Charles Schulz's Snoopy is one of the most famous fictional dogs in the world, if not the most famous. His only real competition might be Goofy, who's apparently supposed to be an anthropomorphic dog (which, as ever, raises some real uncomfortable questions about Pluto), or possibly Scooby-Doo. Snoopy is one of the oldest characters in Peanuts, first appearing in its third-ever strip in 1950.
For the first few years of the comic, Snoopy might've been a stray who was broadly adopted by the neighborhood kids, as he seemed to belong to whichever kid he had to in order for the latest joke to work. It wasn't until 1972 that Schulz finally established that Snoopy belonged to Charlie Brown. That's a useful example of an overall trend with Snoopy, who has the longest character arc in Peanuts.
By the time the strip ended in 2000, Snoopy had evolved from a fairly normal beagle to a struggling writer with a number of elaborate fantasy personae, a penchant for walking upright, a doghouse that's basically a TARDIS, an ambiguous ability to communicate directly with humans, and his own extensive supporting cast. In addition to his bird pal Woodstock, Snoopy has seven brothers and sisters, most of whom were rarely seen in Peanuts. The exception is Spike, Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother, who went from a brief visit in 1975 to a regular fixture in the comic by the '90s.
Snoopy's other siblings include his sister Belle, who lives in Kansas City with her somewhat upsetting son (above); Marbles, who's too smart to really understand Snoopy; the "roly-poly" Olaf; Andy, a fuzzy farm dog who might not actually be a beagle; and Molly and Rover, who only appeared in the 1991 animated special Snoopy's Reunion. The general theme behind Snoopy's siblings seems to be that every time that Schulz got a new dog, he would eventually include that dog in Peanuts as a member of Snoopy's litter. Andy's fuzzy linework, for example, is because he's based on a wire-haired terrier that Schulz adopted in 1988.
Aside from Spike, Snoopy's siblings are barely a footnote in the Peanuts canon, but they're entertaining to look at as sort of off-model Snoopy clones. Here are some of the best strips featuring the rest of Snoopy's litter. Marbles only appeared in Peanuts for about three weeks in 1982.
He first arrived at Peppermint Patty's house on September 28 before meeting up with Snoopy, at which point things started to get even weirder than usual. What eventually got Marbles to leave town again was when Snoopy tried to draw him into one of his trademark imaginary scenarios. All that did was confuse Marbles, who reacted to each new element of Snoopy's World War I Flying Ace daydream with the same blank look of confusion.
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