The Day Charlie Brown Changed
May 3, 2013 6:13 AM Subscribe
Pearls Before Swine Author Stephen Pastis believes this strip, published on February 1, 1954, was a turning point in the Charlie Brown series.
“When Charlie Brown starts out (from 1950 through 1953), he is a bit of a smart-aleck. More like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He often provokes (particularly Schroeder), and likes to get the better of others.
This particular strip changes that.
For the first time, you see how sad and rather lonely Charlie Brown is, and moreover, how resigned he is to it.
It’s certainly not the same kid who a couple days prior (1/29/54) gets the better of the two girls who are making fun of him and is smiling in the last panel.
“When Charlie Brown starts out (from 1950 through 1953), he is a bit of a smart-aleck. More like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He often provokes (particularly Schroeder), and likes to get the better of others.
This particular strip changes that.
For the first time, you see how sad and rather lonely Charlie Brown is, and moreover, how resigned he is to it.
It’s certainly not the same kid who a couple days prior (1/29/54) gets the better of the two girls who are making fun of him and is smiling in the last panel.
This post was deleted for the following reason: It looks like one link is missing from the post, and one maybe not working or intermittently working. Try again tomorrow, or whenever things are stable? -- taz
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Good grief.
posted by Shepherd at 6:15 AM on May 3, 2013 [5 favorites]
User has reached the maximum amount of processes while being limited, Webmaster: please contact support. (9)
Good grief.
posted by Shepherd at 6:15 AM on May 3, 2013 [5 favorites]
They've just started carrying Pearls Before Swine in the free paper here, filling the slot left by Buckles and before that a terrible 'topical' cartoon. I can't say it's grabbing me, and it looks especially poor next to Nemi.
posted by mippy at 6:15 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by mippy at 6:15 AM on May 3, 2013
it looks especially poor next to Nemi.
That's a long list, though.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:16 AM on May 3, 2013
That's a long list, though.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:16 AM on May 3, 2013
It's sad that his efforts at obtaining psychological help were so unsuccessful.
posted by thelonius at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
Behold the power of the Blue? It was just working 5 minutes ago when I composed this.
posted by COD at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by COD at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013
When I was a kid (in the 80s) I had a bunch of very old Charlie Brown paperbacks (dating to the early 60s I think); and I remember how great and funny they were, which was a stark contrast to the Charlie Brown comic that was in the daily newspaper back then. It is interesting for me to see this other phase of Charlie Brown which I knew nothing about. Thanks for sharing!
posted by Vindaloo at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by Vindaloo at 6:17 AM on May 3, 2013
There's no way that article should be as fascinating as it is.
posted by mhoye at 6:18 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by mhoye at 6:18 AM on May 3, 2013
It's sad that his efforts at obtaining psychological help were so unsuccessful.
You get what you pay for.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 6:21 AM on May 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
You get what you pay for.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 6:21 AM on May 3, 2013 [3 favorites]
schulzmuseum.org is hosted by... HostGator
Hostgator's plans page says:
* Every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and is fully guaranteed by the CEO himself.
* Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth!
I'm not understanding something here.
posted by crapmatic at 6:25 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hostgator's plans page says:
* Every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and is fully guaranteed by the CEO himself.
* Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth!
I'm not understanding something here.
posted by crapmatic at 6:25 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
I love Pearls before Swine (I would probably love it forever for this strip alone).
Pastis's love for Charles Schulz comes through really palpably in the intros to his comics books, and I hope that this means he is starting to be acknowledged as a scholar of Schulz's work. Only good can come from this.
posted by Mchelly at 6:27 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Pastis's love for Charles Schulz comes through really palpably in the intros to his comics books, and I hope that this means he is starting to be acknowledged as a scholar of Schulz's work. Only good can come from this.
posted by Mchelly at 6:27 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Here's the strip in question, at least (and the prior one mentioned).
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:27 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:27 AM on May 3, 2013
When I was a kid (in the 80s) I had a bunch of very old Charlie Brown paperbacks (dating to the early 60s I think)
I did the same thing and I remember a moment in a strip where it was pointed out to Franklin, the one black kid, that there were no black players in the NHL so he shouldn't even bother.
Man, I thought, Charles Schultz is bleak and racist. It really changed how I read the strip.
Turns out I wasn't the only one.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:28 AM on May 3, 2013
I did the same thing and I remember a moment in a strip where it was pointed out to Franklin, the one black kid, that there were no black players in the NHL so he shouldn't even bother.
Man, I thought, Charles Schultz is bleak and racist. It really changed how I read the strip.
Turns out I wasn't the only one.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:28 AM on May 3, 2013
I think the joke of that strip is actually that there were no women in the NHL, but it's not well-communicated, and you never demonstrate that you are not a racist by shrieking how dare somebody call me a racist.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 6:32 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 6:32 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Is there a link to Pastis' article? The broken link to the Peanuts cartoon is the only link I see in the FPP.
posted by ardgedee at 6:33 AM on May 3, 2013
posted by ardgedee at 6:33 AM on May 3, 2013
The FPP is a link to a short article by Jean Shulz.
"Several years ago cartoonist Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls before Swine and author of the bestselling Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, came to me with a discovery he had made while studying the Fantagraphics books. He believed that this particular 1954 strip marked a turning point in the Peanuts strip."
In it she quotes Stephan Pastis and shows many more strips from Charlie Brown's before period. It is worth a read once the site comes back up.
posted by vacapinta at 6:37 AM on May 3, 2013
"Several years ago cartoonist Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls before Swine and author of the bestselling Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, came to me with a discovery he had made while studying the Fantagraphics books. He believed that this particular 1954 strip marked a turning point in the Peanuts strip."
In it she quotes Stephan Pastis and shows many more strips from Charlie Brown's before period. It is worth a read once the site comes back up.
posted by vacapinta at 6:37 AM on May 3, 2013
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posted by pipeski at 6:14 AM on May 3, 2013