I get a kick out of reading those complete anthologies of
early Peanuts comic strips. The characters looked so different in the early
days (especially Snoopy). We often forget that things like comics that are
published fairly frequently for a long time go through many developments in the
process, and chocking out these old comics really throws you for a loop.
Some characters even disappear, like Shermy and Charlotte
(she only appears at the end of this collection). I have no idea what happens
to Shermy as he seems like a fairly main character who appears pretty
frequently.
What’s interesting about this year is that it introduces
Pigpen as a character, and Linus as a baby. You can tell that Linus is more
philosophical already, his development into the character we know and love is
well on its way.
Another interesting thing about old comic strips is how you
can tell that the conventions around comic strips were very different. The
first line of the Sunday comics is just a throw-away joke since it sometimes
wasn’t published with the rest of the comic. The Sundays are also unique in
that they can have a different plot from the dailies, since not all newspapers
would print both.
So it’s probably not the best of the Peanuts; there’s still
some growth to be done. What’s really nice about this though is getting to see
where it started and where it’s going.
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