December 3, 1952: WISHY-WASHY

This is the first time the term "wishy-washy" has been used in Peanuts, and the first time it is used to describe Charlie Brown.

As a kid, I wondered what it was about the term that made it so bad to be that. I'd say it has less of a negative connotation now, which may be why the later decades of the strip stopped using it.

Sunday, November 30, 1952: Lucy and Schroeder, before the strife

Lucy and Schroeder are two characters who have yet to interact much. I think this may be the first time they have spoken to each other. The next year is the one in which Lucy develops her crush on the beleaguered musician.

Snoopy's ears demonstrate amazing utility throughout the strip. He appears to be able to manipulate them through muscular action, which must mean he has some freak mutation that allows him to do this.

November 28, 1952: No one said you had to stay and listen

This is an extremely Calvin-like move on Charlie Brown's part, right down to the happy look on his face as he walks away.

November 27, 1952: Snoopy's Thanksgiving

Snoopy gets another thought balloon... one that contains a "sigh," oddly. He knows Charlie Brown's name in this one, a fact that he forgets in upcoming years, referring to him as "that round-headed kid."

We can put the script in the "Happy Thanksgiving" bubble down to cartoonist enthusiasm.

November 24, 1952: Linus' shirt

This strip is a continuation of the gag of Snoopy's hypersensitivity towards potential sources of treats, but it's also the first strip in which Linus wears his familiar striped shirt, or indeed a shirt of any kind. He's also out of diapers.

It's another strip, too, where Snoopy gets a thought balloon, and one with a thought-tail instead of a word-tail. Schulz still hasn't gotten the convention down entirely though, and in upcoming strips both kinds of tails are seen on Snoopy's thought bubbles.

November 22, 1952: Lucy shows pity

This is far from the end of the gag; evidently they don't consider this to be a real win on Charlie Brown's part.

November 19-21, 1952: Lucy's winning streak

Lucy's winning streak continues. If you think that's an unlikely number of wins, wait until you see what it gets up to.

Sunday, November 16, 1952: THE FOOTBALL

It's the first of the (eventually) yearly strips where Lucy holds the football and Charlie Brown, for whatever reason, fails to kick it. The WHOMP in the last panel echos throughout the decades; through it, we hear history.

The first time it happens, as we see, there was no malice in Lucy's act, and there's no iconic AUUGGHH either. Charlie Brown's rueful reaction in the last panel certainly seems familiar though.

I've looked ahead a bit recently, and I'm pretty certain that the next year doesn't have another football strip. We might consider it compensation that Charlie Brown ends up on his back twice in this one.

To think, Lucy doesn't consider it a good idea....

November 15, 1952: Head of the household

1. Did Schulz chafe at the apparently simplistic art style of Peanuts? Did he throw in the realistic closeup of the telephone in the first panel to show he could draw in a more detailed style?

2. Lucy's expression in the last panel is very interesting. Comic strips so often come down to the same basic faces over and over again. People don't tend to think about it, but it's harder to come up with non-standard face expressions than you'd think. Here I think Lucy's expression might be a little overdone, but you can still get the point of the joke from her words combined with the expression, so it's okay.

November 13, 1952: The snowdog

Another strip in which Snoopy's human-like qualities form the punchline. I've said before, some of these strips seem like prototypes for the many snowman jokes of Calvin and Hobbes. (This isn't one of those, though.)