The most horrible thing done to Charlie Brown by Lucy in The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968.

§ July 7th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized § 1 Comment

PANEL ONE:

Lucy: “Charlie Brown, how does it feel to know that you will never be a hero?”

PANEL TWO:

Charlie Brown: “What makes you think I’ll never be a hero? I may surprise you! I may save a life or report a fire or do almost anything!”

PANEL THREE:


PANEL FOUR:

Charlie Brown: “Terrible!”


I’m reasonably certain I’ve read this strip before…though if it turns out this is one of those “never reprinted before” strips I’m going to look pretty silly saying that. At any rate, my reading of this latest volume came to a brief halt at this point, as this seemed particularly evil for Lucy in a way that, I think, I never realized before. Even by typical standards of Peanuts cruelty, this seemed awfully harsh…Lucy digging deep into Charlie Brown’s soul, forcing him to admit to her and to himself that he will never come to anything. That seems more painful than a hundred pulled-away footballs.

It certainly contrasts with a strip a few pages later, with Lucy telling Snoopy that sometimes she’s bugged by him, sometimes she wants to hug him…and sure enough, there’s a quiet panel of Lucy simply hugging Snoopy. I’m not going to write an essay about Charles Schulz’s views of human interaction, the inherent contradictions re: kindness versus cruelty, etc. — you know all that already. I just saw the portrayals of Lucy in these two strips as yet another demonstration of Schulz’s skill at creating a multifaceted personality that we can easily accept as an approximation of reality.

Plus, does anyone else get the feeling that when Charlie Brown and Lucy grew up, they were totally going to marry each other? Or am I alone here?


On a slightly related note, I think this is about as cynical as Snoopy ever got, in regards to his lot in life:


Now that’s bitter.

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