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In one early, memorably Peanuts storyline, Charlie Brown rebranded himself as "Mr. Spaceman," a visitor from Mars – and in the process, he developed a surprisingly different dynamic with his usual foil Lucy van Pelt. This hilarious recurring arc occupied much of March 1955, meaning these Peanuts cartoons are nearing their 70th anniversary.
Charlie Brown's transformation into a Martian was precipitated by the Peanuts strip on February 28, 1955, in which Patty – not Peppermint, but rather, Peanuts' original Patty – ranted that "you've never been anything but Good Ol' Charlie Brown...and that's all you are now...and that's all you'll ever be, just Good Ol' Charlie Brown!"
As he so often was, "Good Ol'" Charlie Brown was left questioning the meaning of existence – and the very next day, Mr. Spaceman made his debut appearance.
10 "You're From Mars, You Say? Where's That?"
First Published: March 1, 1955
Peanuts' humor has a reputation for simplicity, and in part, that can be traced back to strips like this – i.e., those that came at the start of longer "arcs," in which author Charles Schulz elaborated on a joke over the course of successive cartoons. Like any multi-part story, the opening chapter must do a significant amount of set-up. Here, readers are introduced to Charlie Brown's new Martian persona – signified by a glass helmet over his head, with two antennae sticking out – at the same time as Lucy, who asks where exactly Mars is.
"Right up there," Charlie Brown says, pointing at the stars. It's not exactly an "out of this world" punchline, with the strip largely deriving its humor from the sight of Peanuts' familiar protagonist suddenly wearing a space helmet, and calling himself an alien. More than that, though, it does the essential work of establishing that premise, so that Charles Schulz could play with the idea for the next month.
9 "Are You Afraid Of Spacemen, Patty?"
First Published: March 2, 1955
In this strip, Charlie Brown – as the "man from outer space" – encounters Patty, whose critique instigated this whole fantasy of being a visitor from another world. Along with Lucy, she is depicted as being "not in the least" bit scared of an extraterrestrial visitor. In fact, both of them simultaneously huff on the Spaceman's glass helmet, fogging it up, and leaving him to sigh in a manner suspiciously similar to Charlie Brown.
In his new alien persona, the former Charlie Brown doesn't exactly get off to a great start with his peers – but over the next several strips, Lucy would prove at least willing to indulge his game, playing along with his Spaceman identity and steadily becoming more invested in his make believe scenario.
8 "Feet First?"
First Published: March 3, 1955
Lucy begins to take more of an active interest in Spaceman in this Peanuts panel, asking how he traveled from his home planet to hers, giving Charlie Brown a chance to expand the narrative of this personality he is crafting. "I jumped!," he responds, without hesitation, causing her to look upward and wonder about the distance between Mars and Earth, before responding with a supplemental question: "Feet first?"
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In this way, Charles Schulz takes his main character's flight of fancy and draws a second character into it, reflecting the way that neighborhood kids do exactly the same; often, a make-believe scenario will start with one creative kid, but in time, others will find themselves wrapped up in it, just as Lucy does here.
7 "Nobody On Earth Has A Head That Round!"
First Published: March 4, 1955
In this panel, Charles Schulz brings the first "act" of the Mr. Spaceman arc back down to Earth, delivering a classic Peanuts punchline in the process. Naturally, this comes at Charlie Brown's expense, as Violet explains to Lucy that she believes Spaceman really is from Mars – because "nobody on Earth has a head that round!"
The spherical nature of Charlie Brown's head, naturally, was the subject of many Peanuts strips over the years, and this one very much feels like the ultimate punchline that Schulz was steadily driving toward when he first introduced the joke a few panels prior. Each preceding cartoon is steadily funnier, with this one striking a particular chord with the reader because of the way it returns to a familiar beat: Charlie Brown's head.
6 Interlude: Snoopy Plays Astronaut Too
First Published: March 22, 1955
Over the course of the next several weeks in March 1955, Peanuts' status quo seemed to return to normal, as without any explanation, Charlie Brown dropped his Spaceman gimmick. On March 22, however, it made an inexplicable return – in this wordless panel, which features Charlie Brown punting his space helmet in frustration after Snoopy runs by wearing one of his own, except with a far more elaborate antenna.
