January 10-15, 1955: Lucy is hard on toys

January 10

A disturbing insight into Lucy's attitude towards property.

January 11

For some reason this strip reminds me of that disco version of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

January 12

That's kind of hyperbolic. Lucy didn't even know what a metronome was before Monday!

January 13

Girls in Peanuts tend to be rather more rough-and-tumble than in other strips. Lucy, of course, eventually gets to where she won't think twice about returning a slug in the jaw for an insult. "Peppermint" Patty won't even be arriving on the scene for many years yet.

January 14

When someone tells you to close your eyes, yeah, it's usually a good idea not to if you can get away with it. Anyway, why doesn't Violet just rummage through her candy bag facing the other way?

January 15

An enthusiastic speech by Schroeder, boldly staking his claim as the neighborhood artist.

Sunday, April 25, 1954: Patty tags out

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Patty's only kicked CB's sandcastle once in the strip so far, but this implies a regular reign of terror has been going on.  It's a funny strip all together though, and is another step closer to the Patty/Violet team act some of us remember from the early compilations.

Sunday, October 18, 1953: The football, off the other foot

Well after all, she is just a little girl, you know. Riiiiiight....

This is pretty much just a silly strip, although it explains why Charlie Brown has to play by Lucy's rules to kick a football: it's her ball!

Can anyone imagine Lucy as star fullback of nursery school?

October 7, 1953: Fact: Charlie Brown HAS kicked a football

Although his shoe and sock came off with it, and it didn't go very far.

December 13, 1952: Lucy offhandedly remarks

I could remark something about her incredibly Lucy rage, but Charlie Brown's already done this in a previous strip. Lucy has too.

Sunday, November 16, 1952: THE FOOTBALL

It's the first of the (eventually) yearly strips where Lucy holds the football and Charlie Brown, for whatever reason, fails to kick it. The WHOMP in the last panel echos throughout the decades; through it, we hear history.

The first time it happens, as we see, there was no malice in Lucy's act, and there's no iconic AUUGGHH either. Charlie Brown's rueful reaction in the last panel certainly seems familiar though.

I've looked ahead a bit recently, and I'm pretty certain that the next year doesn't have another football strip. We might consider it compensation that Charlie Brown ends up on his back twice in this one.

To think, Lucy doesn't consider it a good idea....

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.

October 8, 1951: Charge

When Charlie Brown needed a direct antagonist in the earliest days, most often Patty would fill that role. Look at the look on her face in panel four here. There is no mirth in her destruction. Her kick is simply a mechanical process. It is the role of CB's toy soldiers, in this world, to be kicked, and it is CB's role to have his toys abused. This is simply the nature of the Peanuts' universe.