Slowly over the months, the character's shapes have been edging closer to the modern style.
All of the characters except Lucy have thick eye-dots, solid little ovals of black. Lucy instead has those wide circle-eyes, at least when we see her from the front. Here she's only seen from the side; when seen in profile, or when she's looking at something out of the corner of her eye, Schulz tends not to draw the complete circle, which makes her look a lot more like her modern look.
Thus in this strip, Lucy looks very much like she does in the years to follow.
John, why do you think Schultz choose this style and stuck with it for so long? I know we have the power of hindsight, but it seems like such an obviously wrong direction to go in, especially compared to the designs of the other characters. She looks like she has PTSD...
ReplyDeleteWell, Lucy really hasn't been in the strip for long. It's only been a few months since she was introduced. Schulz wants the characters to be visually distinct, too; without the eyes Lucy may look a little too much like Violet.
ReplyDeleteIn _Peanuts: A Golden Celebration_ on page 16, Schulz says "When she was first introduced into the strip in 1952, Lucy was simply a cute, doll-like figure with large round eyes. Jim Freeman, who was our editor at the time, suggested that I eliminate the large round eyes."
So, it seems to be Jim Freeman's idea. Good job Jim, your timely intervention allowed Lucy to at last forget the horrors of the War!
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