The curators say the strips, three of which were acquired from a private collector last year and will be on show for the first time, are âa rare opportunity to see characters differing from the beloved Peanuts Gangâ.
But some similarities are clear. Irascible, overbearing and loud, the storeroom manager Ms Hamhock could easily be Charlie Brownâs nemesis, Lucy van Pelt, grown up.
And it is not difficult to see Elmer Hagemayer, a meek and compliant worker whose cheerfulness and optimism provides the blunting edge to Ms Hamhockâs gruffness, as a grown-up Charlie Brown.
Attitudes and circumstances of the era are reflected in some of the strips. In one panel, Elmer Hagemayer tells a colleague: âI just canât get used to having a woman for a boss.â In another, Hagemayer mistakenly uses Ms Hamhockâs prized ground coffee, a luxury in the postwar era, as a fragrant compound for sweeping the floor.