Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes
The cover of Calvin and Hobbes, the first collection of comic strips, released in April 1987
Author(s)	Bill Watterson
Website	www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes
Current status/schedule	Concluded
Launch date	November 18, 1985[1]
End date	December 31, 1995
Syndicate(s)	Universal Press Syndicate
Publisher(s)	Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)	Humor, family life, politics, philosophy, satire

Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic",^[2][3][4] Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic interest.

Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. Set in the contemporary suburban United States, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and his friendship with Hobbes, it also examines Calvin's relationships with family and classmates, especially the love/hate relationship between him and his classmate Susie Derkins. Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger; all the other characters see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, philosophical quandaries, and the flaws of opinion polls.^[5]

At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide;^[1] in 2010, reruns of the strip appeared in more than 50 countries, and nearly 45 million copies of the Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold.^[1]

History[edit]

Development[edit]

Calvin and Hobbes was conceived when Bill Watterson, who was working in an advertising job he detested,^[6] began devoting his spare time to developing a newspaper comic for potential syndication. He explored various strip ideas but all were rejected by the syndicates. United Feature Syndicate finally responded positively to one strip called The Doghouse, which featured a side character (the main character's little brother) who had a stuffed tiger. United identified these characters as the strongest, and encouraged Watterson to develop them as the centre of their own strip.^[7] Though United Feature ultimately rejected the new strip as lacking in marketing potential, Universal Press Syndicate took it up.^[8][9]

Launch and early success (1985–90)[edit]

The first strip was published on November 18, 1985^[10] in 35 newspapers. Watterson was warned by the syndicate not to give up the day job yet, but it wasn't long before the series had become a hit. Within a year of syndication, the strip was published in roughly 250 newspapers and was proving to have international appeal with translation and wide circulation outside the United States.

Although Calvin would undergo continual artistic development and creative innovation over the period of syndication, the earliest strips demonstrate a remarkable consistency with the latest. Watterson introduced all the major characters within the first three weeks, and made no changes to the central cast over the next 10 years.

By April 5, 1987, Watterson was featured in an article in The Los Angeles Times.^[8] Calvin and Hobbes earned Watterson the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year category, first in 1986 and again in 1988. He was nominated another time in 1992, the Society awarded him the Humor Comic Strip Award for 1988.^[11] Calvin and Hobbes has also won several more awards.

As his creation grew in popularity, Watterson underwent a long and emotionally draining battle with his syndicate editors over his refusal to license his characters for merchandising. By 1991, Watterson had achieved his goal of securing a new contract that granted him legal control over his creation and all future licensing arrangements.

Creative control (1991–95)[edit]

Having achieved his objective of creative control, Watterson's desire for privacy subsequently reasserted itself and he ceased all media interviews, relocated to New Mexico, and largely disappeared from public engagements, refusing to attend the ceremonies of any of the cartooning awards he won,^[4] the pressures of the battle over merchandising led to Watterson taking an extended break from May 5, 1991, to February 1, 1992, unprecedented in the world of syndicated cartoonists.

Comparison of Calvin and Hobbes' following layout changes

The comic strip on the left from 1987 illustrates the layout constraints that Bill Watterson was forced to work within for the first 6 years of his Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. The comic strip on the right from 1993 demonstrates one of the more creative layouts that Watterson had the freedom to employ after 1991.

During Watterson's first sabbatical from the strip, Universal Press Syndicate continued to charge newspapers full price to re-run old Calvin and Hobbes strips. Few editors approved of the move, but the strip was so popular that they had no choice but to continue to run it for fear that competing newspapers might pick it up and draw its fans away.^[12] Watterson returned to the strip in 1992 with plans to produce his Sunday strip as an unbreakable half of a newspaper or tabloid page, this made him only the second cartoonist since Garry Trudeau to have sufficient popularity to demand more space and control over the presentation of their work.

Watterson took a second sabbatical from April 3 through December 31, 1994. When he returned, he had made the decision to end the strip; in 1995, Watterson sent a letter via his syndicate to all editors whose newspapers carried his strip announcing his plans to end the strip by the end of the year. Stating his belief that he had achieved everything that he wanted to within the medium, he announced his intention to work on future projects at a slower pace with fewer artistic compromises.

