The Greatest Peanuts Strips--20 to 11

20. 9/14/90



Chuck was not entirely luckless in love; for a couple years (in strip timeline, anyway) he had an on-off thing with Peggy Jean, a girl he met at summer camp (you will recall her from last post as the girl who initially confused Snoopy with Charlie Brown). They even shared a little kiddy kiss. Alas, the lad's luck ran well and dry by the end of Peanuts, when he learned that Peggy Jean had moved on for good, with a new, jock-stud boyfriend.

This strip shows Charlie Brown dealing with the aftershock of a letter from his beloved, wherein she swore her possibly-at-some-point-dying-but-as-of-that-moment-still-breathing-heartily affection for him. His bliss caused him to blank out in the batters box, blowing yet another game for his woebegone crew.

He doesn't even seem to notice Lucy screaming in his ear; the agony of defeat will always trump the thrill of victory. Remember what Charles Schulz said when asked why he set up his characters to live out life as a series of miseries: "Happiness isn't funny."


19. 1/7/56

Pigpen's popularity struck his creator as inexplicable, and to read Peanuts in his entirety, you see that fans were more into the concept of a perpetually filthy kid than anything he ever actually did. (Other than be dirtier than a New Jersey public pool, that is.) After his introduction, his only major story was to be an unlikely, super-brief crush for Peppermint Patty. Dude never even got an unrequited love to call his own!

What transpires in this strip is instantly recognizable to any of the millions who cherish A Charlie Brown Christmas. Although the show swaps Violet with Frieda, the dialogue is lifted near-verbatim. And why not? It's utter perfection. 10 out of 10, two thumbs up high, gold star, A++, would laugh at again.

Is it too much that I say "On the contrary, I didn't think I looked that good" when I get ready to leave the house in the morning whilst appraising myself in the kitchen window?

18. 2/9/60



Ignore for a moment that Snoopy's doghouse is in a place we have never seen it before or since. Charles Schulz has a story to tell, and he's gonna tell it. And the moral is: Uneasy rests the head that faces impalement via a perched liquid sword.

How bold for Mr. Schulz to place this poor pup in this perilous predicament. Normally reigning o'er the Ministry of Funny Dogs (damn a Cleese), Snoopy awakes one white winter morn to impending doom. Dance your way outta that, buddy! His rambling fright-train of thought concludes with what is pretty much my philosophy on mortality. (Kids read this stuff back then? Like over cereal? Mommy, is Snoopy gonna die? Never question why I love Charles Schulz; question why you don't.)

17. 3/6/56

One thing about Shermy, and this isn't as smart-ass as emotionless font may make it seem--Schulz could sure draw a mean buzz-cut.

This is another example of a devastating, adult observation made by a child (who shall most assuredly not lead anyone). "Mental scars"? But don't dare call Chuck B "proto-emo"; he's way too real for that.

16. 1/25/60





Lucy, even in her absence, is the greatest antagonist in the Peanuts universe.

The build up makes this piece so classic. Linus and Charlie Brown walking placidly along, talkin' 'bout the inner war that no man is safe from. With each successive panel, however, the blanket-less mini-philosopher grows increasingly freaked out by his innate turmoil, and the reality of the treaty-less years ahead, and his body shakes like some invasive supernatural force seeks release until, finally, he cries out, as if putting the very word "peace" into the air will cause it to form and tunnel its way into his long-suffering soul, replacing the ambivalent monster that he forced out through sheer will.

I can't stand it.

15. 10/3/50



Second strip ever features original Patty--she of the bow and plaid dress--moving daintily down the sidewalk, reciting that hoary couplet about one of the two original recipes. Of course, she stops briefly to "whap" a poor boy so hard that his eye blackens upon impact. She will laugh at the memory much later, whilst forcing dolls to eat mud pies.

It confuses me when I see the occasional critical opinion that Mr. Schulz somehow shortchanged his female characters, or villainized them. On the contrary, I didn't think I looked that good. (Sorry! Damn window.) I mean, on the contrary, he created several young girls with personalities as rich as Charlie Brown and Linus, and certainly more intriguing and genuine than most of the roles written for women on television and film these days. Just check out the strip above. Patty is very feminine, yet not above random violence. She seems to have no difficulty reconciling the two. You will, if you are paying attention, notice this effortless dichotomy in the majority of children as they develop.

