March 22, 1951: A lot of hope

Some good gags around this time.  Schulz's attention to detail should be noted here; in the first two panels the lock on the chest is plainly visible, and Patty is leaning against it, keeping Charlie Brown inside, in the third. Patty's leaning would be an unusual pose for Charles Schulz later on, but earlier the characters were a lot more dynamic in their posing, probably due to their increasingly-stylized designs. While the strip would unquestionably become much better in a few years, there's a part of me that wishes it could have kept some of the dynamism of the early days.

March 21, 1951: Snoopy is irate

A surprisingly angry Snoopy chases Charlie Brown around the place while Patty and Violet look on.

When I was a kid, I had opportunity once to leaf through a kids' book called something like A Charlie Brown Dictionary, which was a list of words and definitions punctuated with Peanuts strips.  There was a spot where, in explaining one of the strips, the book took pains to communicate to my prepubescent mind that, despite what was seen in the comic, Snoopy would never bite anyone.

Yeah, right.

March 20, 1951: Death by Beethoven

Another reference to Beethoven, the Peanuts characters' go-to guy for classical composer names.  It's a fairly funny joke, too.

This is a fairly dark thing, if you think about it, for Charlie Brown to say. We'll see one of the darkest things ever to appear in Peanuts in a bit, inside of one of Snoopy's very first thought balloons....

March 17, 1951: A bona-fide supraman

Charlie Brown and Patty at a table, another suspiciously kid-sized one, and have dinner as if they were married.  Charlie Brown's expressions in panels two and three make this one for me.  His logic is from what I like to call the Yossarian School of Philosophy.

March 15, 1951: Charlie Brown's youth-preserving regimen

Another turnabout joke, that being my name for these strips where there's a sudden rush of anger in the last panel based on something a character said, flipping the mood instantly from casual conversation to rage.

The cause here is another insult to Patty, resulting in another exclamation point, and another comment from Charlie Brown during the following chase. The joke here is actually rather funny.

March 13, 1951: What's so great about rocking?

Patty and Violet have a somewhat stereotypical conversation in a primarily verbal joke.  I like noticing what characters do during these jokes; here, it involves them picking flowers for wearing in their hair, if anything an even more stereotypically-female activity.

March 10, 1951: Good riddance

More matters of mud.

March 8, 1951: Clickity clickity

This is the first time I've noticed sound-effect words other than percussion noises from someone getting socked.

The characters continue to progress, in design, towards their modern versions.  I have to wonder how much of that progression was intentional and how much just happened.  Notice Shermy's little eyebrow raise at Patty's comment in the last frame.  This is often used to show characters reacting subtly to a joke.

March 5, 1951: A toy beagle

What the heck is that thing Violet's dragging supposed to be?  For some reason I'm reminded of something Daffy Duck was once turned into during his fight with the animator in Duck Amuck.  Another character finally meets Violet here, although without comment.  Snoopy seems okay with becoming a toy in the last panel.

March 3, 1951: From the earth they came, and so shall they return

More of Violet's mud pies.

Take note, here, of Violet's hair. She's the only character at this point with hair that doesn't cling completely to the head; it hangs down a bit. This doesn't last forever actually, later on Violet's hair is changed to be more like the other characters.