May 13, 1952: We've all known people like this

This is a remarkably understated strip. There is no punchline!

May 12,1952: Roll a d20 to resolve the attack

Role-playing games often use the question of who-shot-whom in a game of Cowboys and Indians to explain why they use die rolls to resolve those issues. They assume that most players aren't as fair-minded as Charlie Brown!

Calvin would not have let Shermy win like that. In fact, Watterson would have probably turned this into a Sunday strip, and have Calvin go to extravagant lengths to come up with reasons that Shermy could never have hit him with his ray gun. This is why Calvin was so popular with his non-tiger friends.

Sunday, May 11, 1952: Schroeder in concert (with backup)

The entire joke here rests in Violet saying "let him play by himself" instead of "let Schroeder."

There are some nice touches in this one. In addition to the musical staffs that Schulz spent so much effort on, and he put a G-clef instead of an S in his name in the first panel. But best of all we have Snoopy in this strip for no story-related reason other than just being cute and funny there on his end of the couch. His reaction in panel 6 is best here, he's just rendered so winningly in that pose, exactly halfway between a dog-like and a human reaction. It's great.

May 9, 1952: Oh no no no no no no no

The image for May 8 is broken on Comics.com's site.



Lucy would show her gratitude towards Charlie Brown for not demolishing her block tower by pulling away a football more than 40 times.

May 6, 1952: The monster is sighted

This is the first strip in which Lucy does something actively antagonistic against another character (who is not her unseen father). It is also quite a clever little joke on pool ol' Charlie Brown.

Sunday, May 4, 1952: Great Scott! A land mine!

While overall this one is kind of meh, there are some great touches in this one, like CB's reaction to hitting the grate, his goggles, the text on the sign Schroeder hits, and Lucy's determined expression in the third frame, which seems slightly more Lucy-like to my eyes.

May 3, 1952: Charlie Brown is highly suggestible

That is quite the lurid description Violet is giving there. It's like a horror story.

May 2, 1952: When Schroeder Met Snoopy

I believe Snoopy and Schroeder have been in the same strip before (a Sunday baseball one), but this seems to be the first one in which the two interact.

I suppose we should be thankful that Snoopy isn't a musical prodigy too.

May 1, 1952: Glub

The inverse of the "girl cares more about Snoopy than she does boy" joke we've seen before.

April 30, 1952: Smaller characters

This strip seems a little under-depicted. Watching Snoopy sliding to a halt in the third panel seems abrupt without seeing him run in the second panel.

Look at the first panel here. The characters viewed from a distance are rendered a little more simply to simulate the increased distance from the reader. Particularly, Lucy's eyes are simple dots instead of circles, making her look a bit more like modern Lucy.