Sunday, January 3, 1954: More of Lucy's infatuation with Schroeder

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We've recently seen more hints about Lucy's developing self-centered personality.  We've seen a little of it before in one prior strip, but this here is the true beginning of Lucy's long-running crush on Schroeder, what Charles Schulz had been known to call her "weakness."

While Lucy can be bossy, crabby and fussy, in some ways she's rather admirable.  She has a very strong personality, is (usually) very confident, and doesn't often take 'no' for an answer.  The second panel here is a good depiction of this side of her.  Generally the Schroeder strips depict Lucy at her best, although this is far from universal.

Panel three is rather abrupt if the first two panels, which newspapers sometimes remove, are missing.  The only previous hint of Lucy having a crush on Schroeder was that other strip almost a whole year back.





Most Lucy vs. Schroeder strips make the musician a bit more inscrutable.  We're usually on Lucy's side in the struggle.  That had yet to develop in this strip, which is more egalitarian in presenting clash of the characters' wants.

We get another somersault here.

January 2, 1954: Charlie Brown is not a good cartoonist

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Have we seen enough about Charlie Brown's failings as a cartoonist yet?  They're entertainingly meta, but still, we've seen the joke before.

New Year's Day, 1954: Linus is still scornful

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This strip is a reprise of the joke from Sunday, 2/15/53.  In that earlier strip, Lucy doesn't seem quite so vicious, because in that one Linus is trying to play with her stuff, while here, Lucy is outright taking Linus's cookie unprovoked.

This might mark the first moment where Lucy seems to be truly evil, in a way it's impossible to explain with another motive.

I love Linus's face in the second panel.

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, 1953

December 25, 1953:

December 31, 1953:

The Christmas strip is another message to the reader, which I don't think generally work for Peanuts, but at least there's a joke to it this time. It's funny that, if you give him enough space, Charlie Brown draws his letters with serifs.

The New Year's Eve strip isn't holiday-specific, but is funny. It's something of a follow-up. I love Schulz's giant serif Zs, which we can take to indicate the sound, and loudness, of Snoopy's snoring. Schulz returns to this particular gag later.

The motion lines make it look like Snoopy is being thrown out of a basement.

December 24, 27 (Sunday) and 28, 1953: Three with Snoopy

December 24, 1953

December 27, 1953

December 28, 1953

Three good no-thought-bubble Snoopy strips, presenting the dog as annoyance, victim and helpful friend.

December 23, 1953: 10,000 games

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I think this strip marks the end of the checkers winning streak series.  Poor Charlie Brown should have quit while he was (less) behind.

This strip implies strongly that all of Lucy and C.B.'s games have been against each other.  If the two tried playing against other opponents, maybe it wouldn't have gotten to 10,000 games?  Of course Lucy prefers it this way.

It's like Paper playing against Rock.

December 20, 1953: Sorry I asked!

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I love this strip!  It presents the world of the kids in a way that makes it seem all real, like there's always a dozen things happening at once.  My favorite joke in it, however, is the one in the lead two panels, which is just a throwaway but has some pleasing off-screen violence.

The metaphorical opening panel uses Charlie Brown's trademark zig-zag shirt pattern, but the zig-zag is nowhere to be seen elsewhere in the whole strip, and is in fact a little uncommon in the strip at this point considering the kid usually covers it with a jacket in the winter months.  Maybe he was just reminding the reader of it.

There is a lot of prototype Calvin and Hobbes here, both in the snowman gag and the humorous sled crash at the beginning.

December 19, 1953: Really really really really....

This is just about Patty at her most charming.  Before she became half of the soul-destroying tag-team of Patty & Violet.  Peanuts & Schulz: A Biography implies that most of the strip's characters were based, at least originally, on real people.  I don't think it's necessarily useful or accurate to make this claim beyond the level of inspiration, but still.  I wouldn't like to think that happened between Charles Schulz and whoever Patty and Violet were based on.

(It's also possible, now that I think about it, that I'm conflating Patty and Violet's later roles.  Well, getting these things straightened out is part of the reason I'm going through the whole course of the strip.)

In the last panel there is an odd space in Patty's word balloon, like a word got whitened-out between Schulz and print.  (Also, for some reason I feel like there should be an exclamation point after her statement there, but that's not really a big deal.)

December 17 & 18, 1953: Two with Linus

December 17, 1953

 December 18, 1953

Both of these strips show off Linus' overalls, which would much later be seen on Rerun.  Whether they are hand-me-downs is unknown to me.

The first strip is another of the "Snoopy and Linus annoy each other watching TV" series.  The second has an unusual "Oh, my!" pose from Charlie Brown in the first panel.

December 16, 1953: For your calendars

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The old mania shows through.  This obsession with all things Beethoven only grows over time, until it becomes perhaps Schroeder's most endearing characteristic.  I don't think the teacher is going to buy it as an absence excuse though.

According to Wikipedia, we're not actually sure when Ludwig Van Beethoven's birthday is, but it does say that December 16 is our best guess.

Concerning the art:
How about that jacket Charlie Brown is wearing?  Is that leather?  Denim?  Or just (yawn) corduroy?  
Those are some pretty well-thought-out poses for Schroeder on the fence there.  Schulz draws him having to lift himself up to see over the fence, which is exerting, so he braces himself against his feet in a couple of ways.    Very nice!