wasn't in a huge number of papers in those days.

December 16-17, 1952: Charlie Brown writes to Santa

This is a very Calvinesque pair of strips, as in, Watterson got a lot of mileage out of Calvin's letters to Santa. I especially like the second one, I find it hilarious.

Sunday, November 2, 1952: I've been tricked!!

A favorite strip of mine! Also a chase, this time after Lucy who is beginning to show her true colors.

Sunday, June 1, 1952: Don't let him bluff you!

This is one of my favorite Peanuts strips of all. It's just really funny. I've related this one from memory to people on several occasions. Artistically it's pretty good too, the characters don't look like disassociated images that don't relate to each other except by proximity here, which I think is a problem sometimes with Peanuts. Look at Snoopy jumping up on Charlie Brown, and the two running around the tree. I think this is Peanut's first really great Sunday strip. It all works extremely well here. Schulz must have been pleased with it himself, I think, and yet in the cartooning biz there is no time to bask in the glow of a well-made strip; it's always, immediately, on to the next one.

Notice Snoopy gets a thought balloon here containing English words (his second ever), but it isn't the traditional style. It has a tail here. Snoopy's reaction is priceless. "Can this be true?"

And in terms of construction this is also an excellent strip. It's one of the first Sunday strips which tells a complete story instead of a collage of related jokes. Notice how Charlie Brown and Snoopy's positions have become Patty and Charlie Brown's, respectively, in the last panel.

April 9, 1952: Someone get the kid some rubber bands

Just a funny strip. The third panel seems to be a little closer to the familiar Peanuts style than before. The thing that sticks out about it, to me, is the mouth, that little line denoting how the skin of the cheek draws back as the mouth grimaces with the effort of the throw. I haven't pinned it down to anything yet, though. It just surprised me a little.

January 27, 1952: Blind Man’s Bluff

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I expect a lot of kids today have never heard of this game, either.

I just like this one, it’s mostly a collage of smaller jokes, like “At least I’ll be near home!” and “What trees?”

New Year's Eve, 1951: Well, I hope so!

The last strip of 1951, and a funny one at that.

December 4, 1951: Dog At The Wheel

This one's funny too.

November 26, 1951: Some Advice: Before Hiding, Make Sure You're Playing

How do mistakes like this even happen?

Check out the halftone in the second panel. You don't see that a whole lot in Peanuts.

October 22, 1951: You dig?

I find this one to be pretty funny. It's just the image of Charlie Brown digging furiously right behind Patty in order to evade her finding him in Hide-And-Seek. It's a well-constructed punchline too, with CB's words playing off of the traditional H&S line.

September 28, 1951: Can I have two tens for a five?

This is another of my favorite early strips. It's enough to make me wonder if Charlie Brown has a touch of dyslexia.

The root of this joke, alluded to in the title, is the same as in the old vaudeville routine where a sharp asks a rube for incorrect change. We take more notice that all the necessary things are in the proposition than of whether they're in the correct places.