1973 Line-Printer Snoopy Calendar (1973) | Unattributed

n.p.: [ca. 1973]. Line-printer text art on three panels of fanfold tractor-feed computer paper. The content is printed on the reverse only, leaving the green-bar side blank. No creator attributed. 84 x 38cm. The calendar has been folded along the two perforated edges joining the three panels, and there is also a hard vertical fold down the center (presumably for storage purposes). The perforated edges are coming apart slightly at the two intersections of the orthogonal folds.

In his legendary satirical piece “Real Programmers Don’t Use PASCAL,” published in the July 1983 issue of Datamation, Ed Post proclaims that “the typical Real Programmer lives in front of a computer terminal,” where “taped to the wall is a line-printer Snoopy calendar for the year 1969.” Not incidentally, the Peanuts characters are strongly associated with early text art on computers, a form whose urtext is arguably the Snoopy calendar.

While this example does not date from 1969, it’s nonetheless quite early, sporting an accurate 1973 calendar along with a striking depiction of Snoopy above a caption reading, “CURSE YOU, RED BARON.” Interestingly, this image appears to have been later adapted by Douglas A. Wright, whose 1978 variation is deemed “One of the earlier pieces of ASCII art” in its entry in Christopher Johnson's ASCII Art Collection. Also noteworthy is this calendar’s departure from the outputs of the famous SNPCAL program, which was early freeware used for generating Snoopy textmode calendars.

In total, this is a rare early example of one of the iconic aesthetic artifacts of hacker culture—an enduring folk piece that still enchants hobbyists today. Tape it to your wall like a Real Programmer!