Monday, January 25, 2010

May 3, 1952: Charlie Brown is highly suggestible

Peanuts

That is quite the lurid description Violet is giving there. It's like a horror story.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

May 2, 1952: When Schroeder Met Snoopy

Peanuts

I believe Snoopy and Schroeder have been in the same strip before (a Sunday baseball one), but this seems to be the first one in which the two interact.

I suppose we should be thankful that Snoopy isn't a musical prodigy too.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

May 1, 1952: Glub

Peanuts

The inverse of the "girl cares more about Snoopy than she does boy" joke we've seen before.

Friday, January 22, 2010

April 30, 1952: Smaller characters

Peanuts

This strip seems a little under-depicted. Watching Snoopy sliding to a halt in the third panel seems abrupt without seeing him run in the second panel.

Look at the first panel here. The characters viewed from a distance are rendered a little more simply to simulate the increased distance from the reader. Particularly, Lucy's eyes are simple dots instead of circles, making her look a bit more like modern Lucy.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

April 29, 1952: The birth of Charlie Brown's insecurity

Peanuts

We've seen hints of it before, but this is the first one in which Charlie Brown seems actually delighted just to be included with the others', like by default he is some kind of pariah, shunned by all.

This is also the first strip in which Lucy is used as a background character. It might also be the first strip in which Schroeder is used as such. That's an important step towards promoting them to full kid-hood.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

April 28, 1952: Adult word-balloon!

Peanuts

Schulz probably used one of these rarely-seen adult-spoken word balloons due to the difficulties in depicting muted trumpet on the comics page.

Lucy's eyes are growing out of their wide-circled phase slowly.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Sunday, April 27, 1952: That was sensational, Lucy

Peanuts

Lucy refers to herself in the third-person again here. I'm glad she grew out of that. That is not the only other thing, of course, that is different about her here. Between the wide eyes, tendency towards accidents and meek demeanor, there is probably no other character in Peanuts that changes so much between its conception and final version. (Well, except maybe for Snoopy, but that is a question for later....)

I read a lot of Peanuts back in first grade, for our school's library had a good collection of 50s and 60s Peanuts compilations. In a way, these early strips feel more like "real" Peanuts to me than the strips from the 80s and 90s.

I kind of miss that people don't use words like "sensational" in casual conversation these days. Or, if they are, they're not in the conversations that I tend to have.

Monday, January 18, 2010

April 24, 1952: More kite fail

Peanuts

Snoopy exhibits his developing mischievous streak, and Charlie Brown fails at life again. This is a fairly modern strip, except for the art style it wouldn't be out of place in the 60s.

I would just like to call attention to Schulz's question-marks. He drew 'em extra-fancy.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

April 23, 1952: The largest scribble of shame yet!

Peanuts

There are a lot of strips about arguments and their nature right now. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography notes that he got a lot of ideas for the strip from his social circle, including characters and pastimes, so presumably this strip about arguments originated from his observations of real arguments in his group.

It is a little-known fact that Charles Schulz started a second, short-lived comic strip later on, called It's Only A Game, the U.S. Acres to Peanuts' Garfield. My guess was he started it as an outlet for many gaming-oriented ideas sparked by his social circle that would be out of place in Peanuts.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

April 22, 1952: How undignified

Peanuts

Snoopy's expressions in panels 2 and 4 are cute. Of particular note here, this strip is rather busier than the standard four-panel Peanuts episode, with the "subplot" of Patty looking for the piece over to the side.

Note, on Comics.com's site, the day before is a reprint of this strip. I don't know what strip is supposed to be up for the 21st.