October 20, 1952: Bridge column

I remember looking with just as much bewilderment at the bridge column in our local paper as a kid.

Glancing at the last panel by itself, it looks very close to the classic Peanuts look. Patty is almost completely in that style, Charlie Brown's head is just a little too oval and his eye a little too thick.

Sunday, October 19, 1952: Snoopy dance!

It's Snoopy's first time doing the "Happiness" dance, here with forelegs folded in a Russian style. It's also Snoopy's first time as the life of the party.

It's not his first time with a thought balloon. If I'm remembering right, it is the third legitimate time his thoughts have been represented. One of the two times was with the now-familiar thought bubble (with small circles replacing a tail), and the other time was like it is here, with a tail on the balloon. It is also the second time Snoopy's doghouse has been depicted with a TV antenna.

This is an important strip along Snoopy's development. Except for the way it is drawn, it could easily be a strip from ten years later. It is solidly Classic, as opposed to Early, Peanuts.

As far as the question of Snoopy's ownership, this is another step away from his being owned by Charlie Brown or another kid, back towards his being a neighborhood dog who's just "around," although he does seem to own his own house. (And a TV set and electrical power.)

October 18, 1952: Is that a blanket?

Is that a blanket that Linus is sitting on?

October 17, 1952: More comics

Some of the titles on the comics have violent names, like they did in the drugstore strip from some months back. Some of the titles are: "Zipp!" "Kill" "Wow!" "Smash" "Hate" "Killer Comix" "Slaughter" "War" "Ha! Ha!"

October 16, 1952: Watch what you say around Lucy

Lucy still tends to take things literally.

October 14 and 15, 1952: Patty and Violet's Party

I mostly remember Patty and Violet for the times they double-teamed Charlie Brown in the classic age of the strip. If one interprets Charlie Brown as a stand-in for Charles Schulz himself, a view that may have some merit, that may indicate problems with female figures. I think it is possible to read too much into this, however; mostly it just serves to develop Charlie Brown's pessimistic personality a little more.

Also: rats!

October 13, 1952: Snoopy the Musician

This is one of the first strips in which a character actually shouts at another one, in larger letters. We've yet to see our first AUGH, though.

Sunday, October 12, 1952: Snoopy the Pointer

This duck features in another strip in a few months.

Interestingly, Snoopy is the character with the most expressive body language. There are not a lot of poses for the child figures in Peanuts, partly due to their distorted construction. Snoopy, maybe because he's a little more realistically depicted than the others, can adopt more poses.

October 11, 1952: Charlie Brown Hates Coconut

A little fact for trivia: Charlie Brown hates coconut. (Actually this has been mentioned before, in a strip in which Patty pretty uses the same logic against Charlie Brown.)

October 9, 1952: Paper Chase

I'm not sure if this strip should have ended on the second panel or as it's written. I think the real joke is in panel two; extending it further is just explaining the punchline.