[FiddlerClamp]

Interestingly, Peanuts started with a focus on Shermy and Violet as the 'straight men' and young(er) Charlie Brown as the comic upstart. Snoopy shows up fairly soon, but he doesn't even seem to be CB's pet for the first while.

It's fascinating to see Lucy, Linus, Schroeder and Sally grow from tots or babies to the developed characters we know today.

[randycupertino]

There was a long read article that came out a few years ago called "How Snoopy Killed Peanuts:"

https://kotaku.com/how-snoopy-killed-peanuts-1724269473

about how Peanuts lost it's edge once the "cute" popular dog was introduced, whereas prior it used to be more subversive, philosophical/theoretical with darker material.

[PakG1]

It's too bad that there are probably meant to be so many example comics in that article, judging from how it's written, and what's really there is just ads where the comics are probably supposed to be. Wonder what happened.

[randycupertino]

Kokatu was part of Gawker which was killed by Peter Thiel (who went after Gawker media by funding lawsuits against them after they outed him as gay).

https://medium.com/@celestineriza/how-peter-thiel-took-down-...

[efnx]

Honest question here - is this getting downvoted because it’s untrue, or something else?

[rkomorn]

Maybe people wonder what the point/relevance is?

Is it that Gawker had lots of ads, so Kotaku would also have ads?

What's relevant (to this thread) about Thiel killing it?

[randycupertino]

I guess I didn't phrase it well- after Thiel killed Gawker, it and all it's affiliated sites (like Kotaku) were sold off for parts and their images were replaced by ads by the new owners, who may have kept the lights on but farmed all the content with a ton of ads.

[FiddlerClamp]

I think it was a one-two punch:

1. Snoopy becoming Flanderized, as in the "Happiness is a warm puppy" stuff from the 1960s.

2. Introduction of Woodstock the bird. That meant Snoopy and Woodstock went off and had their own adventures which didn't involve the human gang at all.

I also wonder whether Schulz participated in any recreational drugs in the 1960s. I don't meant to be disrespectful at all, but some of the stuff he drew was pretty wild.

There's a set of strips where Charlie Brown sees the moon as a baseball (and later, Alfred E. Neuman's head), another where Snoopy dreams of Charlie Brown flying him like a kite and him crashing to the ground in pieces, and a horror-movie-like series where Linus's blanket attacks Lucy. All very strange.

[cmos]

Same with "Odie" in Garfield.. kindof.

[gjvc]

elmo-ification?!

[thaumasiotes]

> Snoopy shows up fairly soon, but he doesn't even seem to be CB's pet for the first while.

Snoopy shows up in the third strip, by which point the count of total appearances is Patty: 3, Charlie Brown: 2, Shermy: 1, and Snoopy: 1.

He appears again in strip 5, but it takes until his third appearance (in strip 8) before he can be identified as Charlie Brown's dog. He remains somewhat ambiguous:

strip 8: Charlie Brown is reading at home, accompanied by Snoopy.

strip 11: Shermy is eating (presumably at home?), accompanied by Snoopy.

strip 12: Shermy takes Snoopy for a walk, holding him on a leash.

1950-10-21: Shermy, Patty, and Snoopy are walking together when they encounter Charlie Brown.

1950-10-25: Patty is speaking on the phone (at home?); Snoopy is present.

1950-11-07: Charlie Brown delivers a lecture to Snoopy beginning "You don't seem to realize that I'm the boss in this house!"; he is interrupted by a call from his mother.

1950-11-13: Patty receives Charlie Brown at her home; Snoopy is already present.

1950-11-25: Charlie Brown says goodbye to Snoopy before going to bed; Snoopy is shown to be able to hear him as he says "I'll see you in the morning" from his bedroom.

1950-12-05: Patty is walking Snoopy on a leash when they run into Charlie Brown.

1950-12-13: Snoopy is playing on the footboard of Charlie Brown's bed while he tries to go to sleep.

1951-01-23: Charlie Brown is writing in his diary while Snoopy watches.

1951-02-02: Charlie Brown yells at Snoopy to stop following him; Patty intervenes to point out that Snoopy "lives in that direction", which you'd expect Charlie Brown to know if they lived together.

(1951-02-07: Violet is introduced.)

1951-04-27: Shermy is building a birdhouse; Charlie Brown assumes it's supposed to be a doghouse for Snoopy.

1951-05-22: An unknown character calls Snoopy to suppertime.

(1951-05-30: Schroeder is introduced.)

1951-08-27: Schroeder (who is a baby) eats from Snoopy's dog dish; Snoopy gets revenge by climbing into Schroeder's high chair and eating from his tray. Snoopy's dish (which is labeled "SNOOPY") is next to the high chair, implying that Snoopy lives with Schroeder.

1951-09-04: Charlie Brown is assigned (by someone speaking over the phone) to mow the grass around Snoopy's doghouse.

1951-09-12: Charlie Brown has a large portrait of Snoopy hanging in his room.

(1951-11-14: Violet holds a football for Charlie Brown to kick. At the last minute, afraid he'll kick her hand, she flinches away and he goes flying into the air.)

(1951-11-26: Schroeder says his first word, "Beethoven".)

1951-12-15: Charlie Brown repairs the roof on Snoopy's doghouse.

Snoopy is frequently shown in association with Charlie Brown, welcoming him home or hearing him unwrap a candy bar, but an explicit statement of ownership doesn't come up.

[baobun]

I guess Patty part-times as dog sitter