The final strip ran on Sunday, December 31, 1995,^[10] it depicted Calvin and Hobbes outside in freshly fallen snow, reveling in the wonder and excitement of the winter scene. "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy... Let's go exploring!" Calvin exclaims as they zoom off over the snowy hills on their sled,^[13] leaving, according to one critic ten years later, "a hole in the comics page that no strip has been able to fill."^[14]

Sunday formatting[edit]

This standard half-page layout can easily be rearranged for full, third, and quarter pages (optionally discarding panels 1 and 2). However, Watterson wished to draw comics which did not conform to the standard panel division.

Syndicated comics were typically published five times a week in black and white, with a Sunday supplement version in a larger, full colour format, this larger format version of the strip was constrained by mandatory layout requirements that made it possible for newspaper editors to format the strip for different page sizes and layouts.

Watterson grew increasingly frustrated by the shrinking of the available space for comics in the newspapers and the mandatory panel divisions that restricted his ability to produce better artwork and more creative storytelling, he lamented that without space for anything more than simple dialogue or sparse artwork, comics as an art form were becoming dilute, bland, and unoriginal.^[15][16]

Watterson longed for the artistic freedom allotted to classic strips such as Little Nemo and Krazy Kat, and in 1989 he gave a sample of what could be accomplished with such liberty in the opening pages of the Sunday strip compilation, The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book—a 8-page previously unpublished Calvin story fully illustrated in watercolour. The same book contained an afterword from the artist himself, reflecting on a time when comic strips were allocated a whole page of the newspaper and every comic was like a "colour poster".^[17]

Within two years, Watterson was ultimately successful in negotiating a deal that provided him more space and creative freedom. Following his 1991 sabbatical, Universal Press announced that Watterson had decided to sell his Sunday strip as an unbreakable half of a newspaper or tabloid page. Many editors and even a few cartoonists including Bil Keane (The Family Circus) and Bruce Beattie (Snafu) criticized him for what they perceived as arrogance and an unwillingness to abide by the normal practices of the cartoon business.^[18] Others, including Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Johnny Hart (BC, Wizard of Id) and Barbara Brandon (Where I'm Coming From) supported him. The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors even formally requested that Universal reconsider the changes.^[19] Watterson's own comments on the matter was that "editors will have to judge for themselves whether or not Calvin and Hobbes deserves the extra space. If they don't think the strip carries its own weight, they don't have to run it." Ultimately only 15 newspapers cancelled the strip in response to the layout changes.^[20]

Sabbaticals[edit]

Bill Watterson took two sabbaticals from the daily requirements of producing the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, the first took place from May 5, 1991, to February 1, 1992, and second from April 3 through December 31, 1994. These sabbaticals were included in the new contract Watterson managed to negotiate with Universal Features in 1990, the sabbaticals were proposed by the syndicate themselves who, fearing Watterson's complete burnout, endeavoured to get another five years of work from their star artist.^[4]

Watterson remains only the third cartoonist with sufficient popularity and stature to receive a sabbatical from their syndicate, the first being Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) in 1983 and Gary Larson (The Far Side) in 1989.^[20] Typically cartoonists are expected to produce sufficient strips to cover any period of time they may wish to take off. Watterson's lengthy sabbaticals received some mild criticism from his fellow cartoonists including Greg Evans (Luann), and even Charles Schulz (Peanuts), one of Watterson's major artistic influences, called it a "puzzle". Some cartoonists resented the idea that Watterson worked harder than others, whilst others supported it, at least one newspaper editor noted that the strip was the most popular in the country, and that he had "earned it".^[21] Following his second sabbatical, Watterson made the decision that he was going to retire from the comic strip entirely.

Merchandising[edit]

In spite of Calvin and Hobbes' popularity, the strip remains notable for the relative lack of official product merchandising. Bill Watterson held that comic strips should stand on their own as an art form and although he did not start out completely opposed to merchandising in all forms (or even for all comic strips), he did reject an early syndication deal that involved incorporating a more marketable, licensed character into his strip;^[9] in spite of being an unproven cartoonist, and having been flown all the way to New York to discuss the proposal, Watterson reflexively resented the idea of "cartooning by committee" and turned it down.

