January 3-5, 1952: Three strips of winter

Three strips in a row here, I'm going to condense them into one post to help keep things moving.



Funny.



Awesome.



D'oh!

Tune in tomorrow for an important strip indeed.

January 2, 1952: Dreams of the Round-Headed Kid

Slick joke by Patty here, and there's also some nice non-standard poses for her. The art in panel 3, however, is kind of weird. It looks like there was either a printing error, a hasty erasure, or maybe Schulz just forgot to ink in the front of the chair.

New Year's Day, 1952 : I think I see why Patty hates Charlie Brown now

I think Patty is fully due that Scribble Of Ire in the last panel.

New Year's Eve, 1951: Well, I hope so!

The last strip of 1951, and a funny one at that.

December 29, 1951: Where did he get tinder?

The icicle-dripping word balloon in the second panel is nice.

Let's talk for a moment about the Peanuts characters' repertoire of expressions.

1. Neutral: No mouth at all when viewed in profile, a small dot or dash when viewed from the front

2. Mild Surprise/Interest: Neutral, but with small, upside-down-U eyebrows over the eyes. See Violet in panel four here.

3. Happy: Triangular mouth in profile, standard smile from the front or a faked profile triangle.

4. Angry: Eyebrows drawn as one long line from the front ("unibrow"), diagonal eyebrows going down towards nose when viewed in profile. Mouth is Neutral if mild anger, or a horizontal line if stronger.

5. Worried: Similar to Angry, but with slanted eyebrows arcing up at the nose line. Also, no unibrow. Mouth as in Neutral. Charlie Brown in all frames here, also Violet in panel three.

Decembet 27, 1951: Schroeder, not Snoopy

Not one of the funnier strips, but worth linking for the image of Snoopy sleeping in three-quarter perspective in the first frame, and his angry look in panels three and four.

Oh, and for the record: Parcheesi sucks.

December 26, 1951: Charlie Brown has lips!

Doesn't Charlie Brown's mouth look funny in the first panel?

Christmas Day, 1951: Singing In Type

Sure it's mostly sentimental instead of funny, but imagine how long it must have taken Charles Schulz to render the typeface in the fourth panel.

Note: Snoopy runs with Shermy in the first panel. The mystery of his ownership continues!

Christmas Eve, 1951: Please Deposit Presents On Doormat

This is another Calvin-like scheme, but more importantly to us, this joke prefigures some of Linus' obsession over the Great Pumpkin.

December 22, 1951: And A Bite For Beethoven

The teddy bear in panel two is only there to make sense out of his inclusion in Patty's words in panel three.

Although this is a baby joke strip, Schulz still slipped in that Beethoven reference in there.

Charlie Brown gets no respect.