May 1, 1954: Warping a little girl's mind

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

What is Charles Schulz saying, that Lucy is interested in Charlie Brown's "Mangle Comics," "Disease Comics" and "Gory Comics," yet he's not interested in "The Little Bunnies," "Billy Bluebird," and "The Funny Foxes?"

Some possible takeaway points:
1. Boy's comics are ridiculously violent (although "Disease Comics" doesn't seem like the most marketable title).
2. Boy's comics are more universally interesting than girl's comics, which implies Lucy considers girls' comics to be lacking.
3. Lucy is brushing up on her evil skills. Although Charlie Brown presumably reads them all the time, and he's kind of fragile.

November 13, 1953: Excitable, isn't he?

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Patty doesn't mean to drive Charlie Brown to hysterics, but it is kind of frightening to think about.  The space-filling overtelling of one of the characters here is acceptable, as it improves the joke.

It struck me just now that gender relations in Peanuts are already surprisingly equalized.  This is far from stereotypical girl behavior.  Patty gets used more as being a foil for Charlie Brown than for being female.  Maybe girls are considered to be more impish, and that explains why Patty is happy to point out C.B.'s mistake in the first panel; it's hard to imagine Shermy being happy there.

Look at that expression of fear in panel 3.  It's really a kindness that Charlie Brown doesn't realize that he'll actually be in school for 46 more years.

April 22, 1953: Another chase strip

Usually turnabout/chase strips only concern two characters, but Patty in this one is just a bystander.

So, let's return to the subject of the implications when one character chases another. Why does a character do so? It usually happens when the chased insults the chaser, or uses an exceptionally bad joke, usually appears angry while chasing, and it is implied that the chaser seeks violence. (Otherwise, what would that character do if he catches the other? Make him or her see reason through argument?)

Because of this, when a girl chases a boy it is funnier than when a boy chases a girl. We have reason to believe that Schulz saw it this way too; he has been recorded as saying a girl punching a boy is funny, but a boy punching a girl is disturbing.

The implications here are slightly allayed due to Lucy's spirited "WHEEE" in the last panel. At the very least she doesn't seem to feel threatened.