October 14, 1953: The inner life of animals

Okay, stop for a moment and imagine if you didn't know Snoopy was particularly weird. Back in the day Peanuts was still a young strip and we didn't yet know that Snoopy was a dog in name only, a bizarre creature whose imagination was so rich and powerful so as to have reality-warping powers. And then you run into this:



What is going to become of that dog, indeed. Note that, despite some hints, it's still not certain who owns Snoopy. He's still just a neighborhood dog at this point. The Daisy Hill Puppy Mill Farm backstory of the later years of the strip is still some time off.

September 9, 1953: Hearing marshmallows

Part of the fun of the character is that Snoopy is both a person and not, and Schulz can decide for himself which he is more like. When one is expected and the other provided, there is humor in that moment.

This is a weird place in the development of Snoopy's visual development. He's thicker here than in the years to come. He gets longer and leaner for a while, but afterwards seems to pull back a bit into the "balloon animal" shape of the later years of the strip.

I might have missed one or two, but this is the first time I can recall seeing a single, serif Z representing sleep. Such Zs become an important part of the strip's comic language.

July 9, 1951: Just a dog

Snoopy's cute when he's offended (panel 2). Of course, his excitement dies down a bit in later years.