December 23, 1953: 10,000 games

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

I think this strip marks the end of the checkers winning streak series.  Poor Charlie Brown should have quit while he was (less) behind.

This strip implies strongly that all of Lucy and C.B.'s games have been against each other.  If the two tried playing against other opponents, maybe it wouldn't have gotten to 10,000 games?  Of course Lucy prefers it this way.

It's like Paper playing against Rock.

June 16-17, 1953: We Love Lucy: WINNAR FOREVAR

June 16, 1953


This is a brilliant strip. Lucy's ludicrous winning streak inflates bizarrely into megalomania, and all Charlie Brown can do is close his eyes in dismay. Sublimely silly!

June 17, 1953


Well at least he's charitable about it. Why should he deny Lucy the experience of winning another game of checkers?

April 20,1953: Lucy's winning streak continues

We return to Lucy and CB's checkers rivalry. We're still establishing Charlie Brown's loser personality here. There's persistence, and there's stubbornness, and then there's this. It's like it's not even admirable anymore. I mean, sheesh. There comes a time when you just have to give up, you know?

I'd think the most aggravating thing, to them, about their rivalry here would be that every so often they have to pick up the board and move a little further down the fence as they fill up the vicinity with tally marks.

March 26, 1953: How many marbles?

What use would a kid have for that many marbles? Could we project that they are to 50s schoolyards as cigarettes are to prison inmates?

I'll admit, as a kid I had a bit of a marble collection. I never played the game though; I just thought they were neat. I don't really know if anyone still plays marbles anymore.

March 24, 1953: Patty Plays Marbles

Patty builds a reputation as a marbles shark in upcoming strips, especially against Charlie Brown. This is the one that first establishes her fearsomeness at the game. One might take these strips as foreshadowing the other Patty.

The use of Schroeder as the concerned friend in this strip, instead of Shermy, is a bit interesting.

November 22, 1952: Lucy shows pity

This is far from the end of the gag; evidently they don't consider this to be a real win on Charlie Brown's part.

November 19-21, 1952: Lucy's winning streak

Lucy's winning streak continues. If you think that's an unlikely number of wins, wait until you see what it gets up to.

October 6, 1952: Lucy's Happy Dance

Lucy's developing her egotism nicely I see. I don't really get how CB can take solace in the fact he came in second. I assume Schroeder is peeved in the last panel because he knows coming in last is the true measure of ability.

August 22, 1952: A Grand Coup

The second strip with Lucy beating Charlie Brown at checkers. "A grand coup!" sounds awkward to me, maybe it was some gaming lingo that was going around Schulz's bridge circle, or something?

August 8, 1952: Charlie Brown wins one

Is Snoopy actually playing, or is Charlie Brown playing both sides? For the most part the dog has shown mostly dog-like abilities. But if he's not really playing, then why does he seem invested in the game?

Charlie Brown certainly put the game away fast in the last panel.

July 1, 1952: "I won..."

Charlie Brown's losing streak in nearly all games has yet to be firmly established, but it's coming. He somehow loses thousands of games of Checkers against Lucy in the coming months alone.

The storytelling in this one's excellent. Charles Schulz uses repetition in Peanuts in a way that no other comic strip, that I can think of, does. It's a really complex idea to get across in four panels too, of Charlie Brown getting beaten down by Patty's dismissal of his victory, yet I don't see the strip making its point more effectively with more panels.

June 2, 1952: Sore Winner

I imagine that Puerto Rico would drive the poor girl insane.