The first Peanuts strip appeared in a total of seven newspapers October 2, 1950. The creator and artist, Charles Schulz,had originally submitted the strip to Untied Features Syndicate under the title of Li’l Folks. However, the Syndicate decided to change the name to Peanuts. Schulz never really grew accustomed to the name, but millions of others did. Peanuts has become the most widely-loved strip in comic’s history. During the first year of the strip’s run, Peanuts only appeared in papers as a daily. The first Sunday strip did not appear until January 6, 1952. The strip offered in this auction is dated February 17, 1952, the seventh Peanuts Sunday page to see national publication. Comprised of 8 panels, all drawn by Schulz, the strip opens with Charlie Brown playing with his toy car and a bulldozer. The opening panel sports the name of the strip. It is drawn on top of the art below. Schulz uses every inch of space inside this long panel to create the feeling of a real yard. As your eyes begin on the left, they follow a stone walkway to find Charlie Brown sitting and playing. He is looking over his shoulder at his friend Shermy who is trying to recruit Charlie Brown in to help him build a tree-house. The next seven panels find Schulz moving the perspective from the expanse of the yard to a series of close ups showing the two small boys working together. As they talk, Charlie Brown contributes a great malapropism in the fourth panel when he refers to the idea of “Hermits” as “Hermans”. This use of this little verbal touch in the middle of the strip really reminds us of how young the characters are. It is a sign of innocence and youth. The next panel shows how close the little boys are when, after Charlie Brown is corrected, he tells Shermy that “I knew you’d get the idea!” Once the fort is finished, the two friends leave to get provisions. As they return they extol the virtues of solitude and having a place that no one can get too. The last panel reveals that their privacy has been invaded by a very young-looking Snoopy who is innocently staring down at them from the fort. This little twist at the end shows one of the philosophical paths that Schulz was beginning to incorporate into the strip; life is full of the unexpected. That twist is also an early sign of the direction that the character of Charlie Brown was beginning to move. No matter what he does, Charlie Brown can’t seem to win. This idea of Charlie Brown’s status as a loser would really be expanded over the next few years until it becomes one of the main gag-lines of the strip. In this early appearance, we find a still confident Charlie Brown who is only beginning to see the problems that growing up holds. Schulz’s talent as an artist is on display in this crowded Sunday page. In each panel he fleshes out the surrounding with detailed hints of a landscape or the touch of branches and leaves once the boys are up in the fort. In the third panel, take notice of the boards that Charlie Brown is carrying. They are actually slightly warped, just like the boards that little boys would find if they were scrounging around for wood to build a tree-fort. In the eighth panel, when they are returning with their provisions, he adds a picket fence and the corner of a house to their walk. This small detail opens up the physical world of Peanuts in a way that seemed to disappear as the strip grew older. The piece measures 16 3/8 x 23 7/8" with image area of 15 1/8 x 22 5/8". Reverse shows aging with some inking and several tape stains. The page was once folded but has been professionally pressed so that the fold lines are only visible upon very close inspection. The page has also been professionally cleaned and a water stain that covered the final panel has been removed. While the front still has a slight trace of aging and some minimal wear the overall appearance remains bright. An early and historic piece.