It is a simple, effective reprise of the joke from the start of the month, making it clear that neither Charles Schulz nor Charlie Brown forgot about his time as an extraterrestrial. In fact, less than a week after this strip appeared, the definitive sequence of Mr. Spaceman panels landed in newspapers, offering a truly laugh-out-loud escalation of the premise.
5 "If You're From Mars, Let's Hear You Say Something Martian"
First Published: March 28, 1955
This Peanuts cartoon picks up the Spaceman saga where it left off weeks before, as Lucy has now fully embraced the fiction – to the point where, according to the look on Charlie Brown's face, he doesn't even seem to be enjoying LARPing as an alien anymore.
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In the first two panels of this strip, Lucy exhorts Charlie Brown to "say something in Martian," and when he finally does, the content of his word bubble has been scrubbed out, to signify an alien dialect. Leaving Lucy more confused than when she first asked, Charlie Brown walks away, but his Martian language, and Lucy's gradual "understanding" of it, would continue to play a prominent role over the next several days of Peanuts comics.
4 "Say Something In Martian Again For Me, Will You, Mr. Spaceman?"
First Published: March 29, 1955
Lucy has thoroughly taken over Charlie Brown's game by this strip, in which she officially dubs him Mr. Spaceman. Once again, Lucy demands that he speak Martian to her; at first, he complies goodnaturedly, but when she obviously can't understand him, he grows irate and repeats his gibberish response in a more aggressive tone, prompting her to holler back "you didn't have to shout!"
While Mr. Spaceman started out as a way for Charlie Brown to escape his own identity, by this point, it is clear he is starting to grow tired of it – even as Lucy becomes steadily more interested, and at the same time, surprisingly more respectful of him, as signified by the use of "Mr."
3 "What Sort Of Weather Do You Have Up There?"
First Published: March 30, 1955
"It's been kind of gloomy around here lately, too," Lucy says, after Mr. Spaceman responds in Martian to her question about the the weather on his home planet. What makes this the funniest stretch of Peanuts' Mr. Spaceman ongoing joke is the way that Lucy is depicted as having quickly learned Charlie Brown's made-up alien language.
Or rather, it is another level of her co-opting of his fantasy; Lucy has realized that if he is going to speak incomprehensibly, then she can supply any meaning she wants to his words. In addition to being a pitch perfect character moment for Lucy, this has the effect of definitively making Mr. Spaceman no longer a new persona for Charlie Brown, but a character being played primarily for Lucy's personal amusement.
2 "What Do You Think Of The Girls Here On Earth, Mr. Spaceman?"
First Published: March 31, 1955
In the final appearance of Charlie Brown's Mr. Spaceman persona, he gives his opinion of "the girls here on Earth" in his Martian-speak, saying something which Lucy translates as "very beautiful." While building on the joke that Lucy now "understands" Martian, there is a delightful note of ambiguity here, as it seems – again, just from judging Charlie Brown's facial expressions – that he really did mean to say something nice.
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Of course, this raises the question of how much Lucy has actually "learned" Charlie Brown's fake language. In any case, it drives home the fact that, in his short time as Mr. Spaceman, Charlie Brown did legitimately cultivate a different dynamic with Lucy – who would go back to giving him her usual guff the moment he dropped the Spaceman routine.
1 "Oh, I Knew It Was You All The Time, Charlie Brown"
First Published: April 1, 1955
Finally, in this Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown "reveals" to Lucy that he was Mr. Spaceman all along – only for her to "reveal" that she knew this the whole time. As she explains:
I recognized your round head, and your striped shirt, and your round head, and your brown shoes, and your round head, and your dark pants, and your round head, and...
Once again, Charles Schulz closes the book on this recurring joke by bringing it full circle to a familiar Peanuts refrain: the size of Charlie Brown's head. "All right!!!" he shouts as Lucy catalogs all the ways it was obvious he was Mr. Spaceman, thoroughly putting an end to the character's brief, but memorable spell in Peanuts lore. While Snoopy is best remembered as the imaginative one of the Peanuts Gang, this 1955 stretch of comics proved Charlie Brown had his head in the clouds as well.
Peanuts
Created by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts is a multimedia franchise that began as a comic strip in the 1950s and eventually expanded to include films and a television series. Peanuts follows the daily adventures of the Peanuts gang, with Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy at the center of them. Aside from the film released in 2015, the franchise also has several Holiday specials that air regularly on U.S. Television during their appropriate seasons.
English (US) ·