June 13-18, 1955: "Dot" is a sound effect

June 13:

At this point the girls aren't always disgusted with, annoyed by or bored at the sight of Charlie Brown, as this strip shows. I think the thinness of the tree could be taken as a metaphor for the thinness of Violet's affections, which makes this strip poetic in a way.

June 14:

I had not heretofore suspected that "dot" was onomatopoeia. but it is a kind of appropriate noise for jabbing a piece of paper with a drawing instrument like a crayon or pencil.

June 15:

I expect that today's kids don't get messed up as much, on the average, during their summertime adventures.

June 16:

This is exactly the kind of thing a Lovecraft protagonist with unknown blood ties to fiendish creatures, ancient sorcerers or some godling's spawn would do, and it's also similar to such a being's probable reaction once he discovers the universe obeys his or her whims -- at least, if he didn't immediately faint from the shock.

June 17:

I think Charlie Brown just might not have been laughing at "Pig-Pen"'s ambitions. A bit of youthful can be good for a kid, although probably something along the line he'll probably have to clean up more. For example, I can't picture, say, Mitt Romney covered with dirt. (In fact, his skin looks stain-resistant, like maybe some kind of polymer.)

June 18:

Ah, the ease with which the winds of love turn when you're seven. The characters are seven now aren't they? Originally I think they were intended to be just before school age, but now we've seen some moments in school, they were probably aged to that point since school is a ripe source of storylines, although we haven't seen very many yet. (And when Rerun shows up and enters kindergarten both Linus and Lucy, being siblings, kind of have to age to make room for him.)

October 1, 1951: Visual Splendor

I like this one, mostly, because of the quality of the background art. Usually Peanuts didn't lavish that much attention to it (rightfully focusing on the characters), but earlier on there were some nice scenes. Scenes like these.

While we're here, let's take a moment to look at how the characters post in the frames. One of the things about cartooning is that there's really not a huge number of ways to draw each character, and in Peanuts this is often exacerbated by the extreme stylization of the characters.

There are only three poses in this whole strip: walking, standing, and arms-outspread. What's more, three of the panels the characters do nothing more than walk, and two of them would be identical in graphic content if it weren't for the backgrounds, and the fact that they're at the opposite point in their stride (check panels 2 and 4). Later in Peanuts' history the characters would lose some of this flexibility, so Schulz will provide the visual interest in other ways, like zooming in on one character as they sit beneath the Tree, or by having walking characters visit the Wall for a panel.

The stride is an oft-used cartooning trick to show walking: the character at side-view, slightly in the air, one leg out front and the other behind, the arms positioned opposite. But in panel 1, Schulz uses a three-quarters stride, which is rather uncommon.

The explanatory arms-outstretched post in panel 3 I like. Why does this pose seem natural to us?

October 1, 1951: Visual Splendor

I like this one, mostly, because of the quality of the background art. Usually Peanuts didn't lavish that much attention to it (rightfully focusing on the characters), but earlier on there were some nice scenes. Scenes like these.

While we're here, let's take a moment to look at how the characters post in the frames. One of the things about cartooning is that there's really not a huge number of ways to draw each character, and in Peanuts this is often exacerbated by the extreme stylization of the characters.

There are only three poses in this whole strip: walking, standing, and arms-outspread. What's more, three of the panels the characters do nothing more than walk, and two of them would be identical in graphic content if it weren't for the backgrounds, and the fact that they're at the opposite point in their stride (check panels 2 and 4). Later in Peanuts' history the characters would lose some of this flexibility, so Schulz will provide the visual interest in other ways, like zooming in on one character as they sit beneath the Tree, or by having walking characters visit the Wall for a panel.

The stride is an oft-used cartooning trick to show walking: the character at side-view, slightly in the air, one leg out front and the other behind, the arms positioned opposite. But in panel 1, Schulz uses a three-quarters stride, which is rather uncommon.

The explanatory arms-outstretched post in panel 3 I like. Why does this pose seem natural to us?