Later, when Calvin was accepted by Universal Syndicate, and began to grow in popularity, Watterson found himself at odds with the syndicate, which urged him to begin merchandising the characters and touring the country to promote the first collections of comic strips. Watterson refused. To him, the integrity of the strip and its artist would be undermined by commercialization, which he saw as a major negative influence in the world of cartoon art^[15] and he came to believe that licensing his character would only violate the spirit of his work.^{[citation needed]} He gave an example of this in discussing his opposition to a Hobbes plush toy: that if the essence of Hobbes' nature in the strip is that it remain unresolved whether he is a real tiger or a stuffed toy, then creating a real stuffed toy would only destroy the magic. However, having initially signed away control over merchandising in his initial contract with the syndicate^[4], Watterson would commence a lengthy and emotionally draining battle with Universal to gain control over his work. Ultimately Universal did not approve any products against Watterson's wishes, understanding that unlike other comic strips, it would be near impossible to separate the creator from the strip if Watterson chose to walk away.

One estimate places the value of licensing revenue forgone by Watterson at $300–$400 million.^[22] Almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes merchandise exists.^[23] Exceptions produced during the strip's original run include two 16-month calendars (1988–89 and 1989–90), a t-shirt for the Smithsonian Exhibit, Great American Comics: 100 Years of Cartoon Art (1990) and the textbook Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes,^[24] which has been described as "perhaps the most difficult piece of official Calvin and Hobbes memorabilia to find."^[25] In 2010, Watterson did allow his characters to be included in a series of United States Postal Service stamps honoring five classic American comics.^[26] Licensed prints of Calvin and Hobbes can also be purchased through Uclick, the digital division of Andrews McMeel Universal, and have also been included in various academic works.

The strip's immense popularity has led to the appearance of various counterfeit items such as window decals and T-shirts that often feature crude humor, binge drinking and other themes that are not found in Watterson's work.^[27] Images from one strip in which Calvin and Hobbes dance to loud music at night were commonly used for copyright violations,^[28] after threat of a lawsuit alleging infringement of copyright and trademark, some sticker makers replaced Calvin with a different boy, while other makers made no changes.^[29] Watterson wryly commented, "I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo,"^[30] but that they would be his "ticket to immortality".^[31]

Animation[edit]

Watterson has expressed admiration for animation as an artform; in a 1989 interview in The Comics Journal he described the appeal of being able to do things with a moving image that can't be done by a simple drawing: the distortion, the exaggeration and the control over the length of time an event is viewed.^{[citation needed]} However, although the visual possibilities of animation appealed Watterson, the idea of finding a voice for Calvin made him uncomfortable, as did the idea of working with a team of animators.^[15]. Ultimately, Calvin and Hobbes was never made into an animated series. Watterson later stated in The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book that he liked the fact that his strip was a "low-tech, one-man operation," and that he took great pride in the fact that he drew every line and wrote every word on his own.^[32] Calls from major Hollywood figures interested in an adaptation of his work, including Jim Henson, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were never returned^[4] and in a 2013 interview Watterson stated that he had "zero interest" in an animated adaptation as there was really no upside for him in doing so.^[31]

Style and influences[edit]

The strip borrows several elements and themes from three major influences: Walt Kelly's Pogo, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts.^[33] Schulz and Kelly particularly influenced Watterson's outlook on comics during his formative years.^[9]

Notable elements of Watterson's artistic style are his characters' diverse and often exaggerated expressions (particularly those of Calvin), elaborate and bizarre backgrounds for Calvin's flights of imagination, expressions of motion, and frequent visual jokes and metaphors; in the later years of the strip, with more panel space available for his use, Watterson experimented more freely with different panel layouts, art styles, stories without dialogue, and greater use of whitespace. He also makes a point of not showing certain things explicitly: the "Noodle Incident" and the children's book Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie are left to the reader's imagination, where Watterson was sure they would be "more outrageous" than he could portray.^[34]

Production and technique[edit]

Watterson's technique started with minimalist pencil sketches drawn with a light pencil (though the larger Sunday strips often required more elaborate work) on a piece of Bristol board, with his brand of choice being Strathmore because he felt it held the drawings better on the page as opposed to the cheaper brands (Watterson said he would use any cheap pad of Bristol board his local supply store had, but switched to Strathmore after he found himself growing more and more displeased with the results). He would then use a small sable brush and India ink to fill in the rest of the drawing, saying that he did not want to simply trace over his penciling and thus make the inking more spontaneous, he lettered dialogue with a Rapidograph fountain pen, and he used a crowquill pen for odds and ends.^[35] Mistakes were covered with various forms of correction fluid, including the type used on typewriters. Watterson was careful in his use of color, often spending a great deal of time in choosing the right colors to employ for the weekly Sunday strip; his technique was to cut the color tabs the syndicate sent him into individual squares, lay out the colors, and then paint a watercolor approximation of the strip on tracing paper over the Bristol board and then mark the strip accordingly before sending it on.^[36] When Calvin and Hobbes began there were 64 colors available for the Sunday strips, for the later Sunday strips Watterson had 125 colors as well as the ability to fade the colors into each other.^[35]

