November 1-6, 1954: Leaves can be surprisingly vindictive

November 1

This strip reminds me of later strips in which characters try to figure out what to do with jack-o-lanterns after Halloween. I seem to remember "Peppermint" Patty trying to make a pie.
November 2

Oh they look harmless, but don't make them mad!
November 3

More of Lucy's off-kilter way of looking at the world. She's old enough now that she knows a bit of the world, but isn't old enough that she has all the concepts right in her head, which I expect made her a fun character to write for. Which might explain why we've had a lot of her lately.
November 4

Why is Pig-Pen so happy in the third panel? The rest of it is easily understandable, but why is he so amused there? Is it because he knows Snoopy standing there and he sees the hole Charlie Brown is digging for himself? Is it just that he doesn't care how he is perceived?
November 5

Oh, to be delivered unto Lucy's tender mercies! Linus is right to be afraid. "AAGH" doesn't seem to be nearly frightened enough by my reckoning.
November 6

Well, getting a picture is a lot easier than taking a whole bath.

November 2, 1953: The day-after joke

Strip in question: http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1953/11/02

This is a gag that Schulz will return to in later years, the character who is a day late in celebrating a holiday. April Fool's is a particularly fun day to do this with, since victims tend to be off their guard.

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For the time being, I'm going to just link to the relevant gocomics.com page for the comic under discussion. I might inline them from a local copy eventually, which I think would be provided for under fair use, and anyway doesn't seem to have hurt the Comics Curmudgeon any. But maybe there's some aspect of his situation I'm not aware of. Certainly hosting the images from this site makes bandwidth a bit more of a concern.

Halloween, 1953: He should have gone as the ghost of a mattress

This is more of a general comic strip joke than a specifically Peanuts joke. A kid does something based on ignorance that turns out badly for him. I could imagine Sluggo making this mistake. (Not that there's anything wrong with Sluggo!)

October 30, 1953: We may call this the "Lucy Loophole"

I love this one.

The Lucy Loophole:
When considering how useful a specific thing is for a purpose, do not forget how useful it is as a general thing for that purpose but used in an unexpected way.

October 29, 1953: Lucy is indignant

If you wonder where the point was that Lucy went from being an innocent little girl to Cthulhu in a dress, well, there is no exact point. It's not even a sliding scale between the two; they exist in quantum superposition, sometimes she's one and sometimes she's the other. This one does seem to be partway between the two though. At least she's not saying "Poor Lucy" anymore!

(I've been known to deliver pizza sometimes, and want to say that Lucy's attitude and power to change things exactly mirrors my own when stiffed for a tip.)

Sunday, October 25, 1953: A caper like this needs a good cart-man

Schulz is still learning to write effectively. Panels six and seven are kind of drawn out, with the characters merely intensifying how much they need Charlie Brown. This is a good strip though. My favorite part is the first panel, which is almost like a model sheet for Charlie Brown. His first expression there, by the way, is the only time I can remember the kid looking that happy. I'm pretty sure I've never seen him with exactly that kind of smile anywhere else.

November 1, 1952: Happy Day After Halloween

Early Peanuts has a number of day-after-holiday strips. One of my favorites, still to come, is a day after April 1 strip.

Halloween, 1952: Do your worst!

Remarkably cocky of Patty here, but then maybe she knows her opponents.

Scribble of ire!

October 30, 1952: Punkin

Compared to other comics, Peanuts characters are unusually poker-faced. The only hint of the kid's slow burn leading up to the last panel, perhaps, is that Charlie Brown is a little too happy in repeating Lucy's mispronounced line.

It's difficult to imagine him getting away with this later on.

Sunday, October 26, 1952: Lucy's First Halloween

Lucy's fearsomeness is not yet firmly established, so this strip was probably intended more being a general strip about kids instead of specifically about the characters.

November 1, 1951: Money or Eats

It's that profile doorstep scene that would play a role in so many later strips. I don't think this is its first appearance though.

"Tricks or treats, money or eats," did Trick or Treaters really use that line? Seems awfully mercenary to me. Around here I don't think it's common for people to give money for Halloween.

October 29, 1951: Ghosting days

This is a predecessor of Schroeder's "X days until Beethoven's birthday" gag. It's also another reference to a real-world day, in this case Halloween. The extraneous "boo" in the last panel is one of those things that's funny for no real reason. It's like he just added it as an aside.