For Better Or For Worse - C/D?

!!!

But the whole point of some strips is variations and refinements on a set of themes, finding new angles and new approaches, teasing out new aspects of it.

The football strips are sort of obvious in their emotional heft, and are iconic of the strip, but consider the "x days until Beethoven's birthday!" strips, which seem to last for weeks in some years, and which are the true test of a daily stripper -- how many times can you tell the same joke without telling the same joke, while bringing something new to it.

I can't imagine what you'd make of Krazy Kat!

the tone of 50s Peanuts is MASSIVELY different from 80s Peanuts! and, you know, probably about 300 strips a year were not about topics that Schulz returned to, let alone how his returning to the ones that did become staples let him try and find new nuances or add depth by building on years of playing with the themes.

schulz did acknowledge the passing of time on occasion. there's a few sunday strips from the early '70s where charlie brown is remembering the times he used to sit on the bench at lunchtime (in the early '60s, that is) and pine over the little red-haired girl (who has apparently moved away). i think they're the best strips schulz ever did. (you can find them in "sandlot peanuts," if you're interested)