Peanut has a tried-and-true Halloween tradition with its comic strips and animated special about the Great Pumpkin, which comes with the other Halloween tradition of Linus being disappointed by the Great Pumpkin’s no-show every year. The Great Pumpkin debuted in October 1959, and not even a year after its inception did it appear to Linus when the strip came to an end in 2000.
Linus tends not to take kindly to his mythological gourd’s lack of appearance, and often becomes mired in disappointment and eventually anger and sadness. Linus came close to completely giving up hope and belief in the Great Pumpkin. However, he can never give up once and for all and always ends up believing again. Although Linus has never been able to enjoy a fun night of trick-or-treating, his way of celebrating Halloween is good enough for him… until the next day, when disappointment sets in.
10
“I will never believe you again!”
November 2, 1963
Having finally had enough of being attacked by the Great Pumpkin, Linus is at his limit and has lost all patience with this missing gourd. Proclaiming that he will never believe in the Great Pumpkin again, he screams as loud as he can. However, when he calms down for a minute and thinks about it, he decides it’s better to be safe than sorry and withdraws his denunciation of the Great Pumpkin, just in case the mythological creature was listening.
Linus would prefer not to burn his bridges with the Great Pumpkin by returning her angry outburst, as any faithful reader would expect. Linus wouldn’t be Linus if he didn’t believe in the Great Pumpkin. His love for the Great Pumpkin and his stint as the character are so synonymous with Linus that there seems little to no chance of him giving up hope, no matter how furious he gets.
9
“I’m very tired…”
November 1, 1966
When Linus sends a letter to Peppermint Patty about the Great Pumpkin, her interest is piqued and she calls Linus to tell him all about it. To everyone’s surprise, even Linus, she actually believes in the Great Pumpkin after he gives her all the information she needs to know. The main force driving her new belief is that, due to her superstitious personality, she thinks that anything that seems impossible just has to be true.
She has strange reasoning, but ultimately she’s not the smartest; Case in point, she mistook Snoopy for a human child for years. She even admits her less-than-stellar aptitude when she’s waiting on Halloween for the Great Pumpkin to appear. It’s no news that Peppermint Patty is very tired the next day, but nothing compared to Linus, who was up all night.
8
“Just wait until next year!”
November 1, 1970
After another Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, Linus ends up falling asleep in the pumpkin patch. He arrives home in the early hours of the morning and finds Lucy very angry. She demands that he just curse the Great Pumpkin and move on with his life. so he’s free to celebrate Halloween through trick-or-treating and no longer confined to a pumpkin patch.
In response, Linus compares her to the wife of the biblical character Job. Linus refuses to curse the Great Pumpkinscreaming that she will be proven wrong next year. The Great Pumpkin appearing next year is a long shot, but Linus is desperate and eager to get Lucy off his back so she can stop goading him into cursing the Great Pumpkin.
7
“Grandma is very tense”
November 1, 1968
Linus’ grandmother might be a wet blanket, pun intended; she despises Linus’ beloved security blanket and refuses to tolerate Linus’ search for the Great Pumpkin. On Halloween night, Lucy informs Linus that since Grandma is babysitting, he needs to come home now, at nine o’clock, and that he needs to stop with the Great Pumpkin’s nonsense. Linus attributes this Great Pumpkin slander to generational conflict, which is probably not as accurate as he thinks.
Regardless, as a result, the next day, Linus regales Charlie Brown with his unfortunate story of events and how her grandmother tends to be very uptight when it comes to all things related to the Great Pumpkin. A child as eccentric and imaginative as Linus needs a lot of patience and understanding of others, something that Grandma lacks.
6
“Did the Great Pumpkin ever appear?”
November 1, 1973
When Marcie gets to know Linus more, he gives her a detailed account of the Great Pumpkin and what it does. Marcie isn’t too amused by the made-up character and even asks her best friend Peppermint Patty if she believes it. Neither girl is the least bit swayed, but Marcie, being a good friend, asks Linus if the Great Pumpkin has appeared yet. However, she makes a huge faux pas and doesn’t call her the Great Pumpkin, but rather the Great Pumpkin, insulting and irritating Linus like nothing else could.
