January 31-February 5, 1955: Charlotte Braun terrorizes the neighborhood

January 31, 1955

Charlotte meets Linus. This may actually be the only strip that features the two of them. Unlike Pig-Pen, who has a similar kind of gimmick attribute, Charlotte doesn't stick around for that long. This may be her last hurrah in fact.

February 1

The problem with Charlotte Braun is that she doesn't have much of a personality beyond loudness. Pig-Pen is so comfortable in his own skin that he kind of transcends his gimmick. Charlotte's gimmick lends itself to obnoxiousness though, so as Lucy becomes bossier she kind of steals Charlotte's niche.

Thinking about how Charlotte Braun disappears from the strip leads me to brainstorm completely made-up Peanuts characters who have similar one-note gimmicks. Maybe a girl who has really big hair? One who walks loudly wherever he goes?

February 2

I've noticed that this mistake, of assuming the range of one's experience matches that of the breadth of the world, is one that lots of people fall prey to, including myself from time to time.

February 3

This is far from the last time Lucy stomps something inches away from Snoopy's nose. There's a memorable bit later where she cures the common cold by having people cough on the ground, then she smashes the cold germs flat with her feet.

February 4

I think that counts as a chagrimace, but it's wider than usual, which I think is more from Schulz's developing art style than intent. It might be argued that Charlie Brown, after some earlier strips, is due to have a couple inches knocked off of him, but of course the characters eventually take it slightly too far.

February 5

I don't think this is the first time Patty and Violet have teamed up on Charlie Brown, but it's the most egregious example to date, and it only intensifies from here. But: "Charlie Brown lives in a purple house?" That's kind of reaching isn't it?

January 17-22, 1955: It Snow Trouble

Another snow pun for a title! Get used to them, it's far from the last....

January 17

We had another strip like this not long ago, where Charlie Brown didn't seem to come out of it too badly, but poor Snoopy was overwhelmed. Like in that strip, the funniest thing to me is how effortlessly Charlotte Braun belts out her words. There's a good set of lungs on the girl.

January 18

Oh no. Oh, no no no no no. What character in comicdom can get something as willfully wrong as can Lucy Van Pelt? Other than Mallard Fillmore, of course. Lucy actually knows she's wrong unconsciously, I think, which is why she sets herself against Charlie Brown's disagreement before she even hears his opinion. She's so happy with her discovery.

January 19

Notice... both here and in the previous strip, Schulz draws forward-facing characters with neutral expressions without a mouth, possibly for parity with the way he draws his characters when they face the side. He experimented with this a time or two before. He abandons it eventually.

January 20

I've had conversations with people that have gone exactly like this, right down to my depressed skulking away at the end.

January 21

Another mouthless face. And Lucy called Charlie Brown's face funny-looking.

Charlie Brown has some standard ways of expressing displeasure, which are already beginning to get set in. 1. "Good grief." 2. "I can't stand it." 3. "My stomach hurts."

January 22

Schroeder is practicing his scowl for the role.

December 6-11, 1954: The Fussbudget Sonata

December 6

This is an intensified version of a previous snubbing strip.  Charlie Brown still hasn't quite started taking snubs to heart.

December 7

Charlotte Braun won't be with us long folks.  I mentioned before, I seem to remember, that her niche would be taken over by Lucy (whose fussing becomes better-illustrated as Schulz turns up her volume), and some parts of her character design would later be refined and used for Sally.

December 8

Charlotte Braun rarely appears in collections -- I think gocomics' archive and of course the Fantagraphics volumes are pretty much it.

December 9

Come on now, Lucy isn't really that bad a girl, at least not yet.

December 10

There's something about the way Lucy looks straight up that looks a little weird.  In the second panel, is that her chin or her cheek?

December 11

Is this an early example of Schroeder warming slightly to Lucy, or is it sarcasm on his part?

Lucy has been described, and has self-identified, as a fussbudget before, but I think here it's starting to become a defining attribute.  I think a lot of people's impressions of the characters originated from the early collections (some of which I read as a kid in first grade -- I devoured all their Fawcett Peanuts collections), and we're just starting to get to the era where strips would frequently be drawn from for those reprints.  That's the era that started frequently referring to Lucy as a fussbudget, so they would come to figure prominently in perceptions of the character.

The paddleball bit with Charlie Brown is a wholly unnecessary, but nice, touch.

July 28, 1953: Loudmouth Lucy

Characters in Peanuts tend to interact in pairs. Snoopy and Lucy as a pair are sometimes friendly and sometimes antagonistic. This is the first hint of the discord to come.