Wednesday, May 07, 2014

That one time in the early '50s when Snoopy worried he'd be put to death in the electric chair:

Here are two panels from the middle of an eight-panel Sunday strip collected in Fantagraphics' Complete Peanuts Vol. 1, newly available in paperback (I almost said they were out-of-context, but I think Patty's first dialogue bubble is all you need to understand Snoopy's dark, anxious but still darling fantasies). I really love these early strips, in large part because of how far removed, how alien they seem to the Peanuts that exist in my head. That early Snoopy is just so damn cute, it boggles my mind (Oddly, seeing him in prison garb breaking rocks and/or awaiting execution in a puppy-sized electric chair doesn't dim his cuteness any, but actually seems to accentuate it).

1 comment:

Eric Lee said...

I agree with you that I have a small level of cognitive dissonance when I see how different old Peanuts is compared to the more modern Peanuts. Snoopy being so cute while having darkly morbid fantasies is something that I'd never thought I see.