14. 6/10/58



Another strip famously animated. "Let's all kick him" is so wonderfully Lucy.

Couple things: if Chuck's baseball squad is so notoriously terrible, how are they in any championship? Plague take out every other team except one, and they were placed against each other by default? Why aren't Linus and Violet wearing caps?

13. 5/11/60



Ah, more baseball! More dog undermining owner authority!

Charlie Brown's attempts to coach the hell out of his team are infrequent, and cute. While he puts emphasis on key words like "speed," "running," and "runningest," all it does is encourage Snoopy to get silly. "Go go go!" Eventually, the Snoopometer needle has broken, and multiple beagles dance before us in insouciant delight around manager Brown, who is clearly writhing both inside and out. This is why Snoopy is the coolest. He's carefree, in and of the moment, following his heart (and feet). He can imagine it, he can do it. Life's too short for strategy, Charlie Brown.

(This scene was also animated, yet I enjoy it more here jumping from still motion renderings. Easier to appreciate Snoopy's coolness throughout. He never opens his eyes once!)

12. 1/26/83

We join the Van Pelts mid-conversation. Linus is typically earnest, Lucy atypically tolerant. "When I was your age, I was dumb too."

I say the exact same thing whenever I read comments left by young True Blood fans on the Internet. So young, so hormonal, so hymen-having, so convinced in the utter rightness of their mere baby opinion. The joke of the strip is that Lucy is not so much older than Linus--and honestly, she is nowhere near as thoughtful--yet feels those mere few years have accorded her a weary wisdom he cannot yet even fathom. That understood, we can all take different things from works of art, and what I take from this strip is that certain age groups are not to be taken seriously, namely teenagers who fantasize about overhyped steroid monkeys who play characters surpassed by Dick, Jane and Spot for overall depth and development.

When I forget how dumb I was as a teen, I just read the poetry I wrote then. Masochistic, but helpful.


11. 11/16/93

And y'all? Stop smirking. Indulge me this.

I loved Schulz' latterly dependence on the beanbag. Comfortable, comical. Just the word "beanbag" is chuckle-worthy, and Schulz loved words that just sounded funny. (Cf. "zamboni".)

There's not much to the joke here, another wry Sally comment on the relative worth of her wishy-washy big brother. What propels this to just outside the Titanic Ten is how Snoopy is drawn in the last two panels. In the third square, he is reacting to Sally's zinger from his cozy nook on the beanbag. His ears are not visible, his eyes are closed in delight, and a grin is just creeping up on his face. In the last panel, he has turned ever so slightly to reveal a bit of ear, but his eyes are still closed, and his smile even wider. Unbelievable cuteness that I shall not apologize for loving to pieces and bits.

The Greatest Peanuts Strips--30 to 21

30. 6/22/74

How depressing is the sight of tears in a comic strip? Especially when they streak the face of a little girl lamenting her supposed unlovability.

There is some genuine, labyrinthine mind-screwness happening here with this entire story. Charles Schulz' unrequited pining for Donna Wold was manifest in Peanuts with Charlie Brown's hopeless yearning for the Little Red Haired Girl. Schulz, in panel after panel, poured out his unresolved anguish over being shunned by the woman he desired so strongly. Two marriages, five children, worldwide fame, and more money than a human realistically needs, and he still could not put his lost love behind him.

So it's interesting that here he has another character react to the Little Red Haired Girl so strongly. There was never a strip where Charlie Brown reacted jealously to a boy that he knew the LRHG was interested in, so I would venture that this is Schulz putting his own distraught, distorted self-reflections into the Peppermint Patty character. Which clicks on a couple levels: it saves Charlie Brown from even more suffering (seriously, the Book of Job is like Poky Li'l Puppy compared to Peanuts) and puts him in the entirely novel position of "object of desire."

29. 8/22/51



The greatest America's Funniest Videos are ones where animals go all kamikaze on little kids. 'Cause I guaran-damn-tee you bratty children nationwide do worse to their supposedly beloved four-legged friends daily. Pull ears, kick bellies, yank tails...so really, dog doing the Liu Kang bicycle kick to the face and chest is the least those spoiled incorrigibles have coming to them.

