Comics on Parade #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThis one-shot stands as the first full-length comic book devoted entirely to Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts strip, collecting early daily strips in color at a point when the strip was barely three years old and still finding its audience. It also marks the first time the Peanuts cast — Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and friends — appeared on the cover of a comic book, making it a landmark in how newspaper-strip characters transitioned into the standalone comic-book format. United Features Syndicate published it during their own brief run as a comic-book house, a moment when the syndicate was actively testing whether its newspaper properties could anchor dedicated comic-book editions. The book's existence helps chart the early, tentative path of Peanuts from newsprint filler strips tucked into anthology titles toward the self-contained, branded format that Dell and later publishers would develop into a long-running series.
Comics on Parade #1 is an anthology featuring humor and comic strips. The issue includes "Jest-di-Jest," a collection of jokes and humorous one-liners covering topics such as romance, cooking, and wordplay. The comic also contains a story about Pancho, a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, who defeats a larger opponent called "Dynamite" in a wrestling match after his opponent underestimates him. Additionally, the issue features a story involving Dr. Kelly attempting to help a malnourished child named Vanilla by finding her food and shelter, ultimately arranging for her care with assistance from others.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
United Features Syndicate — the syndicate that owned and distributed Peanuts — operated as a comic-book publisher in its own right from roughly 1952 to 1954, producing titles such as Tip Top Comics, Tip Topper Comics, United Comics, and Fritzi Ritz alongside Peanuts strip reprints used as filler. This one-shot emerged from that brief publishing window, its indicia reading 'Peanuts No. 1, Comics on Parade,' placing it within the Comics on Parade line rather than as a standalone series. The issue carries no month or year on its cover, but its copyright material runs through 1953, and collector researchers have estimated it appeared in late 1953 or very early 1954, just before Dell assumed publication of subsequent Peanuts comic-book issues. Schulz drew the cover himself — an indoor baseball scene featuring the full gang — while the backup strips (Willie, Ferd'nand, Strange As It Seems) were drawn by other UFS-affiliated artists including Henning Mikkelsen, Leonard Sansone, and John Hix.
Trivia · 8 facts
- The issue's indicia reads 'Peanuts No. 1, Comics on Parade,' identifying it as a one-shot within United Features Syndicate's Comics on Parade line, not a standalone series.
- It is the first full-length comic book dedicated entirely to reprinting Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts daily strips, presented in full color.
- The cover — drawn by Schulz himself and depicting the Peanuts gang playing baseball indoors — is the first all-Peanuts comic book cover.
- The comic book colorist, working from black-and-white strips, gave Charlie Brown 'hair' in some strips, a notable departure from Schulz's bald design.
- Backup strips in the issue include Willie, Ferd'nand (the pantomime strip by Henning Mikkelsen), and Strange As It Seems (by John Hix), all United Features Syndicate properties.
- The issue includes what may be one of the earliest Peanuts baseball strips, as well as an early strip featuring Charlie Brown's encounter with 'the new girl,' Violet.
- Published by United Features Syndicate during their own short-lived comic-book publishing era (approximately 1952–1954); Dell took over subsequent Peanuts comic-book publication afterward.
- The issue carries no month or year on its cover; copyright material inside runs through 1953, and researchers place its publication in late 1953 or very early 1954.
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