October 15, 1953: There is such a thing as being too self-effacing

At least Charlie Brown isn't claiming to be perfect anymore.

This is more like the CB we know, and it also points to what we might call a later personality problem with him. His sense of self-consciousness about his failure kind of sabotages him sometimes. Remember the sequence where he's at camp with a paper bag over his head, and becomes successful and popular? My guess would be it's because, under the shield of anonymousness, it means he can focus more on what he's doing, rather than what he's observing about what he's doing.

Chagrimace!

(Sorry for the lack of updates over the past two days, internet is intermittent right now.)

October 14, 1953: The inner life of animals

Okay, stop for a moment and imagine if you didn't know Snoopy was particularly weird. Back in the day Peanuts was still a young strip and we didn't yet know that Snoopy was a dog in name only, a bizarre creature whose imagination was so rich and powerful so as to have reality-warping powers. And then you run into this:



What is going to become of that dog, indeed. Note that, despite some hints, it's still not certain who owns Snoopy. He's still just a neighborhood dog at this point. The Daisy Hill Puppy Mill Farm backstory of the later years of the strip is still some time off.

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?