December 30, 1954-January 2, 1955: Once upon a time they lived happily ever after

gocomics' archives are missing the strips from December 27-29, 1954. Anyone have access to these strips? Perhaps it's just as well as, other than the Sunday strip, these aren't particularly inspiring, IMO.

December 30

The doggy tradition of eating anything offered to them has its pitfalls.

December 31

But the wool fibers are the best part!

January 1, 1955

Another of the surprisingly long-running series of strips involving Snoopy trying to watch television.

Sunday, January 2

This is a good one. The exchange in the lead panel, "Charlie Brown" in a sing-song voice delivered by Lucy followed by a weary "Good grief" from the other, was probably duplicated in at least one football strip. We've had one strip so far in which Lucy pulled away the football that Charlie Brown was trying to kick (twice), but it was accidental, and it hasn't become a yearly tradition yet. This strip brings us closer to the antagonistic relationship that is at the heart of the football strips.

It's also pretty witty. "Once upon a time they lived happily ever after. The end." That's what we call simplifying the equation right there.

September 25-26, 1954: That other round-headed kid

Sorry this one's been a few days in coming, I've been trying to get some extra work done on the game project this past week, and yet it's still not coming along real well. Updates will probably be sporadic until after Labor Day weekend -- I'll be at DragonCon again this year, if any of you happen to be there and want to say hello.

gocomics' archive has another hole in it at this point. September 20-24 are all missing. Does anyone know what the missing strips here, or from last week, are?

September 25

This one is odd if you think about it. The only real reason Linus would have to move forward, assuming those being him don't have vision problems, would be so everyone watching TV could fit in the panel at once.

Sunday, September 26

Violet, holding out the chance for affection isn't nearly as useful for behavior modification as a guarantee. We have some more drawings of a clean Pig-Pen here. Other than the hair and clothes, he's actually fairly similar to Charlie Brown in design; he has a similar head shape.

December 17 & 18, 1953: Two with Linus

December 17, 1953

 December 18, 1953

Both of these strips show off Linus' overalls, which would much later be seen on Rerun.  Whether they are hand-me-downs is unknown to me.

The first strip is another of the "Snoopy and Linus annoy each other watching TV" series.  The second has an unusual "Oh, my!" pose from Charlie Brown in the first panel.

January 24, 1952: MEOW

The first hint in the strip of Snoopy's dislike/fear of cats, which would find fullest expression in his battles with World War II, the unseen Cat Next Door with the incredibly destructive claws, a creature of wrath so potent as to nearly rival fell Lucy herself.

December 30, 1952: The Disdain of a Dog

Linus is the most recent character to bear that weird, slanted frown, which turns up frequently around this time.

More interesting perhaps is that this strip clearly shows how Snoopy's design has progressed. His snout is thicker, his ears clearly rise up off his head a little, he sets a better pose standing, and he seems to definitely be a larger animal than the early form of the character. He seems a bit more like a real dog here.

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December 11, 1952: Zombie Linus!

Look at it in the wrong frame of mind and there's something gruesome about the last panel here. Be careful around TV kids, it'll transform your eyes into circular scribbles.

September 18, 1952: Snoopy and the Radio

Snoopy leaps up and sticks out his tongue at Charlie Brown. It's not yet a "BLEAH!" but it's a step there. How does he do that with his ears?

It's a lot of fun to look at Snoopy in weird poses like this one, and I imagine it must have been a lot of fun to draw.