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There has never been another newspaper comic strip as influential as Charles M. Schulz‘s Peanuts. Charlie Brown and his friends and family became household names passed down through the generations, not just through popular TV specials but through a whopping 50 years’ worth of comics.
Peanuts began in October 1950 and lasted all the way until February 2000. The 1990s were pretty much the last decade for Peanuts, but despite thousands of strips already created and Schulz advancing in age, the most popular strip of them all was still better than ever.
7
“A Lonely Person Who Knows How To Dance”
Charlie Brown is always going to Lucy for advice, which is good for her, since she loves to give it to anyone who will take it. At five cents a pop, she’ll listen to Charlie’s incessant worrying. While her advice isn’t always so great, it’s at least better than all the times she held a football for her friend to kick, only to pull it away from him at the last moment.
In this strip, Lucy actually has some good advice for Charlie. Here, he’s worrying about how lonely he is. Lucy, her hands on her face, is genuinely taking in his words, telling him to take dance lessons. The negative Charlie, of course, has anxiety about that, too. What if no one will dance with him? Her reply isn’t meant to be mean — it’s actually pretty deep. Charlie shouldn’t be so focused on seeking out the attention of others. True happiness is found when you take a chance on yourself and let go.
6
“I Might As Well Go Back To Sleep”
Lucy really shouldn’t be a therapist for anyone, as she shows in this strip when she goes up to Snoopy’s doghouse with some rather bleak commentary. Telling a sleeping dog who’s minding his own business that he’s of no importance is harsh. Imagine if she said the same thing to Charlie Brown? He’d never go outside again!
Snoopy, however, isn’t his owner. He’s a dog, and he has no true worries. Snoopy takes life as it comes, playing it with cool confidence. He’s Joe Cool, after all, and he’s got a bit of a crush on Lucy when she’s not being such a pessimist. If he’s so insignificant, what good will worrying do? Might as well go back to sleeping his life away as dogs do.
5
“Dear Sweetheart, Merry Christmas”
Snoopy imagines himself as a great writer. If he’s not sleeping on his doghouse, he’s often tapping at his typewriter. Charlie Brown’s pup is also a born romantic, a Beagle infatuated with every girl he meets. Lucy is among them, but as this strip shows, she’s not the only one.
Snoopy has met someone important enough to him that he decides to send her a Christmas card. Although Lucy thinks it’s inappropriate to call a girl “sweetheart,” it might not be if Snoopy were writing to a girlfriend or someone who at least had an interest in him, too. This isn’t the case. Whoever this girl is, he can’t even remember her name.
4
“Why Is Barney Purple?”
This Peanuts strip is pretty standard stuff in the first three panels. In it, Sally is parked in front of the television set when her brother walks in to ask her what she’s watching. For his sister to say that she doesn’t understand what she’s watching could be a commentary on how TV has rotted the minds of children and given them a short attention span. This sounds like something you’d find right out of Calvin and Hobbes, but that’s not where Schulz is going.
The last panel brings it home with the perfect joke. Sally is watching Barney, and she doesn’t get why the dinosaur is purple. Barney was huge in the early ’90s and no one above five years old understood what the heck was happening on that bizarre show. Peanuts lives in its own world, with little commentary about specific real-life pop culture, but even Schulz couldn’t escape the annoyance of the singing dino.
3
“How Do You Spell ‘Watching’?”
Linus and Sally have a complicated sibling relationship. The brother is often living in his own dream world of his making, while Sally is the know-it-all. Here, though, the two are having a healthy interaction. When she goes to Linus about everyone in the family having their own specific job they do to help out, she’s not telling him what to do. It’s up to him. And Linus has an answer ready.
Linus wants to watch TV and nothing more. Forget chores — he’d rather escape. It’s more social commentary from Schulz about the state of culture and children in the ’90s. There’s a little sadness wrapped in the humor as well. Linus has a vivid imagination as the boy who believes wholeheartedly in the Great Pumpkin and who often philosophizes about the wonders of life. Now he’d rather give his mind to the tube.
2
“Just Lie There and Worry”
Schulz’s real-life anxieties come to life through Peanuts, most notably with Charlie Brown. Just as young Calvin thinks like a grown-up in Calvin and Hobbes, Charlie worries about everything even though he’s too young to be focused on the negatives of life. Still, in this strip, that’s what he’s doing as we find him lying awake at night. And it looks like he’s passed on his woes to someone else.
When Sally comes to her brother about not being able to sleep, he doesn’t have any great advice about counting sheep or finding a similar way to relax. He tells her to worry about anything and everything, not as a way to mock her, but because it’s what he does. One step ahead, Sally has already tried this. How do you get to sleep when you’ve already done that?
1
“You Have a Dog… Be Happy”
Worrying Charlie Brown is back in this beautiful strip. More color brings the details to life, and the extra panels allow for more time to sit with the message of the story. As always, it’s the middle of the night, and Charlie is wide awake, thinking, wondering, and worrying about everything. We see that he’s really not alone as he might feel. Right there, sleeping on top of him, is Snoopy.
Every single time Charlie’s mind starts to wander, his anxious thoughts are interrupted by Snoopy simply scratching himself, walking around, or barking at nothing. As Snoopy crawls under the covers with him, Charlie is hit with the thought that happiness is Snoopy. If you have a dog who loves you, how bad can it be? But is this a happy strip or a sad one? The final line is a sweet realization any dog owner can relate to. Take a closer look at Charlie’s face in the final panel, though, and you see a little kid still wide awake and unconvinced.
- Release Date
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1965 – 2005
- Directors
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Phil Roman
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Ann Altieri
Violet (voice)
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Cathy Steinberg
Sally Brown (voice)
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Christopher DeFaria
Peppermint Patty (voice)
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Christopher Shea
Linus van Pelt (voice)
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https://collider.com/best-peanuts-comic-strips-1990s-ranked/
Shawn Van Horn
Almontather Rassoul