Main characters[edit]

Calvin[edit]

Calvin
First appearance	November 18, 1985
Created by	Bill Watterson
Comic	Calvin and Hobbes
Information
Age	6

Calvin, named after the 16th-century theologian John Calvin, is a six-year-old boy with blond, spiky hair and a distinctive red-and-black striped shirt, black pants, and sneakers,^[33] despite his poor grades in school, Calvin demonstrates his intelligence through a sophisticated vocabulary and philosophical mind. Watterson described Calvin as having "not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth", a "little too intelligent for his age", lacking in restraint and not yet having the experience to "know the things that you shouldn't do."^[37] The comic strip largely revolves around the Calvin's inner world, and his largely antagonistic experiences with those outside of it (fellow students, authority figures and his parents).

Hobbes[edit]

Hobbes
First appearance	November 18, 1985
Created by	Bill Watterson
Comic strip	Calvin and Hobbes
Information
Species	Tiger

From Calvin's point of view, Hobbes is an anthropomorphic tiger, much larger than Calvin and full of independent attitudes and ideas. When the perspective shifts to any other character, readers see merely a stuffed animal, usually seated at an off-kilter angle and blankly staring into space, the true nature of the character is never resolved, instead as Watterson describes, a 'grown-up' version of reality is juxtaposed against Calvin's, with the reader left to "decide which is truer".^{[citation needed]}

Hobbes is named after the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who held what Watterson describes as "a dim view of human nature."^[38] He typically exhibits a greater understanding of consequences than Calvin, although rarely intervenes in Calvin's activities beyond a few oblique warnings, the friendship between the two characters provides the core dynamic of the strip.

Calvin's parents[edit]

The Father and Mother
Calvin's unnamed parents, usually referred to only as "Mom" and "Dad"
First appearance	November 18, 1985 (Dad) November 26, 1985 (Mom)
Created by	Bill Watterson
Comic	Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin's unnamed mother and father are typical middle-class parents. Calvin's father is a patent attorney (like Watterson's own father)^[38] and his mother is a stay-at-home mom. Watterson says, "As far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." Like many other characters in the strip, they are relatively down to earth and their sensible attitudes serve as a foil for Calvin's outlandish behavior.

Watterson says some fans are angered by the sometimes sardonic way that Calvin's parents respond to him.^[39] Watterson defends what Calvin's parents do, remarking that in the case of parenting a kid like Calvin, "I think they do a better job than I would." Calvin's father is overly concerned with "character building" activities in a number of strips, either in the things he makes Calvin do or in the austere eccentricities of his own lifestyle.^[40]

Susie Derkins[edit]

Susie Derkins
Susie Derkins, Calvin's classmate
First appearance	December 5, 1985
Created by	Bill Watterson
Comic	Calvin and Hobbes

Susie Derkins, who first appeared early in the strip and is the only important character with both a first and last name, lives on Calvin's street and is one of his classmates. Her last name apparently derives from the pet beagle owned by Watterson's wife's family.^[41]

Susie is polite and studious, and she likes to play house or host tea parties with her stuffed animals. However, she is also depicted playing imaginary games with Calvin in which she is a high-powered lawyer or politician and he is her househusband. Though both of them hate to admit it, Calvin and Susie have quite a bit in common, for example, Susie is shown on occasion with a stuffed bunny rabbit named "Mr. Bun." Susie also has a mischievous (and sometimes aggressive) streak, which can be seen when she subverts Calvin's attempts to cheat on school tests by feeding him incorrect answers, or when she clobbers Calvin after he attacks her with snowballs. Susie also regularly bests Calvin in confrontations such as their water balloon and snowball fights, employing guile or force.

