The Peanuts Linework

I’m going to relate this blog post to the last one as I discuss the strips I read from The Complete Peanuts Comic Strips. The idea I want to discuss as it is so well used in these strips is line. In one strip I read, Peppermint Patty is sitting at her school desk in panel 1. Her usually straight and smooth lined hair has changed to jagged lines that flow out from every point in her head as if she just stuck her finger in an electrical socket. She interrupts the teacher to announce that her questions are messing with her hair. The use of a different line in this strip is the exact way that Schulz is able to evoke a different feeling for Peppermint and from the reader. Though it is a simple change in form, the strip would not have made any sense if those lines were smooth and formed like her appearance on most other days. It also fits in so well with the character as Peppermint has always viewed school as one of her major challenges, being more sport oriented. I guess what is most impressive to me as I read comics is not just the really ornate comics that display the artist’s technical skills but the really simple comics that display the artists emotional-response evoking skills. The Peanuts strips are pretty simple lines but the lines are always used in a way that fits the story.