The Comic Strip- The theme of "Hatred"

When I was little, comic strips only came by when I got the comic section of the newspaper from my parents. What I experienced when I was little was different from what people had to deal with back then with The comic strip era from what I could tell had some serious heavy tones that you wouldn't expect from such child like figures. One of them is Schultz's Peanuts. Charlie Brown talks about mature themes that most stories couldn't portray with little children. Even though there is always a punchline on the forth panel, sometimes its themes are still present for the reader to experience. While having elements like therapy sessions and the other children bashing on Charlie Brown for something, characters like Snoopy always had comedic, lighthearted moments to contrast with the strip. What really set the tone for the comic was how bad and abused Charlie Brown is treated for no real reason. For just some simple mistakes people see him in a negative light. One of the most prominent example is the character Violet. While Lucy treats everybody bad, Violet mainly goes after Charlie Brown just to put him down to make her mood better. She was even the one who originally coined the word "block-head", which is what Lucy constantly uses. Not that Charlie Brown isn't depicted as a failure. He can't fly a kite, win a baseball game or even kick a football. His failure and the constant abuse by others would make anyone depressed, which goes back to the therapy sessions he goes to. These are themes that adults go through and it's weird to have a child go through that but some moments are made lighthearted and comedic.

Another old comic strip that I came across was Krazy Kat. It was a little different to read since the characters actions were more wacky and silly. It stars a cat called "Krazy Kat" and a mouse named Ignatz that constantly throws bricks at him/her.  Ignatz throws his brick at Kat as a form of hatred which Kat misinterprets as affection and usually calls him little angel. While lighthearted, and fun, it seems to have a familiarity of Stockholm Syndrome. You confuse negative actions are love while not really having a clear understanding on the person's intention. However, "Krazy Kat" differs from Peanuts as either Ignatz plans never come to fruition, or he's the one who gets punished. Charlie Brown is forced to deal with the hatred while Kat just pretends it isn't existent and lives carefree.

While I have enjoyed both comics before, I'm more glad they eased up on Peanuts more (specifically Charlie Brown abuse). Krazy Kat wacky actions just appeal better but it wasn't as successful as Peanuts since it lasted longer, (like from 1950 to 2000 holy crap).