Hobbes often openly expresses romantic feelings for Susie, much to Calvin's disgust. Calvin starts a "club" (of which he and Hobbes are the only members) that he calls G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS), and while holding "meetings" in Calvin's treehouse or in the "box of secrecy" in Calvin's room, they usually come up with some way to annoy or discomfit Susie, most of which backfire on them completely. In one instance, Calvin steals one of Susie's dolls for ransom, only to have Susie retaliate by nabbing Hobbes. Watterson admits that Calvin and Susie have a nascent crush on each other, and that Susie is inspired by the type of woman whom Watterson himself found attractive and eventually married.^[38]

Secondary characters[edit]

Calvin also interacts with a handful of secondary characters. Several of these, including Rosalyn his babysitter, Mrs Wormwood his teacher and Moe the school bully reoccur regularly through the duration of the strip.

Recurring elements[edit]

Art and academia[edit]

Watterson used the strip to poke fun at the art world, principally through Calvin's unconventional creations of snowmen but also through other expressions of childhood art. When Miss Wormwood complains that he is wasting class time drawing impossible things (a Stegosaurus in a rocket ship, for example), Calvin proclaims himself "on the cutting edge of the avant-garde."^[42][43] He begins exploring the medium of snow when a warm day melts his snowman, his next sculpture "speaks to the horror of our own mortality, inviting the viewer to contemplate the evanescence of life." In later strips, Calvin's creative instincts diversify to include sidewalk drawings (or, as he terms them, examples of "suburban postmodernism").

Watterson also lampooned the academic world. In one example, Calvin carefully crafts an "artist's statement", claiming that such essays convey more messages than artworks themselves ever do (Hobbes blandly notes, "You misspelled Weltanschauung"),^[44] he indulges in what Watterson calls "pop psychobabble" to justify his destructive rampages and shift blame to his parents, citing "toxic codependency."^[45] In one instance, he pens a book report based on the theory that the purpose of academic writing is to "inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity," entitled The Dynamics of Interbeing and Monological Imperatives in Dick and Jane: A Study in Psychic Transrelational Gender Modes. Displaying his creation to Hobbes, he remarks, "Academia, here I come!" Watterson explains that he adapted this jargon (and similar examples from several other strips) from an actual book of art criticism.^[38]

Overall, Watterson's satirical essays serve to attack both sides, criticizing both the commercial mainstream and the artists who are supposed to be "outside" it, the strip for Sunday, June 21, 1992, criticized the naming of The Big Bang theory as not evocative of the wonders behind it, and coined the term "Horrendous Space Kablooie",^[46] an alternative that achieved some informal popularity among scientists and was often shortened to "the HSK."^[47] The term has also been referred to in newspapers,^[48][49] books,^[50] and university courses.^[51][52]

There are many recurring gags in the strip, some in "reality" and others in Calvin's imagination, these are as follows:

Calvin's roles and alter-egos[edit]

Calvin imagines himself as a great many things including dinosaurs, elephants, jungle-farers and superheroes. Three of his alter egos are well defined and recurrent:

• "Spaceman Spiff" is a heroic spacefarer who narrates his experiences in the third person. As Spiff, Calvin battles aliens (typically his parents or teacher, but also sometimes other kids his age) with a ray gun known as a "zorcher" (later "frap-ray blaster", "death ray blaster" or "atomic napalm neutralizer") and travels to distant planets (his house, school, or neighborhood), often crashing unhurt on a planet. Calvin's self-narration as Spaceman Spiff is frequently riddled with alliteration: "Zounds! Zorched by Zarches, Spaceman Spiff's crippled craft crashes on planet Plootarg!" Watterson has stated the idea of Spaceman Spiff was from an earlier drawing he made.
• "Tracer Bullet" is a hardboiled private eye, who says he has eight slugs in him ("One's lead, and the rest are bourbon."). In one story, Bullet is called to a case in which a "pushy dame" (Calvin's mother) accuses him of destroying an expensive lamp (broken during an indoor football game between Calvin and Hobbes). Later, he is snatched by the pushy dame's "hired goon" (Calvin's father having a talk with him), he made his debut when Calvin donned a fedora to hide a haircut Hobbes had given him. These strips are drawn in elaborate, shadowy black-and-white that evoke film noir. Watterson did not attempt Tracer Bullet stories often, due to the time-consuming way the strip needed to be drawn and inked.^[53]

