“I’ll be a hungry hobo.”

§ November 8th, 2010 § Filed under peanuts § 21 Comments

And then there was that time Charlie Brown put on a hat, a heavy coat, and a fake mustache and frightened his friends:


That was his revenge for being rejected by the other kids from “playing house” (not to mention getting him to his ultimate goal…a helping of now-unguarded ice cream and cake). Here is the elaborate role-playing scenario which he hoped would allow him to join the festivities:


Frankly, that’s a bit creepy. You’re your own worst enemy, Charlie Brown.

images from Peanuts #8 (Feb-Apr 1961)

21 Responses to ““I’ll be a hungry hobo.””

  • Tom Cherry says:

    Charlie Brown, you blockhead!

  • Phill says:

    I believe this strategy is known as “topping from the bottom”.

  • Thwacko says:

    Reminds me of a sequence in Stephen King’s “IT” where one kids goes to play at the abandoned house near the railroad and pretends he’s a hobo.

  • damanoid says:

    I surmise that this adaptation was likely not penned nor even directly approved by Schulz. This scenario seems distinctly uncharacteristic of Charlie Brown, though it would perhaps not be out of place for Snoopy: “Here’s the world-famous hobo hopping a freight to Chicago…”

  • Nat Gertler says:

    Damanoid: you’d likely be wrong in your surmisization. While I’m not absolutely sure of where every Peanuts comic book story originated, most of them were produced in the Schulz studio, by either Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, Tony Pocrnick, or Schulz himself.

  • Nat Gertler says:

    (And, I should note, many of them had things which one would never see in the strip.)

  • Anonymous says:

    Kite-Man in the making…

  • From the ‘lost pages” of Happiness Is A Warm Puppy:

    “Happiness Is A Hobo In A trenchcoat”.

  • DeBT says:

    How would a hobo be world-famous? Your analogy kinda works, since the most known hobo would be The Littlest Hobo:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Littlest_Hobo

  • damanoid says:

    Nat Gertler: Son of a gun! Thanks for the info– can you recommend any sources to find out more about the background of the Peanuts comic books? It delights me no end to learn about Schulz-written Peanuts comics that are completely independent of the newspaper strip, especially if they include such bizarrities as Hobo Charlie Brown. I always assumed that the books were simply recycled strip material, along the lines of the paperback reprint series.

    Hobo Charlie Brown. Wonders never cease.

  • damanoid says:

    DeBT: that is a good question. Snoopy identified many of his imaginary roles as “the world-famous” something-or-other, presumably by the logic that, if you’re going to play at a role, why not be the best? For example, Schulz did a whole series of strips with Snoopy as “the world-famous grocery store clerk.”

    Actually Hobo Charlie Brown looks like he borrowed the fake mustache from another of Snoopy’s identites, “Blackjack Snoopy, the world-famous riverboat gambler.” Why would a dog play at being a riverboat gambler? Why a World War One flying ace, for that matter? One of the fascinating elements of Peanuts was its intermittent sidesteps into breathtaking absurdity.

  • philip says:

    That moustache has a distinct Vince Guaraldi vibe.

  • Max West says:

    To be honest, it’s kind of fun to see Charlie Brown get the other kids after seeing them laugh at him, pull away footballs, insult him, etc.

  • Tom Devlin says:

    There’s a great interview that does a good job laying out who did what in those Peanuts comic books (or at the very least identifying the ones that Schulz did draw:

    http://www.fivecentsplease.org/dpb/sassevil.html

  • Danx says:

    Charlie Brown cosplays as John McCrea.

  • Tom Mason says:

    @Tom Devlin: Great link – thanks! (I’ll also add there’s a 4-page Sasseville Peanuts strip if you scroll down far enough.)

  • Nat Gertler says:

    Yes, the Sasseville interview is vital for understanding this stuff. I’ll also point to a couple pages on my own site: an interview with Peanuts comic book artist Dale Hale at http://aaugh.com/guide/ldale.htm and the listing of all the Peanuts comic book appearances at http://aaugh.com/guide/pcb.htm

  • Aaron says:

    That second panel reads like dialogue right out of Achewood. Seriously, those words could come straight out of Ray Smuckles’s mouth.

  • Tom Devlin says:

    Nice. Thanks, Nat.

  • Andy says:

    @Aaron: I read it a second time and you’re absolutely right. Ray would add, “And then you girls sit on the cake.”

  • HydrogenGuy says:

    Aaron is exactly right. I knew there had to be a reason why Charlie Brown dressed as a moustachioed hobo and saying “Let’s do this” was the greatest thing I’ve seen today.