(It's wrong, but the Appalachian side of me just wants to pick baby Schroeder up and punt him into a swamp.)

The faces here are a wonder. In the first panel, Schroeder's look is of pure joy at causing pain. What a little bastard! Then we have Snoopy's tongue-jutting surprise, leading to his fuzzled anger. It's hard not to share in his clear vengeful happiness at dropping the ball--literally. When I'm feeling really mean, I imagine it's a shotput crashing on Schroeder's head.

28. 2/4/69



Linus on the longest ski ever. Snoopy's toothy grin in the last panel. Just a delightful strip to look at.

27. 7/4/91

Snoopy doesn't think much of the kids that surround him, but in the 1990s, he sure started acting more and more like them. Being excited for the grand old time food is going to have at camp is so something a young child would feel.

Honestly, what the hell was with the cookie obsession? I mean it makes more sense than James Joyce's fart fetish, but why cookies over pizza? Easier to eat, I suppose; still, it seemed every other appearance by the beagle showed him namedropping, munching on, or reminiscing over, those baked circles of deliciousness.

This is not a complaint, per se; Schulz couldn't have Snoopy daydreaming his life away all the damn time, so he used the very basic yen for cookies to ground his most beloved character on the terra firma along with the others.

26. 3/20/82



Ah, Joe Writer, the greatest novelist there never was, and next to Flannery O'Connor and Joe Wambaugh, my heavy bones hero. Any scribbler can relate to that moment when the text seems to turn on you, came at your head, merciless. It is a rueful laugh I let escape my belly at the sight of runaway exclamation points raising Snoo-brows.

25. 5/27/68



Ah, the circular logic of a child in love, who as a child, doesn't actually know what love really truly is yet!

Measuring your worth of self via how successful you are at the most dangerous game of love is flawed and potentially fatal. Then again, Charlie Brown's other indicators of value come up short as well: miserable athlete, wishy-washy student, average dog owner, walking fashion faux pas...poor kid. He really is something.

24. 12/23/98

Rerun is...wow. The honors bag featured a strip wherein he waxed nostalgic on the climax of Anna Karenina, and now we have him framing the sideways revelation of Santa's true identity in the context of America's premier judicial body. If kids actually spoke like this more often, I could be around one for more than five minutes without feeling the unnatural urge to grab them and throw them into a refrigerator.

23. 7/31/89

A potential love interest for Charlie Brown goes awry when A) he sweatingly introduces himself as "Brownie Charles" and B) she mistakenly thinks Snoopy is "Brownie Charles." Here we see Snoop at his finest: eating and making fun of a child. Just like "My mind reels with sarcastic replies," I've been known to use "You're more confused than you think, sweetie" in daily conversation.

22. 10/1/52



Sheer meta. Schulz would never do anything like this again, and the better it is for it. Having a relatively minor, vanilla character such as Schroeder utter the punch was a smart decision. Gives the impression he's truly outside the main orbit.

21. 11/28/52



Within this strip, the classic story of musicians and the girls who fawn over them.

Lucy appraises Schroeder as the young boy caresses the piano's keys, filling the air with the delicate notes of a Beethoven masterpiece. Entranced, she comes ever nearer. A rare drawing of a character from the back indicates that both she and Schroeder are clearly in deep concentration now.

She can no longer hold back. She hops up on the smallest grand piano in the world, looks the little fella dead in his inscrutable india ink beads and says--

"You fascinate me."

Thus begins two of the greatest one-sided love stories in history: Lucy and Schroeder, and Schroeder and Beethoven.


It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will be airing twice this year, 10/28 and 10/29 on ABC at 8 PM EST. It doesn't matter how many times you've seen it...you can always see it again. And again.

The Greatest Peanuts Strips--40 to 31

40. 12/5/78



Previously on Peanuts, Lucy kicked Schroeder's piano sky high in the name of research. She returns with similar foul intent. Don't let Lucy's sign language fool you; there can never be peace between these two. Such fabulous frisson.