• As "Stupendous Man" he pictures himself as a superhero in disguise, wearing a mask and a cape made by his mother, and narrating his own adventures. While in character as Stupendous Man, he refers to his alter ego as a mild-mannered millionaire playboy. Stupendous Man almost always "suffers defeat" at the hands of his opponent. When Hobbes asks if Stupendous Man has ever won any battles, Calvin says all his battles are "moral victories." Stupendous Man's nemeses include "Mom-Lady" (Calvin's mom), "Annoying Girl" (Susie Derkins), "Crab Teacher" (Miss Wormwood), and "Baby-Sitter Girl" (Rosalyn). Some of the "super powers" of the villains have been revealed: Mom-Lady has a "mind scrambling eyeball ray" that wills the victim to "do her nefarious bidding," and Baby Sitter Girl has a similar power of using a "psycho beam" which weakens "Stupendous Man's stupendous will", the "powers" of Annoying Girl and Crab Teacher are unknown. Calvin often tries to pretend he and "Stupendous Man" are two different people, but it never seems to work. Stupendous Man has multiple "superpowers", including, but not limited to, super strength, the ability to fly, various vision powers such as "high-speed vision", "muscles of magnitude", and a stomach of steel.

Cardboard boxes[edit]

Calvin duplicating himself using a cardboard box, as seen on the cover of Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"

Calvin has had several adventures involving corrugated cardboard boxes, which he adapts for many imaginative uses; in one strip, when Calvin shows off his Transmogrifier, a device that transforms its user into any desired creature or item, Hobbes remarks, "It's amazing what they do with corrugated cardboard these days."^[54] Calvin is able to change the function of the boxes by rewriting the label and flipping the box onto another side; in this way, a box can be used not only for its conventional purposes (a storage container for water balloons, for example), but also as a flying time machine, a duplicator or, with the attachment of a few wires and a colander, a "Cerebral Enhance-o-tron."

In the real world, Calvin's antics with his box have had varying effects. When he transmogrified into a tiger, he still appeared as a regular human child to his parents. However, in a story where he made several duplicates of himself, his parents are seen interacting with what does seem like multiple Calvins, including in a strip where two of him are seen in the same panel as his father, it is ultimately unknown what his parents do or do not see, as Calvin tries to hide most of his creations (or conceal their effects) so as not to traumatize them.

In addition, Calvin uses a cardboard box as a sidewalk kiosk to sell things. Often, Calvin offers merchandise no one would want, such as "suicide drink", "a swift kick in the butt" for one dollar,^[55] or a "frank appraisal of your looks" for fifty cents. In one strip, he sells "happiness" for ten cents: Calvin hit the customer in the face with a water balloon, explaining that he meant his own happiness; in another strip, he sold "insurance", firing a slingshot at those who refused to buy it. In some strips, he tried to sell "great ideas", and in one earlier strip, he attempted to sell the family car to obtain money for a grenade launcher; in yet another strip, he sells "life" for five cents, where the customer receives nothing in return, which, in Calvin's opinion, is life.

The box has also functioned as a secret meeting place for G.R.O.S.S., as the "Box of Secrecy".

Calvin and Hobbes playing Calvinball with an assortment of sporting equipment.

Calvinball[edit]

Calvinball is an improvisational game introduced in a 1990 storyline that involved Calvin's negative experience of joining the school baseball team. Calvinball is a nomic or self-modifying game, a contest of wits, skill and creativity rather than stamina or athletic skill, the game is portrayed as a rebellion against conventional team sports^[57] and became a staple of the final 5 years of the comic. The only consistent rules of the game are that Calvinball may never be played with the same rules twice^[58] and that each participant must wear a mask^[59].

When asked how to play, Watterson states: "It's pretty simple: you make up the rules as you go."^[60] In most appearances of the game, a comical array of conventional and non-conventional sporting equipment is involved, including a croquet set, a badminton set, assorted flags, bags, signs, a hobby horse, water buckets and balloons, with humorous allusions to unseen elements such as "time-fracture wickets". Scoring is portrayed as arbitrary and nonsensical ("Q to 12" and "oogy to boogy"^[61]) and the lack of fixed rules leads to lengthy argument between the participants as to who scored, where the boundaries are, and when the game is finished.^[62] The game has been described in one academic work not as a new game based on fragments of an older one, but as the "constant connecting and disconnecting of parts, the constant evasion of rules or guidelines based on collective creativity."^[63]

Snow sculptures[edit]

Calvin often creates horrendous/dark humor scenes with his snowmen, he uses the snowman for social commentary, revenge, or pure enjoyment. Examples include Snowman Calvin being yelled at by Snowman Dad to shovel the snow; one snowman eating snow cones scooped out of a second snowman, who is lying on the ground with an ice-cream scoop in his back; a "snowman house of horror"; and snowmen representing the people he hates. "The ones I really hate are small, so they'll melt faster," he says. There was even an occasion on which Calvin accidentally brought a snowman to life and it made itself and a small army into "deranged mutant killer monster snow goons."

