October 13, 1953: Stepped right into that one

I bet they said the same thing about a young George W. Bush.

Seriously, that's a pretty sharp wit the girls show there. I never think of those things on the spur of the moment like that.

Sunday, October 11, 1953: The CROQUET GAME

This is quite an interesting strip. In addition to carrying an extra title other than just "Peanuts," there are several different jokes competing for space in these eight complex panels.

- Every character appears except for Linus. However, Schroeder's only in the first three (in the third he hiding behind the tree), Shermy's only in two of them, and Snoopy's relegated to one.
- Although the major gag of the strip is Lucy's trying to bounce a croquet ball, the most interesting exchange is between Patty and Charlie Brown, which is a fairly good depiction of the direction Schulz is taking the round-headed kid. Patty's blunt statement is rather shocking; one can imagine her intent is to reassure Charlie Brown that it's not personal, but when put that way how could one take it as anything but?
- Lucy shows greater appreciation for experimental evidence here than she does in many later strips.

October 10, 1953: The costs of having a kid

Lucy examines the question of her existence in terms of economic transactions.

Panel two shows Lucy with a non-typical "making a point" post, and panel three has Violet sitting on a sloped surface, both kind of unusual poses. That second panel, her pose more resembles later Lucy, say, behind her Psychiatrist booth.

October 9, 1953: A brief glimpse of the larger world

There are few times when adult-sized objects are brought into the kids' world, but here's one of them. By the way, notice that both here and back in the Charlie-Brown-loses-his-shoe strip from a couple of days ago, they're using more modern helmets, instead of the ones with ear flaps from the prior strip.

EDIT: Fixed the strip.

October 7, 1953: Fact: Charlie Brown HAS kicked a football

Although his shoe and sock came off with it, and it didn't go very far.

October 6, 1953: The marbles shark

Charlie Brown sucks at checkers, now it's time to demonstrate how bad he is at marbles.

I notice that his persecutors are exclusively female. Shermy, despite his harsh words in the first strip, is the least antagonistic character towards him of the cast. Lucy and Patty dispense game beatdowns, Violet throws him out of her house on a whim, and Snoopy is a mocking presence.

And yet the characters don't seem to notice yet how put-upon CB is, so it doesn't really register to us, yet, as a genuine phenomenon.

October 4, 1953: Snooopy vs The Yard: Another Realistic Bird

Unlike previous bits of suburban malice directed at the poor beagle, this one has the mental capacity to actually be contemptuous.

Those are some very good bird drawings, and Snoopy himself looks great in the second frame. Isn't that branch awfully low to the ground though?

October 3, 1953: Lucy's continued problems with the number line

If you'll remember, Lucy has had trouble before with getting her numbers right. It's not that she's reciting randomly, she just knows them by other names.

This actually makes it possible that her 6,000 game winning streak at Checkers against Charlie Brown might really be much shorter than we think. (Or, it could be much longer.)

How about Charlie Brown's old-style football helmet?

October 2, 1953: Three Years

It's nice to see a kid who cares about effective word usage, but Charlie Brown probably lets it get to him a little too much.

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This strip marks the third anniversary of Peanuts debut.

Here is the strip from that day the year before:


Here is the strip from October 2, 1954, one year after this one:


Over the past year, Linus grew out of diapers. Snoopy thinks a little more often, but is still usually used mute. Lucy's growing, in slow stages, into her tyrant persona. Charlie Brown's cockiness is fading a bit, replaced by insecurity. And we've seen the beginnings of Lucy's crush on Schroeder and her star counting bit.

In the next year, we'll see the first mention of the kids going to actual school, as opposed to nursery or picnic school. We'll also get the first in-school strip, which would become a staple of the later years. We'll get the first strip where Schroeder gets upset with Lucy's attentions. We'll see Linus' first real dialogue. Lucy's rancorous personality settles in a little further. And later on we meet the first of Peanut's many secondary characters, who's also the one who lasts the longest, pretty much surviving the entire run of the strip.

September 30, 1953: You won't know for sure until you count them

This strip marks the beginning of one of Schulz's longer-running jokes in the days of early Peanuts: Lucy counting the number of stars in the sky. She keeps that up for years.