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.

November 29-December 4: GOOD OL' CHARLOTTE BRAUN

November 29, 1954

He is a dog, after all. I'm surprised that Snoopy's amazing, candy-detecting nose failed to realize Charlie Brown had no candy on him.

November 30, 1954

Here is introduced the second of Peanuts' one-joke characters, and the first character to eventually leave its cast. 'Pig-Pen' lasts until nearly the end of the strip because there have always been, and could well always be, dirty kids. Poor ol' Charlotte Braun's niche gets taken up by Lucy pretty quickly though.

How weird is it that CB's friends tend to call him "Good Ol'" Charlie Brown, and that he remarks upon it?

December 1, 1954

This is one of those strips where the setting changes from panel to panel in such a way that it implies that the conversation is longer than we're seeing on the page. Particularly, between panels two and three, Violet and Charlotte suddenly go from standing on a path to sitting at a curb, and Charlie Brown has had materialize a tree to ineffectively hide behind -- which suggests that Charlie Brown has been stalking the two to eavesdrop on their conversation.

December 2, 1954

December 3, 1954

Charlotte's mouth in the third panel is pretty funny. I think, some time later, some of Charlotte's character was used for Sally; the hair is somewhat similar, and she has a similar head shape.

Snoopy shows distress very well. And I love how Charlotte doesn't even look particularly distressed when she shouts in the last panel. The reactions of Charlie Brown and Snoopy serve to illustrate her volume.

December 4, 1954

I don't think this will be the last time we see those words spoken. Scribble of ire!

December 14, 1953: Lucy goes that extra mile

Read this comic at gocomics.com.

In this strip, we begin to see that Schulz is becoming more careful about showing emotions.  It's not just the hilariously shaken image of Linus in the last panel, it's that we can't get a good read on why Lucy did this.  She betrays no satisfaction or joy throughout the process.  It's like she's just doing what her mother told her like a good little girl.  But why is she sneaking up on her blissful brother?  Why is she shouting at him?  Later on the thrust of whole strips turn on whether a character's mouth was drawn with a slightly upturned stroke.

This is the third strip to use the "somersault" visual shorthand for violent disruptive motion.  The first time was in the first football strip (which has still yet to become a yearly thing).  The second time was, interestingly, another instance involving Lucy shouting near Linus.

September 10, 1953: SUPPER'S READY!!

Thanks, Lucy.

She takes another step along the path from sweet-natured little girl to pint-sized Dracula.

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.

Sunday, March 8, 1953: Towards a More Neurotic Brother

Security blanket aside, Linus ends up being perhaps the most well-adjusted of the Peanuts kids. I can only assume it's because, when Lucy is your sister, the slings and arrows of fortune just don't seem to be as bad.

October 16, 1952: Watch what you say around Lucy

Lucy still tends to take things literally.

October 13, 1952: Snoopy the Musician

This is one of the first strips in which a character actually shouts at another one, in larger letters. We've yet to see our first AUGH, though.