April 14, 1952: Schroeder's Adventures in the White Void

Wait, is he inside or outside? The lack of any background makes it difficult to tell.

There's another musical staff in this picture, I notice. No, I have no idea what song it is, although I have no doubt that it must be some song.

April 3, 1952: How does Schroeder whistle chords?

This strip is really well-done from a storytelling standpoint. It sets up the premise, provides a comparison between CB's and Schroeder's abilities, shows Patty and Violet's opinion of those abilities, illustrates Schroeder's charisma and Charlie Brown's feelings of inadequacy, all in four panels.

Scribble of shame!

October 9, 1951: Gag

Some people complain about cloying sentiment in Peanuts, and it is true that there is some of that at times. This strip is proof.

However, I find that most of the people who complain about it haven't really been exposed to much of the strip. For every saccharine "Happiness Is A Warm Puppy" there are a hundred "Lucy Demolishes Charlie Brown Utterly, Destroying His Soul Like Some Demon Girl." For giving us all of those, I think I can excuse the occasional spoonful of sugar.

October 6, 1951: See how they run

With this one, I think it's time to stop posting Schroeder-as-musician strips solely on that basis. This one's still interesting for presenting a straight-forward look from Violet, which is rather uncommon.

October 2, 1951: Year 2

He doesn't get that the adult piano is so big Schroeder's tiny arms couldn't possibly stretch to the end of the keyboard from his seat?

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This strip marks the beginning of Peanuts' second year of publication. During that time:

The characters of Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, Snoopy, Violet and Schroeder were introduced, and all are still in rotation, although sights of Shermy are already kind of infrequent.  We've also seen an anonymous bird (chased by Snoopy) and an unknown dog (seen chasing a car).  We've heard Charlie Brown talk about his dad, and characters have also with an unseen druggist.

Charlie Brown's already begun to settle into his eternally-pessimistic personality.  Patty is his main antagonist, and sometimes shows signs of malevolence, but not quite up to Lucy's later volcanic standards.  Violet is more girlish in general.  Shermy's pretty much a non-entity.  Snoopy is very doglike, although he sometimes gains human attributes when it suits a joke.  Schroeder was first the strip baby, but very soon became the strip musician, although he's still obviously younger than the other characters.

We've seen a fence a couple of times that CB's seen things drawn on, and he's drawn on it himself.  The characters have spoken of school, but no school scenes have appeared yet.  

Let's have another look at the first strip for comparison purposes:



Eye ovals have become thicker, characters are overall cuter, heads (except for Charlie Brown's) are less ovoid, and, although it's hard to tell with Schroeder's still ill-defined hair, its shape plays a bigger role in defining a character's head.

September 27, 1951: Cigar-Box Banjo

Schroeder actually doesn't do much in the past three strips other than play the piano. The humor comes mostly from the other characters reacting to it. A tremendously silly thing is not as funny as people dealing with it.

As the strip gets older, the characters eventually kind of become creatures of their settings. Schroeder eventually becomes seen in few places other than before his piano, which also means that Lucy, the other resident of their little two-kid pocket universe, becomes his main contact with the rest of the Peanuts world.

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.