April 27, 1954: With real working truck bed!

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

This is a frequently-used structure by Schulz at the moment. It goes:

1. A character does or says something silly.
2. Another character, or in the case of Snoopy vs. The Yard plain old physics, shows why the thing done is silly.

It's not much by itself, so these strips usually have something else going for them, either funny art (as here), empathy with one of the characters (such as the silly one who realizes by the end his mistake), or in some cases the silly character bullheadedly persisting in his error regardless. This happens with Lucy a lot, but Linus also becomes susceptible to it, every Halloween....

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April 26, 1954: Have you met Schroeder's brother, George?

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

This looks very much like a pop culture reference of the time, the candelabrum on the piano being a trademark of popular pianist Liberache. Or maybe it's just something pianists did at the time? It is rare that Charlie Brown and Shermy are more disgusted with commercialism than Schroeder, Christmas specials notwithstanding.

Ominously, Schroeder's little gesture seems to have enraptured Lucy.

Sunday, April 25, 1954: Patty tags out

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Patty's only kicked CB's sandcastle once in the strip so far, but this implies a regular reign of terror has been going on.  It's a funny strip all together though, and is another step closer to the Patty/Violet team act some of us remember from the early compilations.

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April 24, 1954: Fashion arbiter of novelty records

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

I assume this is a kid's record or some sort, or maybe a popular song of the day.  Regardless, Lucy's summation is probably accurate.  It is kind of a strange thing to write a song about I'd think.  Her diagnosis might be regarded as practice for the Psychiatrist's Booth.

April 23, 1954: The aerodynamic properties of that ball seem unsuitable

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

It's harder to throw, but you can't expect it to go so far if the batter gets a good whack at it.  However, if he hits it really solidly it will probably take several minutes just to put the ball back together.

I think this is one of the few strips with Shermy, Schroeder and no one else.  (Charlie Brown is mentioned but not pictured.)

April 22, 1954: So, it's his umbrella?

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

This is a silly strip, it doesn't really have a strong gag but it's visually appealing.  One has to wonder about the practicality of a dog owning an umbrella though.  How does Snoopy close it?

April 19, 1954: Lucy, team paperweight

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Lucy's mostly-permanent position in right field is some time off, but this is the first time she's shown as a player (excepting perhaps last week's rain-out).

The baseball gloves in Peanuts are laughably outsized compared to the kids.  This one's the size of Lucy's head!  It looks like her arm could just about fill one of those gigantic fingers.

Sunday, April 18, 1954: Who needs peppermint?

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Here we have one of the more interesting questions about the Peanuts strip.  Schulz and Peanuts makes the claim, if I remember it correctly, that the two Pattys, the original and the "Peppermint" variety, were based on the same person.  At first that assumption seems laughable, despite the two sharing the same name, but think.  Besides this strip, every physical contest we've seen Patty in (marbles, mostly, and mostly against Charlie Brown), she's won.  And their times in the strip don't intersect very much; one wanes right when the other waxes.

Oh well.  Idle speculation aside, I think this strip has a hilarious final panel.  I don't know of any other strip that would think to end it so understatedly, or half as effectively.

One weird thing though: look at the backgrounds of the last two panels.  They're completely different!