Halloween is Peanuts Time

Anyone who has spent enough time in Tulgey Wood during October knows (if they didn't know before) that Peanuts (featuring "Good Ol' Charlie Brown") is an important part of Halloween. The comic strip celebrated the frightfully festive fun of Halloween every year, one way or another—or did it?  The Peanuts comic strip began on October 1, 1950—yes, Peanuts is celebrating 65 years this year—but that first month did not present the strip's first Halloween-themed installment.  Those first strips from October 1950 were drawn up by artist/writer Charles M. Schulz as "sample" strips designed to sell the feature so they were all of a generic, non-seasonal nature.  Did it feature a Great Pumpkin-themed story? Of course not. Linus, the primary (and only) proponent of the Greart Pumpkin had yet not even been "born." He was introduced in the strip as a baby on September 19, 1952 (though he was first mentioned on July 14). The first Halloween-themed Peanuts strip from October 31, 1951 (the strip's first full year) is pictured below. This classic comic starring Charlie Brown and Snoopy is part of the Countdown to Halloween 2015.