These are notable strips from September 1955, a sequence that begins here on the gocomics website.
More "fussbudgeting." I wonder about the origins of that word. Anyone out there have access to an OED?
Wikipedia, paraphrased, from Sputnik:
"Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was a 58 cm (23 in) diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses were detectable. The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments."
This strip went out a couple of years before that, so I assume they're talking about unsuccessful US efforts to orbit a satellite. Anyway, over the years Charlie Brown's had so many stomach-aches from listening to his friends I'd think it's indicative of some deeper issue, maybe ulcers.
This has some cute drawings of Snoopy in it, especially in the third panel. Also, serif'd letters, which are an interesting idea in comic lettering.
Snoopy dance! We can't have seen it more than a couple of times to this point. It makes a sound like stompity here. A sunflower seed does seem like insufficient reward for all that effort, although its specificity is interesting.
Snoopy's expressions throughout this strip are great, but especially in the first and last panels.
September 5:
More on satellites. Lucy, I think I remember Schulz saying at one point, is a character that expresses indignation well -- apparently, even when it's misplaced. Of course these days all satellites are equipped with advanced dog-detection and evasion programming, and special maneuvering jets they use on re-entry to enable them to avoid crushing wayward canines when they fall through the atmosphere at the end of their working life.
This is the first strip where Snoopy actually roleplays as some other animal. Before he just moved like a snake, by way of demonstration, but here he acts the part. In upcoming decades this would become one of the most defining aspects of the character. Snoopy's body will become increasingly flexible and malleable to support these flights of fancy.
More slithering around. We've also got a nice stylized question-mark. Of course snakes, like all wild animals, don't have it nearly as good as Snoop does here. In my part of the country, folks kill most snakes without second thought. Much like....
...like this. Snake sequence #3. BTW, seeing Lucy playing with a doll seems a little weird to me. It seems like she should at least be putting pins into it, or something.
Lucy keeps skate keys hidden all over the neighborhood. In case of skating emergencies. (If you get the reference I'm making there, well, I admit it, I'm a fan.)
Yahoo Answers (sometimes it's actually helpful!) supplies the meaning here, which confused me as a kid too. It seems that it used to be that roller skates were originally worn over shoes, and the key was inserted to adjust a metal frame so the straps fit securely over them, in the manner of tightening a bolt. Nowadays roller skates seem to be used less frequently outside of places like roller rinks, which is something of a shame.
Charlie Brown's come some ways from his smart-alecky roots, although I don't think he ever quite loses that entirely.
Snoopy is a fun character to look at, and this strip is nearly entirely his reactions. The best ones are panels 1, 5 and 7.
September 13:
This one's has its roots in a sort of sarcastic adult observation about the manner in which kids treat their possessions. The Lucy has a set procedure for this indicates that she's seen her fair number of boxes of new crayons. Linus' admiration is the heart of the strip, though, that extra touch that makes it more than just kiddie shenanigans.
September 15:
Linus is becoming more talkative, and as he does he moves further into the regular cast. I like the joke here, which kind of implies that the severity of a condition requires doctors drive a larger vehicle, in order to freight all that severity around with them.
This one refers to the strip from last month, continuing with Snoopy's croquet hoop antics. Croquet hoops are fairly low to the ground, so Snoopy can't be that large a dog to get away with this. There's some cool lettering in this one. Check out the serif'd outlines on the lowercase "hop" in panel 10.
Can you imagine how creepy it would be to see a real dog with the expression Snoopy wears in the last panel here?
You just know Lucy would be a big hit there. The whole joke here comes from the incongruous final panel, which is intended to shock the reader just enough to be funny. There's another similar strip I remember reading in which Lucy laments that she never really gets what she wants for Christmas: real estate! It's important that the reveal be short to maintain the timing of the joke.
Again I ask: how does Snoopy blush through fur?
I've remarked before about Schulz's rain, which appears to be labor-intensive. It looks like it was lightly applied, which produces the thin, reedy lines seen here. Keep in mind, one of the secrets to cartooning is that artists typically work much larger than you see in the newspaper, so those thin rain lines weren't quite so thin when he drew them. While Schulz does a good job with avoiding the thought bubbles and speech balloons, you can see a couple of places where the rain intrudes slightly into the bubble.
I think this strip is the first time Linus quotes anything. Later on, he'd become known as the biblical scholar of the group. I notice that Lucy's clothes here somewhat resemble the clothes she'd wear in later strips, once her wide-bottomed blue skirt became too old-fashioned to retain.
Wait, what? Are the ducks hunting the dogs? Maybe I don't get it.
Panels 2 and 4 here are interesting for being early examples of characters walking in perfect profile on the ground, without a shadow or horizon line behind them.
September 26 & 27:
Schroeder gets to show off his musical knowledge again. I looked up the song Schroeder mentions in the first panel: yikes! If it's the right piece, that's a formidable bit of playing.
The shrunken character representing embarrassment is something we've seen before. One thing your more inventive comic artists might do is try to supplement the fairly arbitrary, traditional visual language of comics with new ideas. For those new to comics, Berkeley Breathed supplied a helpful visual guide to some of the more common of these visual representations. It might be interesting to add: Japanese comics, or manga, shares some of this visual language, but also has a completely different set of them, more formalized, and so firmly established that they've branched out into anime as well, so characters will sport, say, a large stylized sweat droplet to indicate strain, or throbbing veins for anger, even when those states could be indicated through speech and animation.
Blankets may provide emotional succor, but ultimately, are purely material. It doesn't seem to be a sacred object to Linus yet.
Surprised and shaking Snoopy is best Snoopy.
And we end with my favorite strip of the month. Charlie Brown's reaction makes this one for me. Sticks and stones can break his bones, and a good insult will send him reeling too! He actually seems to be in pain there. Lucy's joy at inflicting damage upon Charlie Brown's psyche doesn't seem to be personal. She doesn't hate him, the joy she feels is more at the exhibition of personal skill. Look at that wide smile in the first panel. Hurray!
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That's September. We didn't skip too many this time out I notice, there's still a good ratio of interesting strips to skipable ones. Next time, for October 1955, the kids'll be fascinated by autumn leaves, we'll look at the origins of a mysterious playground phrase, Lucy throws Linus into a state of existential dread, and, of course, there's Halloween. Stay tuned!
