Seventy-six years ago, on October 2, 1950, Charles Schulz’s iconic comic strip Peanuts debuted. While now a staple of wholesome family entertainment, its initial installment was surprisingly dour and featured a mean-spirited jab at Charlie Brown himself. The first strip introduced Shermy and Patty, who, alongside Charlie Brown, were the initial co-stars of the series. Though neither received official names for several weeks, they were central to the strip's early development.
In this inaugural strip, as Charlie Brown walks by, Shermy remarks, "Here comes ol' Charlie Brown. Good ol' Charlie Brown... How I hate him!" This set a tone that Schulz would quickly moderate over the following weeks and months. The early years of Peanuts presented a peculiar experience, a stark contrast to the universally beloved characters and gentle humor that would later define the strip.
The strip’s humor in its first two years often stemmed from the idea that young children could be quite unkind to one another. The second strip, for instance, depicted Patty decking another child without apparent provocation. Charlie Brown, Shermy, and Patty would frequently steal from, manipulate, or strike each other, only for these conflicts to be seemingly forgotten by the next day's installment.
Snoopy, who first appeared in the third strip, was barely recognizable compared to his later, more anthropomorphic persona. For the first couple of years, Snoopy was simply a dog, lacking his imaginative alter-egos and human-like characteristics. His living situation was also ambiguous; rather than being explicitly Charlie Brown's pet, he seemed to reside within the neighborhood, sometimes associated with Shermy or Patty, but often present without specific context.
The Decline of Early Characters
Schulz himself later expressed that he found Shermy to be a rather bland character. While Shermy and Patty initially appeared taller than Charlie Brown, suggesting they might be older, they lacked distinctive traits that could drive gags. Unlike later characters such as Linus, with his precociousness, or Lucy, with her self-importance, Shermy and Patty did not possess defining characteristics. Charlie Brown, too, took several years to develop his signature traits of bad luck and philosophical melancholy. Initially, he often served as the butt of jokes without personalizing them, acting as a foil for other characters. However, because Schulz based Charlie Brown on himself, the character was integral and not going anywhere.
By the 1970s, both Shermy and Patty had disappeared entirely from the strip. Though they occasionally make cameos in modern Peanuts media, such as The Snoopy Show on Apple TV, they are now primarily trivia for dedicated fans. On the anniversary of Peanuts' debut, it is worth acknowledging these original characters who were present at the very beginning of the beloved comic strip. Shermy and Patty, while eventually fading from the spotlight, hold a unique place as the earliest members of Charlie Brown's world.