Sunday, August 15, 1954: And cheap at that price

Read this strip at gocomics.com.

Another chapter in the unfolding story of Lucy's mother's desperate search for peace and quiet.

This is a particular favorite strip for me. It has several funny drawings that suit the story perfectly, it reveals something about Lucy's personality, and along the way it paints a vivid picture of the dynamic between Lucy's mother (who needs Lucy to be out of the house sometimes) and father (who foots the bill).

August 2, 1952: Lucy Channels Prometheus

Lucy discovers that skill which is forbidden to the very young: the awesome ability to get out of the crib by herself. This is, I think, one of the last strips in which Lucy interacts with her unseen father. Linus is showing up very soon, freeing Lucy for use in other capacities.

Lucy's eyes are still part-way between their evolution from circles with dots inside them to full parenthesis. Of all the major characters in Peanuts, only Lucy, Linus and Rerun have parenthesis around their eyes. This gives them subtly stronger powers of expression than the other characters, since we can always see the assumed corner of their eyes, instead of only when characters are looking in a direction other than they're facing (which produces eyes-as-apostrophes).

May 22, 1952: Lucy requires a lot of supervision

Lucy and her long-suffering father again. It'll be nice when she loses those huge eyes.

Two strips seem to be missing from Comics.com's archive, May 20 and 21. Anyone know what we missed?

April 2, 1952: Lucy Pimps Out Her Crib

This strip is something that wouldn't work as well as a later-day Peanuts strip, since a lot of the appeal is in the illustration. The characters gained emotional maturity, but their world lost some of its physical flexibility.

Aren't those records at Lucy's feet in panel three? Didn't she just destroy Charlie Brown's just yesterday? Why can't she eat her own?

Lucy seems to be longing for sleeping in a bed, but once she gets one, she won't be able to keep herself from falling out of it for a while.

March 28, 1952: Lucy, Live on Stage

The curtains at the sides lend this strip an odd theatrical appearance.

The strip itself is another of those instances of Lucy pestering her father, who as we've noted before are reputed based on the childhood antics of Charles Schulz's daughter Lisa.

This may be the creepiest yet we've seen of Lucy's wide-eyed early look. In that first panel especially she looks like visions of Hell hold no secrets for her.

March 24, 1952: Bring me my bear, servant!

The fifth sixth Lucy strip. Another instance of Lucy's demanding interactions with her unseen father. Apparently Schulz got the idea for these strips from his then-newbown daughter, Lisa. I hope he didn't get the idea for Lucy's later personality from her as well!