39. 5/8/63



Snoopy's desire to act humanoid (as featured in his many personas) doesn't mean he hates being what he is, which is a dog. It's just that he knows he's better than all those "pets," content to obey their masters and chase small objects in the name of exercise. He is eyes closed, stance defiant. Joe Better-Than.

38. 1/30/73



My favorite Peanuts kid has always been Peppermint Patty. Still, the athletically gifted, intellectually deprived tomboy narcoleptic (and if you're not in love with her after that description I give up) had no more ardent fan than her father, who had the sole responsibility to raise his little girl into a grown woman. From the glimpses his daughter gives us, Mr. Reichardt is a doting dad who encourages his daughters extracurricular activities while never failing to see (and reassure) that she is sweet and lovely, his "rare gem." He'll buy her a baseball glove, sure, but also flowers and sandals--whatever she needs.

Being told she can no longer wear her sandals to school crushes Patty's spirit. They're comforting in a multitude of ways, and losing them hits the poor girl like having a life raft deflate on her in the middle of the ocean. She needs some TLC, and Snoopy is right there--stocking cap and all--to give it to her.

(Oh y'all, you can't imagine what father-daughter relationships in art do to me. Rare gem, he called her. It is worth noting that Schulz took much inspiration from his children, and that was his term of endearment for daughter Jill. She even identified herself as such in her father's official obituary.)

37. 4/1/75



The baseball diamond was a familiar spot for the kids. Usually to lose. Suffer defeat. And so on.

As off the field, Lucy was Charlie Brown's constant nemesis (a title she would wear proudly), but everyone of his Worse News Wombats would set off massive heartburn for the barber's son over time. My favorite example of this is Linus's sorrowful soliloquy whilst lining up to catch a fly ball. (Man, did somebody put creepy-crawlys in Schulz' cereal or what?) Charlie Brown's ending lamentation applies not just to his own frustration, but that of his wayward outfielder as well, a neat trick.

36. 1/22/63



It is all about the last line. No more, no less. I wish I had come up with it, and I use it weekly.

Okay, I lied; it's about the rain too.

35. 3/30/93

Bu-bu-but...Charlie Brown never won! How could he have won?! This here strip defies conventional wisdom, and I love it. You can tell the people who knew their stuff and the folks with cursory smarts. Yessir ma'am, Charlie Brown's team won a freakin' baseball game and blocknugget Brown was the hero. Schulz gives this momentous occasion the gravity it requires, a single panel featuring Chuck in multiple stages of bliss, a disbelieving Sally taking it all in.

34. 8/19/60



Charlie Brown's snarling anti-rejoinder was borrowed famously by former big league pitcher Jim Bouton for his infamous tell-all Ball Four (and subsequently on Sportscenter by Ball Four disciple Keith Olbermann). It's a fantastic line. Sometimes delving deeper and examining the numbers is great. Other times...shut up.

(Love the "just ate a grape and gasoline sandwich face" too.)

33. 10/17/62



Charlie Brown never learned; try and help Lucy with some mother wit, and it just ends up unleashing the brimstone. Watch her get more and more worked up, till the sweat and spit practically moistens the newspaper. I would have loved to have seen Lucy later on try and come to terms with the uncertainty of what if anything comes after death. Boy howdy.

32. 2/5/86

"You're weird, sir!"

"You're inordinately weird, Marcie."

P. Pat and Marcie were pretty odd. They both crushed mega on Charlie Brown, if that's any indication right there. And their friendship was also a ponder, sort of a Niles and Bloomguard for the kiddy set (albeit with much less post-traumatic stress disorder). Marcie clearly idolized her intellectual inferior, while Patty seemed to enjoy having a hanger-on who would never threaten her status as the local "girl who intimidates the boys."

I picked this strip because it's just a funny mini-story. I can see them right now, can hear Peppermint Patty's laughter in the face of Marcie's minor misfortune. Schulz was sparing with illustrating open-mouthed laughs full-on, but it worked great here.

31. 1/3/57



One of the most amazingly "bitch" things Lucy ever said. How did Charlie Brown last, in his fifty years as a pre-teen, without stealing some of his dad's shears and ending it all in the water pail? Umberto Eco wrote that the Peanuts kids were "monstrous infantile reductions," and he was correct. Charles Schulz himself stated that "Children are cruel," and if you don't think otherwise, I guess you just forgot what it was like to be a child.

