1980s Nostalgia: Marcie

After writing a piece on Peppermint Patty last week it occurred to me that no comic character worthy of his or the position in the funnies pages goes without some kind of companion. Garfield has Odie, Dagwood has Blondie, hell even April from For Better or For Worse had the annoying and spoiled Becky. In the comic world, a companion is often an extreme opposite to the star in some way. For example, Odie is as loyal and dumb as Garfield is smart and malevolent. In the Peanuts world, we have Lucy Van Pelt to offset Charlie Brown and (to a lesser extent,) the pairing of sweet Linus Van Pelt and somewhat self-serving Sally Brown. 

And Peppermint Patty has Marcie.

Marcie (whose surname is never revealed in the comics but was cited as Johnson in TV special,) is intelligent and rigid in the way that she processes information. She is the only character to wear glasses (her eyes can never be seen,) and has little interest in or understanding of sports. She and Peppermint Patty initially get off on the wrong foot when they meet at summer camp, with Marcie referring to Peppermint Patty as "Sir" (a dig at Peppermint Patty's tomboyishness,) while Peppermint Patty refers to Marcie as a "dorky kid". Later, the pair meet again when Marcie transfers to Peppermint Patty's school, much to the disgust of each other.

Over time, the pair slowly become friends. Marcie's calling Peppermint Patty "Sir" slowly becomes more affectionate, and Marcie is often the one who tries to talk sense into the often idealistic Peppermint Patty. The pairing is an interesting one as both are wholly good characters, and the comedy often comes from them trying to help one another, rather than from a mean-spirited place. Still Marcie remains a supporting character in the comic strip to Peppermint Patty and, in later years, to Snoopy when he takes on the part of the Red Barron. 

And, finally, don't ask me why, but for some reason I've always imagined that when Marcie grows up that she will become a cop or work in some form of law enforcement.

PS Bonus question. Who is your favourite Peanuts character and why?

Comments

Tanja - Tanychy said…
Oh I remember Marci!! Lol I'm old! :) I didn't know the original title of these characters cause we had different. Anyway my fave is Charlie Brown :)
26 March 2013 at 18:48
Kathryn White said…
I like your choice. Charlie Brown is a great character.
26 March 2013 at 19:27
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more