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Seventeen thousand, eight hundred and ninety-seven. That’s how many Peanuts comics Charles Schulz created over the 50 years that he wrote and drew his beloved comic strip. Peanuts debuted on Oct. 2, 1950, began publishing Sunday strips on Jan. 6, 1952, and concluded its legendary run on Feb. 13, 2000. That’s a heck of a lot of comics, which makes determining the very best one — which I attempted to do here — a rather daunting task.
At first, I thought maybe it would make sense to go for the first comic strip or the last one. Both of those comics are really important to the history of Peanuts, but if you actually read them, neither represents the very best the strip has to offer.
Peanuts didn’t arrive fully-formed. It took Charles Schulz a while to develop its characters and find their iconic look. That’s clear in the very first comic strip, which features the characters Shermy and Patty (not Peppermint Patty, just Patty) in a starring role and Charlie Brown in a supporting one. Charlie Brown also doesn’t quite look like himself yet. For these reasons, it can’t be the first one.
The last one isn’t perfect either because, unlike, say, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts didn’t end because its artist was ready to conclude their story. Bill Watterson’s readiness to end Calvin and Hobbes motivated him to craft a beautiful ending for the characters. Peanuts, in contrast, ended because Charles Schulz got incredibly sick and was no longer able to carry on. And while the last strip — which is basically just Schulz’s goodbye letter to fans — is moving, it isn’t some deeply satisfying ending for the characters.
Okay, so that only leaves 17,895 other comics to evaluate.
With such an insurmountable number of comics that could be the best strip ever, I decided to break the problem down as mathematically as possible, setting a handful of parameters around whatever the best strip ever would be, thus narrowing the candidates and selecting from there.
At first, I couldn’t decide if the best strip ever should be about Charlie Brown, the star of the comic and the stand-in for Schulz himself, or if it should focus on Snoopy, the strip’s most beloved character. So I decided the best Peanuts comic strip ever should feature both of them. Additionally, it should illustrate who each of them is, as opposed to a comic strip that’s only a Snoopy joke featuring Charlie Brown, or the other way around.
It also should be from the 1960s, which is generally considered to be the very best period of Peanuts. For the first decade of his comic, Schulz was experimenting with Charlie Brown and the gang, figuring out who they were and finding the best jokes for his characters. The 1960s is when Peanuts exploded in popularity, and it was the decade when the characters made it to television. The comic was firmly Peanuts by that point, but it was still quite fresh, too. Peanuts from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s are also fantastic. I don’t believe the strip ever went stale or overstayed its welcome, but there was maybe sort of a routine to the comic in its later decades. It was still funny, still sweet, still comforting, but while plenty of classic strips came from this time, each of these decades still pales in comparison to Schulz’s work in the 1960s.
So I did a lot of digging, looking for 1960s Peanuts comics with both of them, and I found a lot of really good ones, like this one where Charlie Brown brings Snoopy food in the rain.
And this one, where Charlie Brown is trying to make a snowman, but Snoopy gets caught up in the big snowball.
Both of these are sweet and funny, but I wasn’t really convinced that they highlighted either of their personalities enough.
Then I almost got lured in by this famous Lucy and Snoopy comic from 1960, where Lucy hugs Snoopy and says “Happiness is a warm puppy.” It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest Peanuts strips ever, but I remained steadfast in the idea that the best-ever Peanuts comic had to feature Charlie Brown.
Then I found this Sunday strip from Feb. 26, 1961. It features Charlie Brown and Snoopy in bed together (adorable). After Charlie Brown says “Good night, Snoopy,” Snoopy falls asleep and begins to loudly snore, waking up Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown then kicks Snoopy outside, where the pup returns to his doghouse and lays on the top of it in his trademark way. Charlie Brown lays back in his bed, feeling guilty, so he goes back outside and tells Snoopy he can have another chance. Back in bed, the two sleep peacefully until Charlie Brown lets out a loud snore, awaking Snoopy. In the final panel, Charlie Brown is outside, laying on Snoopy’s doghouse while he lets out a characteristic “Sigh.”
What’s great about this comic strip is that it’s the small, slice-of-life kind of story that Schulz specialized in capturing. It also includes some signature Peanuts imagery, namely Snoopy on his doghouse. The strip features a tenderness between Charlie Brown and Snoopy, while also telling you who each of them are. Snoopy is an adorable scamp. He’s incredibly cute in this comic, but also has the wherewithal to kick his owner out of his own bed. Charlie Brown, meanwhile, is the butt of the joke, which is kind of his whole thing. He’s exactly the kind of kid who would be able to be kicked out of his own bed by his dog. And that “Sigh” at the end is very simple, but also very Charlie Brown.
Now, I’m sure there are those of you out there who think that some other comic strip should take the top spot. Maybe something with Lucy and Charlie Brown and the Football gag, or maybe something from around Christmas time, since the comic strip is synonymous with that time of year. But, mathematically speaking, I think the best Peanuts comic ever is that snoring comic from February 1961.
Or it’s that “Happiness is a warm puppy” one. I’m really not sure.