The Greatest Peanuts Strips--50 to 41

50. 6/20/52

We lose some of our childish ways as we age, but the proclivity to act exceedingly dumb in spite of acquired wisdom never really goes anywhere. Reading the first decade of Peanuts affected me in many ways, but the paramount feeling in my gut throughout was a desire to activate the Wayback Doohickey and relocate to the 1950s, just to get the context of a comic strip with depressed, self-loathing children.

Charles Schulz was to cartooning what the Beatles were to music. A revolutionary artistic force beloved by old and young, mainstream and underground, whose work instantly made all in his milieu seem hopelessly behind.

49. 6/26/95

Charles Schulz was extremely well-read, and peppered the panels of Peanuts with various literary references. The Great Gatsby was a particular favorite, with its biting critique of characters financially prosperous but emotionally bankrupt. If this panel showed Linus lamenting to Charlie Brown, it wouldn't have been as effective in my mind. When you think Snoopy and Woodstock, scenes of silliness come to mind; not the irreverent beagle sighing out a virtual abdication of all hope with a long face.

48. 12/22/78



Sally's malapropisms are usually harmless, but when a Christmas-themed speech to her class goes awry, even her long-suffering big bro is compelled to do more than just roll his eyes and breathe out a weary sigh. He didn't think much of her confusing "rain gear" and "reindeer," and just let her think what she wanted, but now he has to face that his baby sister is truly distraught and needs him to care. Charlie Brown's heart may be battered, but it's still sweet.

47. 5/21/66




Schulz never intended for the Van Pelt family's relocation to be permanent, so the gobs of fan mail imploring him to keep the neighborhood intact were of no consequence anyway. Still, it must have been nice to have confirmation that people cared.

Charlie Brown and Sally were predictably knocked loopy by the news of Linus and Lucy's impending departure; so, however, was Schroeder. Called out by Charlie Brown for the seeming illogic of his nostalgia, the tow-headed wunderkind had to admit to himself that the only thing more intolerable than being pined after by someone you don't desire is not being pined after at all.

Sure enough, the Van Pelts return, and Lucy can't get back to her familiar spot by Schroeder's piano fast enough. Each of the four panels is rendered exquisitely. Schroeder is as per usual: head down, fingers tickling toy ivory. Lucy has arrived, silently and gleefully. By the next square, she has assumed her familiar spot. Schroeder is still oblivious. Lucy's smile in the third panel says it all--she is home. She can no longer keep her joy to herself, and announces her return in the inimitable, flesh-lifting manner that the strips characters frequently verbalized.

46. 7/3/87

This one is all about the payoff. In the world of a child--and the world of a childish adult--everything that happens is of extreme import. Every incident changes the world, and sanity hinges on every word.

45. 4/4/52

If dogs could read, they'd relate to Peanuts just as deeply as any ol' humanoid. Snoopy's dreams are their dreams. Seeing him on two legs and not dancing is almost improper.

44. 3/20/74

For a long time, Peppermint Patty thought Snoopy was just another kid in the 'hood, albeit a freakin' odd-looking one. How could she think a beagle was a boy? Lotsa reasons, really. Stupidity. Unfamiliarity with the canine. I was going to say maybe she just couldn't fathom a dog being on a baseball team, but then I remembered that she was the first kid to resolutely share Linus' faith in the Great Pumpkin. So she can clearly think outside the rhombus.

Peppermint Patty just saw the world in a funny way that made perfect sense to her. But when she sought refuge in Snoopy's doghouse, and insisted it was instead the Brown family guest cottage, it sent her best pal Marcie over the edge. Trying to convince Patty with words was useless, so she spoke the tomboys language at last: physicality. It doesn't say much for the craftsmanship of the doghouse that two small bodies resisting another small bodies attempt to pry them off can send it collapsing to the ground, but it let Schulz show off with the pen and gave Snoopy the opportunity to bust off one of the great verbal punchlines in the strips history. (Also made me wonder if he ever ate with his feet.)

