3eanuts - Peanuts Comics Minus the Last Panel

3eanuts catalogs Peanuts cartoon strips, minus the fourth panel. It's similar in spirit to De-Garfed (in which Garfield's thoughts are removed from the Garfield strip) and other crazy Garfield variants. But in this one, it's about existential aloneness, despair, hopelessness -- pretty rough stuff for a comic strip. Here's what author Daniel Leonard says about it:

Charles Schulz's Peanuts comics often conceal the existential despair of their world with a closing joke at the characters' expense. With the last panel omitted, despair pervades all.

Also:

Why 3eanuts? The somber subject matter of Peanuts often goes unnoticed due to the merchandising of the strip (sentimental greeting cards and the like) as well as the gag structure of the strips themselves. The concluding punchline distances readers emotionally from the misery that precedes it; jokes turn us from co-sufferers into onlooking wise guys. Schulz was well aware that the dismal content of Peanuts, which is to say the stuff of life, is difficult to face without humor to aid us. By removing the final gag panel, we bring to the fore exactly how dark Schulz’s view of the world has always been. That this view often eludes us merely affirms Schulz’s skill at helping us to cope.

Here are a few favorites:

Check out lots more at 3eanuts, including some Sunday strips!

(Via Waxy.org.)