November 2, 1953: The day-after joke

Strip in question: http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1953/11/02

This is a gag that Schulz will return to in later years, the character who is a day late in celebrating a holiday. April Fool's is a particularly fun day to do this with, since victims tend to be off their guard.

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For the time being, I'm going to just link to the relevant gocomics.com page for the comic under discussion. I might inline them from a local copy eventually, which I think would be provided for under fair use, and anyway doesn't seem to have hurt the Comics Curmudgeon any. But maybe there's some aspect of his situation I'm not aware of. Certainly hosting the images from this site makes bandwidth a bit more of a concern.

META: Uh-oh

"Peanuts no longer appears on Comics.com."

This is a problem guys. Not only does it mean I can't use my normal procedure to update the blog while in-lining strips, it also means there is a chance that all the links on the previous strips are going to suddenly break again like they did some time back. At over 700 strips up now, that would be a large amount of time to fix, even if I could find a drop-in replacement for the links. I don't know if my mad Python skillz could fix such a problem again, and even if it did all the "funny/cool/depressing/weird/etc." votes that have accumulated since the last time this happened would get reset again too. (That's a fairly minor thing, true, but I pay attention to those.)

I am quite peeved at comics.com now. To think they had finally gotten that loathsome "TV Pigs" link off of every damn page on the entire site, then they do this. I can only assume they lost the rights to Peanuts, but a little advance warning wouldn't have hurt.

Peanuts seems to be hosted at gocomics.com now, and I don't yet see in-lining instructions. I'll keep you posted as to what this means for the blog.

Sunday, November 1, 1953: 7,000 games

1. How cool is it that Schulz has kept increasing the number of games Lucy has won? This is one of the first definite signs of continuity, other than character introductions, in the strip.

2. Nice abstract intro panel. You can tell the smiling faces are Lucy because of the parenthesis around the eyes. You can tell the CHAGRIMACEd face is Charlie Brown because of his twirly hair thingy.

3. To the show the shock of realization in panel 5, why did Schulz decide to show Charlie Brown standing in tall grass?

4. This, I think, is the first solid depiction of Charlie Brown's loser personality. The key revelation here is that Charlie Brown is noticing that he's actually not very good at a number of things, and that he's not happy about this fact.

5. But still, seriously, seven thousand games? He maybe should move on to Bridge.

6. I can't wait for the day the total gets up to 10,000.

P.S. Thanks for the donation, Michael!

Halloween, 1953: He should have gone as the ghost of a mattress

This is more of a general comic strip joke than a specifically Peanuts joke. A kid does something based on ignorance that turns out badly for him. I could imagine Sluggo making this mistake. (Not that there's anything wrong with Sluggo!)

October 30, 1953: We may call this the "Lucy Loophole"

I love this one.

The Lucy Loophole:
When considering how useful a specific thing is for a purpose, do not forget how useful it is as a general thing for that purpose but used in an unexpected way.

October 29, 1953: Lucy is indignant

If you wonder where the point was that Lucy went from being an innocent little girl to Cthulhu in a dress, well, there is no exact point. It's not even a sliding scale between the two; they exist in quantum superposition, sometimes she's one and sometimes she's the other. This one does seem to be partway between the two though. At least she's not saying "Poor Lucy" anymore!

(I've been known to deliver pizza sometimes, and want to say that Lucy's attitude and power to change things exactly mirrors my own when stiffed for a tip.)

October 28, 1953: Creeping up on Halloween

I had no idea that Peanuts merchandising got started so early.

Surprised that Snoopy can say "Boo?" You shouldn't be. It's about the only English word he can say though.

Scribble of ire!

October 27, 1953: Addressed to Abu Dhabi

The stamp pressed directly upon Lucy's head like that reminds me of the old Garfield strips where he'd attempt to ship someone he didn't like (usually Nermal) to Abu Dhabi.

This is another of the sequence of strips where Lucy demands something of Charlie Brown, but goes too far in her demands resulting in some act of sudden rebellion. Interestingly, the act is never depicted itself; you only ever see its results. I would term these strips turnabout strips; it doesn't necessarily mean a chase is involved.

This kind of understatement is everywhere in Peanuts, once you start looking for it. It's not that Schulz doesn't or can't show the violent act, just that A. as with the chase strips, it's often more effective/less upsetting if the result is left unshown, and B. it makes those moments where the violence is shown (Lucy pulling away the football, Snoopy grabbing the blanket, Lucy slugging someone, Charlie Brown hit by a line drive) more effective.

October 26, 1953: The mystery of Snoopy's snout

Snoopy's head is one of the most problematic entities, artistically, in Peanuts. From the side it's great, but from a three-quarters perspective it is weird. His cheeks round out a bit, to give his mouth more room for expression.

It's still less of a cheat, in my opinion, than late-era Snoopy, which rounded out his head in profile but is more problematic in terms of eye and mouth placement. (Of course, there's no law against cheating, especially if most people never notice the cheat!)

Sunday, October 25, 1953: A caper like this needs a good cart-man

Schulz is still learning to write effectively. Panels six and seven are kind of drawn out, with the characters merely intensifying how much they need Charlie Brown. This is a good strip though. My favorite part is the first panel, which is almost like a model sheet for Charlie Brown. His first expression there, by the way, is the only time I can remember the kid looking that happy. I'm pretty sure I've never seen him with exactly that kind of smile anywhere else.