Which character first speaks in the Peanuts comic strip?

Shermy is the first character to speak in the Peanuts comic strip.

He delivers the opening dialogue in the debut strip published on October 2, 1950. Sitting beside Patty, Shermy comments about the passing Charlie Brown, ending with the famously hostile observation that he hates him. That opening established the comic’s child-centered humor and Charlie Brown’s early status as an outsider.

Although Charlie Brown became the strip’s central character, he does not deliver the first spoken line. Snoopy also appeared in the debut strip, but as a silent dog. Patty is present as Shermy’s companion, yet Shermy is the one who speaks first.

Shermy was initially one of Charlie Brown’s closest friends and an important early straight man. As Schulz introduced characters such as Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, and Franklin, Shermy gradually became less prominent. His final actual newspaper-strip appearance came in 1969, but his place in Peanuts history remains secure because he opened the series’ dialogue.