April 24, 1953: The Tyrant Pose

The third panel here is the first time in the strip I think the "tyrant" pose is used: a character with balled fists, one arm stretched upward at an angle, the other bent, staring into space with mouth wide open, and with angry eyebrows. Whenever this pose is used, it's usually a signal to the reader that the character is being unreasonably bossy. Sometimes it signifies comeuppance is coming. Lucy uses it a fair bit later on though, and she doesn't get comeuppance so much.

April 23, 1953: Schroeder scoffs

One thing Schulz does, it seems to me, in the early days is repeat information unnecessarily. Schroeder's words in the last two panels are practically the same.

Here at Roasted Peanuts, we don't rest until we've dissected and bean-plated* each strip until all humor has been annihilated.

So, is there a way to have written this strip that could eliminate duplicating most of the text in the third panel? The obvious change, I suppose, would be to change Schroeder's words in either the third or last panel to something like "That's ridiculous!" Since the comedic point of the strip is Schroeder's lack of realization that (to spoil the joke completely) his playing Beethoven on his toy piano is just as ludicrous, it doesn't seem to me like anything is lost through this change.

This isn't meant to denigrate Charles Schulz's abilities as a writer. He was still developing at this point, but the comic itself is great. The fact that it does leave unstated the disconnect between Schroeder's statement and his actions, refusing to point to it outright and trusting the reader to make the observation himself, is a sign that he's already an excellent gag man. Most other comics would explicitly state the point of the joke and wreck the comedy almost as badly as I have, here, in explaining it.

* HI IM ON ROASTED PEANUTS AND I CAN OVERTHINK A PLATE OF BEANS

April 22, 1953: Another chase strip

Usually turnabout/chase strips only concern two characters, but Patty in this one is just a bystander.

So, let's return to the subject of the implications when one character chases another. Why does a character do so? It usually happens when the chased insults the chaser, or uses an exceptionally bad joke, usually appears angry while chasing, and it is implied that the chaser seeks violence. (Otherwise, what would that character do if he catches the other? Make him or her see reason through argument?)

Because of this, when a girl chases a boy it is funnier than when a boy chases a girl. We have reason to believe that Schulz saw it this way too; he has been recorded as saying a girl punching a boy is funny, but a boy punching a girl is disturbing.

The implications here are slightly allayed due to Lucy's spirited "WHEEE" in the last panel. At the very least she doesn't seem to feel threatened.

April 21, 1953: Put 'em up, Snoopy

A very funny strip. The key to the humor, I think, is how Linux Linus maintains the same expression through it, just as if he knows how Snoopy will react.

Contrast this with Snoopy's discomfort around cats during Faron's short-lived stint on the strip, and his total fear of the dreaded Cat Next Door, he of the doghouse-rending claws.

EDIT: Made the correction above. Damn muscle memory.

April 20,1953: Lucy's winning streak continues

We return to Lucy and CB's checkers rivalry. We're still establishing Charlie Brown's loser personality here. There's persistence, and there's stubbornness, and then there's this. It's like it's not even admirable anymore. I mean, sheesh. There comes a time when you just have to give up, you know?

I'd think the most aggravating thing, to them, about their rivalry here would be that every so often they have to pick up the board and move a little further down the fence as they fill up the vicinity with tally marks.

Sunday, April 19, 1953: Shermy Pitches

In this early baseball strip Charlie Brown's team is losing even though he's catching this game.

Look at that first panel for a moment. There are six kids pictured. Counting from the left, it's hard to tell who the second and third ones are. The second kind of looks like Charlie Brown, and the third like Shermy, but they're already in the shot viewed up close. This would make these two kids the first "extra" human characters in all of Peanuts. (Animals have had a couple of extras so far, an anonymous dog and a bird.) Some of the other panels have unknown extras too, as well as Lucy and Schroeder a couple of times.

April 18, 1953: Stylish Snoopy

The construction of the punchline of this joke is pure comedy 101. For some reason, I consider, it is important that the reader sees the punch of this kind of joke, that it's a sight gag, instead of reads it out of a word balloon. This lets the humor value of the drawing of Snoopy with a haircut assist the main joke (that of a dog, an unlikely competitor, beating Shermy to getting the first haircut of the summer).

It is important, I think, that the payoff be a sight gag, but I'm not exactly sure why. It might be because the rest of the strip is primarily verbal, so it needs the sight gag for variety. Or it might be because Shermy's reaction is spoken, and having two characters speak at the essential moment of comedy would be unwieldly. It might just have to do with that nebulous comedic concept, timing. Or maybe, if the punch moment of the strip were told instead shown, it'd seem arbitrary and forced.

April 17, 1953: Lucy's Space Suit

More playing Space Hero with the boys. I mentioned Lucy's late-era change of outfit yesterday. Her updated attire actually doesn't look that different from her sleepers here.

Schroeder actually looks pretty cool in the first panel. Are those 3D glasses? How about Charlie Brown's TV-antenna beanie?

April 16, 1953: Playing Guns with Girls

The gender norms of Peanuts are worthy of examination. They're rather complex.

For decades, all the female characters wore dresses nearly all the time. Late in the strip's run Lucy's default outfit changed to what looks like a jogging suit.

Considering that the strip is still in the early 50s this isn't surprising. The girls, however, don't appear to be so traditional regarding to their choices of games to play. They play dolls and house (or Mud Pie Chef) sometimes, but they've been just as apt to play Cowboys and Indians, or Space Hero.

This is really progressive if you think about it: even as late as Calvin and Hobbes, Susie, when playing, is nearly always seen at some girl-oriented activity like playing Tea Party or House. (This is probably because it's so entertaining to watch Calvin react to stereotypically feminine things.)

April 13, 1953: Second Use of "Fuss-Budget"

The first time it was used Lucy wasn't really all that fussy. Her behavior has been edging closer towards making the label a reality.