Blog: christmas 2014

Peanuts, December 24, 1963

Peanuts, 12.24.63

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They should have made Linus give a speech or read a poem or something. He doesn't seem to have a problem speaking in front of the crowd, just singing. Of course, all the people in the audience probably think it's funny and cute, but we aren't given their reactions in the strip. We are only shown the worry and tension that Linus has, as well as the frustration and anger of Lucy.

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Peanuts, December 24, 1964

Peanuts 12.24.1964

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Nothing like a good old-fashioned nativity play, complete with beagle sheep. Really, I don't have much else to say about this one. I just thought it was cute. I guess that's the mark of a good comic strip: at times it can be deep, philosophical, and heavily relatable to everyday struggles, but at other times it can, and should, just be cute.

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Peanuts, December 18, 1966

Peanuts 12.18.66

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Charles Schulz is probably on every cartoonist's list of influences, and he's certainly on mine. Peanuts has had an enormous impact on our culture. Everyone knows Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and we all understand their plight. We were all children once. We've all had those same worries and disappointments, and the same joys and triumphs. As a side note, I think it's telling that newspapers still pay to run reruns of Peanuts every day (under the banner "Classic Peanuts"), when they're normally not happy to run reruns of any comic strip.

Schulz would sometimes inject religion into his strips, usually coming out of the mouth of Linus. I imagine Linus grew up to be a priest or pastor of some sort. Here, he reads the Christmas story from Luke, though I'm not sure which English translation he's using.

Now, as a theist and Christian, I do believe that it's important for us, as Christians, to remember Jesus at Christmastime and try our best to make Him the focus of our Chr…

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Pogo, December 22, 1950

Pogo 12.22.1950

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Walt Kelly was well known for making his own versions of well-known Christmas Carols. "Deck Us All In Boston Charlie" was probably his most popular, and is featured in this strip. Of course, there were other strips which gave us the "Twelve Days of Crispness," which included a parsnip in a pear tree, as well as the lively "Good King Sauerkraut." "Boston Charlie" actually has six verses, which you can read by clicking here. Learn them and sing them at your Christmas party. I dare you.

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Pogo, December 27, 1958

Pogo 12.27.58

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Going back to the idea of even the greatest cartoonists reusing their old jokes, here we see a Pogo strip similar to the one I posted yesterday. It has been reworked a bit, and some dialogue has been added (I like the addition of "See if I remember how it goes"), but in essence it's the same strip. Still, it's a good one.

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