November 24, 1953: Charlie Brown *still* has a big, round head

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Maybe I should start categorizing these.  This is a type of joke we've seen several times before, beginning with the beach ball strip.  That began as a kind of comment Schulz made about his art style.  This is Lucy's second time making a joke at the expense of Charlie Brown's head.  The "WHEE!" is new however.

This is a chase strip, but it's not a "turnabout" strip because Charlie Brown has a reaction shot in the penultimate panel.

November 23 & 28, December 31 1953: Sleepy Snoopy

November 23, 1953:

 November 28, 1953:

December 31, 1953:

I'm taking a couple of these out of order to collect some thematically similar strips.  All have to do with a sleeping Snoopy and all have to do with sight gags.

The first strip is another early thought balloon strip, and one that uses the standard tail on the balloon, too!  Schulz seems like he's finally decided to settle on this convention.

In the second strip, is that an indoor bed for Snoopy?  It would seem that would fix him as Charlie Brown's dog, but I don't think we can absolutely say that until a character states it explicitly.

The third strip is one that Schulz would come back to later, and is visually inventive in how it uses the size of the 'Z' to represent the loudness of Snoopy's snoring.  (It's also one of the earliest, though not the first I think, of a large serif 'Z' to represent sleep, which is a very Peanuts convention.)

Sunday, November 22, 1953: Yes, Lucy is still beating Charlie Brown at checkers

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8,000 games now.  So, Lucy plays because Charlie Brown takes losing personally, eh?  She does make it to an even 10,000.  That day isn't very far off even.

The background grass seen back when Charlie Brown lost 7,000 games is seen here again, this time behind Lucy in the next-to-last panel.

Nice abstract drawing in the lead panel, although it looks like Schulz is cheating Charlie Brown's arm a little.

Looks like a chagrimace in panel 7.

November 21, 1953: The Trepidation of an Engine

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

In those days, comic artists would draw all four panels of a strip, even if nothing much changes between them.  Notice how the scribble of the grass sort of trails off to the bottom-right of the frame.  I think Schulz was going for a stylistic effect there.

November 20, 1953: "Aus Der Tiefe"

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There are certain personality characteristics that Peanuts characters exhibit.  Here is exhibited one that we might call "mischevious."  Snoopy has it definitely, and Lucy might have some of it.  Charlie Brown used to have to, as we see here, but kind of grows out of it.

Yet another reason to love Peanuts: you have just read a strip about the pronunciation of a German particle.  That's not something you'll typically find in Dennis the Menace.

In panel 2, Charlie Brown is sitting on the far end of Schroeder's toy piano.  That thing must be really heavy to avoid being upended.

November 19, 1953: Third use of "Fuss-budget"

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Fuss-budget became one of those terms that identified Peanuts, like "good grief!"  It's probably about time to stop calling out every usage, though.

November 18, 1953: Tickle tickle tickle

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 WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU SNOOPY?

November 17, 1953: Lovecraftian horror!

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Oh it's not Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos; or Shub-Niggurath, Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.  It's just Linus.  Just little, innocent Linus!

OR IS IT?

This is a retread of the "girls in stadium boots" strip from just ten months back, although the horror is more vague here.  Notice that it's entirely Charlie Brown who's getting worked up.  Lucy knows exactly what's going on.

November 16, 1953: You'll like it because it mentions Shubert!

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Another of the "Charlie Brown: Budding Cartoonist" series.  In these strips Schulz pokes fun at his own pretensions, but they also show how engaged he was with his craft.

One thing I really like about all these is that, for all of C.B.'s faults as a cartoonist, he at least knows enough to work large.  Held edgeways, that sheet of paper is as tall as he is, sans head.

Sunday, November 15, 1953: The Great Experiment

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

More to add to the list of Snoopy's powers:
8. Super hearing
9. Teleportation (induced by hearing candy wrapper)

For his sake, I hope we can add:
10. Immune to canine chocolate toxicity

This strip actually reads better without the two lead panels.  Try it out!  We don't need to be told twice that they're running an experiment.  All the important facts are presented without the optional panels, and they aren't repeated.

Finally, importantly, the strip is just funny.