Today is when we celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest dogs in the history of comic strips and animation, Snoopy himself. Truth be told this is not however the day he first appeared. Snoopy in fact first appeared in the third Peanuts comic, released to newspapers on October 4, 1950. This is instead considered his birthday because of a series of strips in 1968. In this series of this strips Linus leads Snoopy on a secret mission. In the last strip of this story Snoopy is lead to a surprise party for his birthday. This strip appeared on August 10th, making many fans consider this his birthday. This story only lasted three days, from August 8 to August 10. The first strip had Linus waking Snoopy up in the middle of the night asking if he would like to go on a secret mission. Snoopy feels honored since it is rare that Beagles are invited on such secret missions. In the second strip Linus tells Snoopy he doesn't have the right expression for a secret mission. Snoopy makes a serious face and Linus tells him "That's better." Snoopy blames this on "inexperience." The third strip can be seen above.
I love how in these strips Snoopy and Linus are pure white against a black night background. It is visually appealing and automatically draws one into the comic strip. If I were to open the newspaper to the comics section and this strip were to appear, my eyes would immediately be drawn to it. It also shows how talented of an artist, Charles Schultz really was.
Anyway happy birthday to our favorite Beagle.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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