January 22, 1952: I bet she has a darkroom too

Overall the early Peanuts strips hold up fairly well. But there will eventually come the day when most people won’t know of the sometimes complicated decisions needed to take a physical photograph.

January 21, 1952: Dogs don’t care about originality

I got another one for you: “It was a dark and stormy night....”

A little kid complaining about the triteness of his world. Slowly, Peanuts is becoming something special.

Sunday, January 20, 1952: I don’t think the Guinness people will consider his achievement

Again note the leadup in the top panels which, again, must be designed considering that some newspapers remove them. One way to allow the strip to survive this is to extend the setup for the story. Another way is to present a self-contained joke in those panels. A third way, used frequently in Peanuts’ later days, is to simply provide some thematic, abstract art in the large title panel, which won’t be missed if the panel is excised.

This strip further develops Snoopy’s personality. In about a year, if memory serves, Lucy will be involved in a sequence involving bouncing a ball for nearly a week.

january 18, 1952: Beethoven!

It is weird to think of the girls pining away for the just-out-of-infanthood Schroeder. Of course, he only has eyes for the big B. This attitude would eventually cause Lucy no end of consternation.

What is such a young kid doing carrying a wallet anyway? One with pictures in it?

January 17, 1952: More wavy lines

Although he still barely speaks, Schroeder is out and about! An important step towards his becoming a full character. Notice his bed in the corner in the third and fourth frames; it is a weird quasi-crib with low rails.

The post title comes from the aura around his head in the third frame, which we also saw used yesterday to denote embarrassment.

january 16, 1952: But he CAN read music?!

The wavy line around Schroeder’s head is an interesting idea for showing embarrassment. Imagine what the frame would look like without it. The joke seems like it would be just a little flatter with just his blush, hands and expression illustrating his reaction.

January 15, 1952; Snow-cial Injustice

There’s even a frowning face on the dejected snowman.

January 14, 1952: And I thought I was the only kid who read that stuff.

Schroeder should have been more specific. At least he’s talking, and isn’t on that piano.

January 12, 1952: Putt putt putt

I like Charlie Brown’s driving cap and how his name is printed on his go-kart. That’s remarkably accommodating of Snoopy too, especially considering I don’t know any dog that would willingly make a noise like “putt putt putt.”

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Just want to take this opportunity to note that, as I was clicking the Embed link on comics.com's site for this one, I accidently clicked on one of the teeth-whitening ads on the side of the page. Before I could do anything about it, a new window had opened filled with dense text trying to convince me to buy Ill-Advised Internet Product #763. Especially hateful is the fact that, when I clicked the X button to close the window, the page opened a "are you sure" dialog warning me that this special offer won't be around for long.

Maybe I'm just high-strung, but things like that make my eyes glow red, my head spin around, and my mouth utter involuntary invocations to Yog-Sothoth. As astoundingly obnoxious advertisement.

Oh well, at least a woman in lingerie wasn't trying to get me to play Evony.

January 11, 1952: Thanks for the SLACKS, girls

Although this one is funny (and reminds me of a certain young movie-watching inventor/janitor trapped in space giving one of his robot creations pants as a gift), I mostly linked to it because it's oddly broken and faded. Some of these strips are hard to find, I suppose. Still, it was published in newspapers... I'd think Universal Features would be able to get an undamaged complete copy off a microfilm in a library somewhere.