It’s an easy mistake to make, but still a serious one for Linus. Linus, in general, tends to be pretty sensible, but when it comes to the Great Pumpkin, all bets are off. Marcie may have forgotten the Great Pumpkin’s name this time, but after Linus’ reaction, she won’t forget it in the future.
5
“It was a bowling ball”
November 1, 1982
When Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Marcie and Peppermint Patty go bowling, things start out great. Charlie Brown is on his way to beating the very competitive Peppermint Patty. However, as Charlie Brown has a habit of doing, he chokes on the last frame needed to win and accidentally throws his bowling ball out the front door instead of down the lane. The bowling ends in a very interesting place: the pumpkin patch where Linus and Sally await the Great Pumpkin.
As this strip illustrates, Linus mistakenly thinks bowling was the Great Pumpkin, thinking he finally got a bone for Halloween. There were no winners that night: Charlie Brown sabotages his chances of winning, Peppermint Patty played a terrible game, and Linus watched another Halloween come and go without meeting the Great Pumpkin.
4
“Big pumpkin, you’re going to drive me crazy!”
November 1, 1961
After Linus becomes obsessed with making sure his pumpkin patch is heartfelt enough for the Great Pumpkin to pass through his patch as he has done in many others over the years, he falls asleep when, surprise, surprise, it doesn’t appear. Charlie Brown wakes Linus, still sleeping in the pumpkin patch, with the news that the Great Pumpkin really showed itself… to someone else in New Jersey.
Linus understandably almost bursts a blood vessel in anger, making it clear that the Great Pumpkin is going to drive him crazy (too late). Interestingly, Linus had only been talking about the Great Pumpkin for two years and was already being pushed to the limit by it. He’ll still have decades to put up with the Great Pumpkin’s no-show, even after this comic.
3
“It never happened to you, did it?
November 1, 1991
Linus and Charlie Brown, in fact, assume that the invented character of Linus the Great Pumpkin is a man. In contrast, Lucy dismisses the interesting possibility that the Great Pumpkin is actually a woman. Asking this question to Linus after he has endured another year of silence from his gift-giving pumpkin creature, Lucy clarifies by commenting that The idea of ​​the pumpkin being a woman probably never crossed your mind.
Lucy has a very good point.
Although the proposal is frustrating for Linus, Lucy makes a very good argument. However, considering that Linus was the one who created the character in his own mind, he probably knows a little more about the ins and outs of the Great Pumpkin than Lucy does. As the eldest daughter, Lucy likes to think she always has the answers, even when it comes to mythological creatures, much to her younger brother’s dismay.
2
“If I seem bitter, it’s because I am”
November 2, 1964
When Linus makes a big deal about the Great Pumpkin’s arrival, even more so than usual, it’s more imperative than ever that the Great Pumpkin appears. He even writes to the Great Pumpkin to tell her how important it is for her to appear this year. All of Linus’s efforts will be wasted for another year after the Great Pumpkin fails to reach his pumpkin patch.
Consequently, Linus decides that another letter is necessary, albeit one with a very different tone than the original. He lets the Great Pumpkin know that he waited, even though the Great Pumpkin never arrived, but that he can handle the disappointment because he is still young – even if he is still angry. Finishing with a cherry on top, Linus acknowledges that it may seem bitter, but that’s just because he’s definitely bitter.
1
“You owe me a refund!”
November 3, 1962
Providing the basis of the beloved animated TV special, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brownthe Halloween (and some November) comics have a plot that is somewhat replicated in the television special. When Sally sits out Halloween to wait at the pumpkin patch with Linus so he can prove to her that the Great Pumpkin is real, things don’t go his way. Instead of, Sally misses the children’s favorite holiday, Halloween, all to hope that a gourd never appears.
Sally is furious, both at Linus and at herself, for agreeing to everything, and details all the things she missed out on, specifically treats. Recounting what she didn’t get – like candy and even money – Sally decides that some restitution is in order when she tells her iconic line that fans of the cartoon Peanut special knows by heart.