April 3, 1953: Kid spite

So they asked Charlie Brown for his opinion specifically to go against it? That's not very friendly. The wide smile on Schroeder's face doesn't seem to bear much malice; they don't appear to be intending to pass judgement on Charlie Brown with their action. It's just the way they decided to pick a color.

After a few strips that appeared to fairly solidly clinch Snoopy's owner as Charlie Brown, this one throws the question back up in the air a bit. Why would they be painting Snoopy's house if he were exclusively CB's? Wouldn't they grant his opinion a bit more weight in that situation?

Chagrimace!

March 25, 1953: More Marbles

This is one of the first genuine sequences in Peanuts, a set of connected, consecutive strips that present a kind of narrative.

December 13, 1951: Dogcicle

Another strip to fuel the who-owns-Snoopy fires. Mostly I just think this one's funny.

September 29, 1951: Shermy's dog?

In this strip, it seems that Shermy is Snoopy's owner.

I like this one for the cross-hatching work on the rain in the second and third panels. It's just a really cool effect!

September 4, 1951: Snoopy's yard

This one shows us, again, that Charlie Brown is probably not Snoopy's owner yet, but that someone owns him, or where else would he have gotten that doghouse? The expectation that his yard should be mown expands Snoopy's personality further; in the middle-era, when his doghouse burned down, it would be revealed that he lost a pool table and a Van Gogh in the fire.

The dial of a rotary phone is also visible here, which things, as I mentioned before, are now receding into memory.