January 16 & Sunday, January 17, 1954: Trials of a Baby

January 16, 1954:

Sunday, January 17, 1954:

Surprisingly many of Peanuts characters have a special talent, one that overrides the limitations of real life.  Snoopy has many such "powers."  The force of Lucy's anger (later on) is terrifying to behold.  Charlie Brown's ability to lose has already been been demonstrated while playing checkers.  And Linus has a way of making or doing things that doesn't seem quite "right."  Stacking the blocks like he does in the first strip is an example.  He's also great at blowing up balloons halfway, and other unlikely feats of what I'm going to call, for lack of a better term, dexterity.

The second strip is the first time we get something akin to a stream of dialogue from Linus.  Until now his words have been things like "dottie dottie" or loud laughs of derision in the face of Lucy's selfishness, but here are several full sentences.  Noteworthy, however, is that although his words are in speech bubbles so generally are Snoopy's, and neither character has been shown using full sentences to communicate with the other characters.

I like how big kids are represented as running in herds that clean the floor of toys in their wake, like cattle devouring whole fields of grass.

January 13-15, 1954: Snoopy's ears creep me out

January 13, 1954:

January 14, 1954:

January 15, 1954:

Snoopy's ears demonstrate once more how they can be held rigid in place in weird poses at will.  They're almost like additional limbs.  Of course they have their limits: they don't seem capable of supporting much weight, and they don't seem capable of supporting Violet's ire, that killjoy.

The third strip gives us a lot more Snoopy drawings than the standard daily strip.  I love the one at the top-left of the third panel, where you only see his feet peeking into the frame.  But there's a three-quarter "puppet head" view of Snoopy smiling in that one too, which we haven't seen for quite a while.

Charlie Brown is the one giving Snoopy his walk, which points the "owner" needle more firmly towards him again.  But we've still gotten no concrete indication of whose dog Snoopy is.  This may be the first time, however, that Snoopy's relentless enthusiasm has gotten on the kid's nerves, which is an oft-used gag over Peanuts' run.

January 11 & 12, 1954: The Van Pelt kids with blocks

January 11, 1954:

January 12, 1954:

The first one is more an observational strip about human nature than Lucy's personality specifically, although we might conclude that she's been somewhat spoiled by her tremendous winning streak at Checkers against Charlie Brown.  The second is a more typical strip about sisterly concern, but it does give three more of those great serif'd sleeping Zs.

(I should note that, despite what the title of this post might lead you to conclude, Lucy and Linus' last names have not been revealed in the strip yet.  Or if they have, I certainly don't remember it happening.)

Sunday, January 10, 1954: Snoopy and a Baby #1

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

The times when there's a baby on hand for Snoopy to wordlessly react with are relatively short when compared to the length of Peanuts, which is a shame because I think they're among the funniest, most whimsical strips of its run.  Snoopy develops a great double-team act with Sally when she arrives on the scene.

Snoopy's head drawn in profile in panel 5 is archetypal Snoopy.  There is just a hint of the direction the character would be taken in later there.

January 9, 1954: Counting stars gaiden

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Charlie Brown's exasperation at Lucy counting stars is one of the more iconic strip themes of early Peanuts.  So far by my count we've only seen one Lucy star counting strip, and she more guesses than counts in that one.

January 7, 1954: Anyone want to buy half a snowman?

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Wow, that's a smug look on Charlie Brown's face in the third panel.  Whatever happened to annoy Patty, anyway?  The "inside" of the snowman is shaded for some reason, like it was filled with chocolate.  The carrot and buttons are missing, so it actually looks like Patty took slightly more than half of it.

Chagrimace!

OFF-TOPIC: Computer game Kickstarter project

It isn't relevant to Peanuts in the least, but it is something I've been working hard on, and I'm very excited about it, so I figure it should be mentioned here, like, once.

I'm working on a computer game project about exploring caves.  It's called "In Profundis," and I've just launched a Kickstarter project for it.  If you're interested in such things, why not go have a look, and maybe contribute to the cause?

In Profundis Kickstarter page

There, all done.  We now return you to our regularly-scheduled comic strips.

January 6, 1954: Ribbit

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Snoopy looks kind of frog-like in the first panel here.

"Have you ever been a dog?"  "Of course not."  I think this strip is actually funnier if you give it the 3eanuts treatment.

January 5, 1954: Snoopy and caramel

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Should this go on the list of Snoopy powers?

Charlie Brown's mistake here is in assuming Snoopy is a dog.  He's more likely some kind of Shmoo-like creature.

Schroeder's reaction is made a lot funnier, I think, without a word balloon spelling out "HA HA" or something like that.

Chagrimace!

January 4, 1954: Schroeder, the proto-Linus

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

A character is needed for Charlie Brown to talk with sometimes, and the character chosen depends on what role he must play in the strip.  If it's an equal then it'll be Shermy, if it's something that involves playing or social matters it'll be Patty.  If it involves throwing him out of her house then Violet. 

Already, Schroeder doesn't get much play outside of his piano, but he works here because he's a little younger than Charlie Brown and thus apt to ask questions regarding the shape of the sun. Lucy could also perhaps have filled the role, although it won't be long before her willful ignorance of such matters becomes prominent.

This is exactly the kind of strip that Linus would be in, if he were old enough to talk yet.