Tip Top Comics #173

Trivia · 7 facts

• Cover date: March–April 1952; on-sale date: February 1, 1952 (per Grand Comics Database).
• Published by United Feature Syndicate as part of the long-running Tip Top Comics anthology series, which began in April 1936 and ran 225 issues total across three publishers.
• Contains the first comic book appearance of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts — reprinted newspaper strip material featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the early cast in their distinctively toddler-like, pre-midpoint-of-decade visual style.
• This debut is tied with United Comics #21 (also March–April 1952); however, Key Collector Comics notes that U.S. Library of Congress copyright records place Tip Top Comics #173 one week ahead of United Comics #21 in registration order.
• The cover features Nancy and Sluggo — Ernie Bushmiller's characters — not the Peanuts gang; Peanuts appeared inside the issue.
• The issue also contains a Tarzan story (per Grand Comics Database), consistent with the title's long history of featuring Hal Foster's strip among its rotating anthology of United Feature properties.
• Tip Top Comics #173 marks the beginning of a Peanuts run in that title that would continue through issue #225, with Peanuts eventually earning cover placement starting with issue #185.

Full credits

Key issues in Tip Top Comics