January 23, 1952: Schroeder’s first multiword utterance is in German

Schroeder gets way into his playing in this one. His holding out his arms in the last panel is hilarious.

Also, I laughed out loud when I noticed how Schulz signed this one.

META: Comics.com's continuing confounding

A comment on the last post notes that the images have stopped working again. And lo, the reason for this seems to be that Comics.com has changed their image hosting, thus breaking all the links of anyone who uses their old embed code.

I could (and for now, will) just use their new embed code, but this poses a problem. What if Comics.com decides to do this again in the future? And what am I going to do about all the posts that I have already made?

I have found that the new code is the same as the old code, just with a different URL. I have figured out how to change the address from old to new with a simple paste. But the site has almost 250 strips already, and each one of those is its own paste. That is basically a whole afternoon down the tubes, with no guarantee that they won't do this again at some later date.

I am looking into solutions. For now, I have fixed the last two posts and the few that are in the queue. I'll see what I can do about the others later....

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.