June 1, 1953: Lucy's infatuation grows

More storm clouds on the horizon for poor Schroeder.

Compare, for a moment, the length of Schroeder's arms (the only straight arms in this strip) with those of the girls. It points out a notable quirk of Peanuts' art style, one that I seem to remember reading somewhere Schulz lamenting. That is, the normal length of the kids' arms only works if they're held straight. If they're bent they're obviously too short, so Schulz has to cheat them longer a bit. If he drew them longer when held straight they'd reach down too far, almost to the knees.

Sunday, May 31, 1953: Snoopy's not fond of fetch

Another of the earliest strips in which Snoopy gets thought balloons. He becomes much more of a real character with them, instead of just a creature that does funny things and has funny things happen to him.

Snoopy refers to chasing the ball as a way of making a living. Is kind of a throwaway line, but it does imply that Charlie Brown must be feeding him, putting another point in the owner column.

I'm not sure why I'm fascinated by the symmetrical gasping and panting in panel six. Seems a bit overdone, though.

May 30, 1953: Look out, Schroeder!

I think we all know where this is heading....

How do you say hearts?

May 27, 1953: Falling off the Tricycle

This is a funny strip I think.

Charlie Brown is the most versatile, by far, member of the cast. He can by turns be a smart-aleck, a victim, a bit of a jerk, a bit stupid, sly, witty, determined or hopeful.

Patty is becoming less of a foil for Charlie Brown, and Violet is turning against him generally. Those two characters mostly exist to bounce off of CB; Schulz seems less able to think of things for them to do on their own. Shermy has even less of his own existence.

Schroeder probably has the deepest private life of all the characters. Lucy and Linus sometimes each get strips to themselves, although, strangely, not too many with just the two of them. Snoopy gets his own strip sometimes too; he hasn't made a habit of having his own thoughts yet, though, so most of the time his strips have to be pantomime which is harder to write.

How do you fall off a tricycle?

May 25, 1953: You 'Ol Charlie Brown, You

This is the unreasoning hatred we're used to seeing from Violet, as well as the self-esteem issues of CB. It's been interesting to watch Charlie Brown's self-satisfaction fade for the past couple of years of the strip. The other characters still a lot of wearing down to perform on him though; Lucy hasn't even come into her full malicious strength yet.

Sunday, May 24: Lucy the expert

This strip is very much classic Peanuts in style. The first years of the strip usually used Sunday comics to present a bunch of jokes that might as well have been about any little kids. This one speaks to a definite personality. In fact, the joke at the end is kind of weak; the strip is more concerned with illustrating Lucy's authority on the subject of jump ropes than its result.

May 22, 1953: The Betty Crocker of dirt

She might be drawn differently now, but Violet still seems fascinated with mud pies.

We watched it happen, but I'm still amazed by how differently the characters look now from how they looked three short years ago. It affects how we feel about them I think; this version of Violet doesn't look to be as sweet-natured as the little girl Schulz introduced originally. That's an important step towards her developing antagonist role.

May 21, 1953: On the mound: The origin of the pitcher's mound

This is the first strip in which there is an actual pitcher's mound, and not a flat spot of earth. Of course the later mound is a lot wider, but it's not actually much shorter.

One flaw with the premise of this strip: when the other team is up to pitch, wouldn't it help them just as much?

May 19, 1953: Snoopy viciously attacked by yard apparatus

This is one of a type of strip from around this time where Snoopy is attacked by some mechanical device that he fails to understand. These strips rely on the dog being naive on the subject of human invention, which requires a certain flexibility of characterization.

Remember, this is the same dog that lives in a duplex and has been seen with a TV aerial atop his house. But Snoopy is used here more for being a dog than for being Snoopy. Later, when his personality becomes less doglike, these jokes will make less sense.

May 18, 1953: On the mound: The baseball changes hands

In an earlier strip the baseball was Schroeder's, and Charlie Brown told him to take it and run home when his team was in the lead.

I think this is the first use of the term "good grief."