43. 7/26/79




For a brief time in the summer of 1979, Charlie Brown fell ill with a mysterious malady that landed him and his zig zags in the hospital. The thousands of fans who practically attacked United Media with "get well" cards must have been stunned when their beloved blockhead's most insistent rival was sent into paroxysms of violent rage over his situation. (That last panel is an amazing rendition of someone in the throes of utter frenzy.) But give it some extra thought, and Lucy's feelings make perfect sense. Just like Schroeder needs Lucy as a partner in the game of unrequited desire, so Lucy needs Charlie Brown. He is innocence and peace, and while she frequently exploits those qualities that she herself does not possess, she is also heartened by their presence. If someone so kind-hearted and decent can't get better, what chance does anyone have?

42. 5/8/96

Sally's Aspergian social skills for the flawless victory! "All your kids will be stupid" cracks me up so bad.

The second panel--scrunched between one and three, Sally's head peeking over her brother's blanket--is especially affecting in its sense of isolationism.

41. 12/19/63




Lucy has assigned Linus singing duties in their school's upcoming Christmas play. Most people who are not egomaniacs would dread such a responsibility, and so it goes that the ingenuous blanket-hoarder comes up with Plan B.

The middle panels are what shine brightest. The ridiculous visual of Linus and Snoopy's earnest gyrations followed by Lucy's deity-defying scream in the face of her petrified sibling, while Snoopy observes all in abject terror. Kids go through the darnedest trauma!

The Greatest Peanuts Strips--Honor Bag

Ranking seventy strips from the greatest newspaper comic of all time is probably the most daunting achievement I will ever perform for the sake of this blog. It took 33 days (September 1st to 29th, then October 1st to 3rd) to go through all 17,897 strips, pick stand-outs, then narrow that batch down, then finally put two lists in order. How many days it takes to review the strips for the purpose of manipulating them to fit a thesis masquerading as a biography, I could not tell you.

The honorable mentions featured here--the strips I could not place among the best but just couldn't bear not reflect upon--are presented in chronological order.

8/12/57

Art purporting to be rooted in realism is plentiful, but the truest examples ultimately turn out to be desultory reflections on pointless effort that leaves the beholder in despair, with any moment of joy and hope contained therein understood to be mere accidents in context. The truth is, many films, books, and songs that boast the "true-to-life" stamp frequently diverge into the absurdism borne not of existence itself but entirely of the creators fancy, where fantastical situations abound not for the purpose of proving true the pithy philosophy of Vonnegut ("So it goes") but rather to alleviate the pain, or give it a different shape.

Peanuts hit its marks with devastating accuracy: the cruelty of children, the heroism of effort, the demoralization of unrequited love. Still, Charles Schulz understood that no matter how much wit and wisdom he gave to these oddly-drawn little creatures, they were still the stars of a comic strip. Not a novel or epic film. Above all else, Peanuts had to be funny.

Here we see Charlie Brown the outsider, pretty much the only kid not having a blast in the pool. There is no room for him, and he knows better than to ask, bully his way in, or wait his turn. Despondent, he trudges to the only option he can find--a water bucket.

The sight gag/physical impossibility is brilliant, especially since Charlie Brown has a big fat watermelon head. Schulz repeated the gag 28 years later, giving the impression that this turned into something of a tradition for ol' Chuck.

6/10/59



This lone example of Linus showing interest in Charlie Brown's li'l sister would later be outnumbered by strip after strip of his strident denials that he was her "sweet baboo." Less an instance of retcon, more of childish capriciousness.

4/29/63




Feel smart the next time someone asks how Snoopy keeps from falling off the doghouse while he sleeps! This may also explain why he's so simpatico with Woodstock.

8/22/66



As far as character introductions go, only Charlie Brown's was better. And I don't mean Roy. "A real swinger"? My sweet lord.

10/7/69



Frieda was notorious for: briefly owning a cat; her naturally curly red locks; and badgering Snoopy to hunt rabbits, as was his birthright. (He wasn't even her dog!) All three prongs of this trident made for good strip runs for the limited time that Schulz felt her worthy, but not many individual strips stuck out. This one I couldn't pass by; Schulz' diabolical rendering of the beagle in the final panel has left an indelible impression on my little mind.

11/6/74



Hockey nut Charles M. Schulz makes a point that is still unfortunately cogent in todays game (the superlative career of Jarome Iginla notwithstanding). It's Peppermint Patty's casual manner of delivering her pointed question that gets me.

10/23/77



Charlie Brown's unrequited love rarely made him explode. Implode, yes. But one of the things that created such sympathy for the poor fella was his tender heart, resigned as it was to disappointment. His little sister, however, did not go gentle into that good night, morning, or afternoon. The Sundays gave Schulz the opportunity to fill his speech balloons with biting text, and Sally's self-recrimination in the face of a placid Linus is perfectly executed.

Also, this is the strip from the day I was born.

3/31/79



This is so accurate I got a chill.

4/11/80



Over the course of fifty years, the Peanuts reader discovers that--

--Snoopy weighs 23 pounds

--Snoopy's doghouse roof is 23 inches long from one end to the other

--Snoopy can be rendered fat and useless by 23 hot dogs

There's a magic there.

9/19/81



A prime example of how Schulz' artistic style developed over time.

Unlike the usual smirking beseechments Snoopy usually addresses World War II with, this time he's calling on the cat next door whilst in great pain. How can Snoopy be the Snoopy he wants to be, the Snoopy that everyone loves, the Snoopy that fox trots on box tops and grins cheese on Jenn's tees, with a splinter? He simply cannot, so he must do the unthinkable and appeal to the solicitous side of his feline foe. Look at the Twist-ian pleading of his face in the second panel; how could anyone resist? Sure enough, World War II assists Snoopy in his own special way. Many Peanuts strips end with the realization of a price paid for getting what you want, and this is one of the funnier ones.

1/29/86



"Pizza for rent" is just an amazing concept. Just pay a predetermined amount every month for some delicious frisbees to be delivered direct to your door. I dunno which of the big boy chains would adopt such an angle, but I sure hope it ain't Dominos. Snoopy would never eat at Dominos.

3/21/90



Following Charles Schulz' divorce, Lucy Van Pelt was toned down considerably. To equate Lucy with the former Mrs. Schulz is rather lazy, however; the cartoonist put a great deal of himself into several characters, Lucy among them. Her mellowness is as much a reflection on an increased, if tremulous, inner comfort with her creator as it is a result of a marriage dissolved.

This strip makes a point that is hilarious in its down-home truthfulness, and also gives Schulz a chance to show off his fantastic knowledge of literature in the form of some lines from poet John Gay.

12/30/90



Snoopy loved Linus' blanket. And why not? It represents security, warmth, comfort, and--if he could snatch it away--the triumph of dog over boy. This Sunday says so much with nothing at all, and the final panel was turned into a sticker design that could be seen on a Fender P-bass used live by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon for much of this decade.

7/19/91



Oatmeal raisin, no doubt. Or coconut. Charles Schulz hated coconut, and let Snoopy speak for him on numerous occasions. Brilliant. It is the responsibility of the artist to use his characters to speak out against evil.

4/14/97



There's preternatural and then there's, like, "super-preternatural". The plot points of modernist Russian literature don't usually rank with preschool kids, but here we go. Rerun was a stroke of genius in latter-day Peanuts.

The Greatest Peanuts Strips--Prologue

Beginning next Monday, I will be posting the first in a series spotlighting what I and I alone feel are the ultimate strips in the 50 year history of Peanuts. More specifically, the top 50 dailies and top 20 Sundays.

This was not easy whatsoever. Poring over 17,897 strips was daunting; while I believe that at no period in time did the creativity of Charles Schulz vamoose the scene, there were stretches when it flagged. He did on occasion repeat a gag, or belabor a point. I defy anyone to do anything for 50 years--including existing--and maintain your apex moment throughout, without divergence.

On Sunday, as a teaser, I will be posting those strips that just barely missed the big lists.

Nerd Overload

The Peanuts Top 50 Dailies and Top 20 Sundays lists are...forthcoming! That's right, in between sleeping, eating, writing fiction, job-hunting, Skypeing, exercising, reading, listening to music and worrying about keeping a roof over my head, I'm somehow finding time to rank my very favorite Peanuts strips. People who enjoy this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they enjoy!