Calvin's snow art is often used as a commentary on art in general, for example, Calvin has complained more than once about the lack of originality in other people's snow art and compared it with his own grotesque snow sculptures. In one of these instances, Calvin and Hobbes claim to be the sole guardians of high culture; in another, Hobbes admires Calvin's willingness to put artistic integrity above marketability, causing Calvin to reconsider and make an ordinary snowman.

Wagon and sled[edit]

Calvin and Hobbes frequently ride downhill in a wagon, sled, or toboggan, depending on the season, as a device to add some physical comedy to the strip and because, according to Watterson, "it's a lot more interesting ... than talking heads."^[64] While the ride is sometimes the focus of the strip,^[65] it also frequently serves as a counterpoint or visual metaphor while Calvin ponders the meaning of life, death, God, philosophy or a variety of other weighty subjects.^[64][66] Many of their rides end in spectacular crashes which leave them battered and broken, a fact which convinces Hobbes to sometimes hop off before a ride even begins;^[67] in the final strip, Calvin and Hobbes depart on their toboggan to go exploring.^[13] This theme is similar (perhaps even homage) to scenarios in Walt Kelly's Pogo.

G.R.O.S.S.[edit]

G.R.O.S.S., which stands for Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS ("otherwise it doesn't spell anything"), is a club which consists of only two members: Calvin and Hobbes. The club was founded in the garage of their house. To clear space for its activities, Calvin and (purportedly) Hobbes push Calvin's parents' car, causing it to roll into a ditch (but not suffer damage); the incident necessitates changing the club's location to Calvin's treehouse. They hold meetings to attempt to annoy Susie Derkins. Notable actions include planting a fake secret tape near her in attempt to draw her in to a trap, trapping her in a closet at their house, and creating elaborate water balloon traps. Calvin gave himself and Hobbes important positions in the club, Calvin being "Dictator-for-Life" and Hobbes being "President-and-First-Tiger", they go into Calvin's treehouse for their club meetings and often get into fights during them. The password to get into the treehouse is intentionally long and difficult, which has on at least one occasion ruined Calvin's plans, as Hobbes is able to climb the tree without the rope, he is usually the one who comes up with the password, which often involves heaping praise upon tigers. An example of this can be seen in the comic strip where Calvin, rushing to get into the treehouse to throw things at a passing Susie Derkins, insults Hobbes, who is in the treehouse and thus has to let down the rope. Hobbes forces Calvin to say the password for insulting him. By the time Susie arrives, in time to hear Calvin saying some of the password, causing him to stumble, Calvin is on "Verse Seven: Tigers are perfect!/The E-pit-o-me/of good looks and grace/and quiet..uh..um..dignity". The opportunity to pelt Susie with something having passed, Calvin threatens to turn Hobbes into a rug.^[68] G.R.O.S.S. is one of the most common adventures that Calvin has. The club anthem begins: "Ohhhh Gross, best club in the cosmos..."

Books[edit]

There are 18 Calvin and Hobbes books, published from 1987 to 1997, these include 11 collections, which form a complete archive of the newspaper strips, except for a single daily strip from November 28, 1985. (The collections do contain a strip for this date, but it is not the same strip that appeared in some newspapers. Treasuries usually combine the two preceding collections with bonus material and include color reprints of Sunday comics.)

Watterson included some new material in the treasuries; in The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, which includes cartoons from the collections Calvin and Hobbes and Something Under the Bed Is Drooling, the back cover features a scene of a giant Calvin rampaging through a town. The scene is based on Watterson's home town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Calvin is holding the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop, an iconic candy and ice cream shop overlooking the town's namesake falls.^[69] Several of the treasuries incorporate additional poetry; The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes book features a set of poems, ranging from just a few lines to an entire page, that cover topics such as Calvin's mother's "hindsight" and exploring the woods. In The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, Watterson presents a long poem explaining a night's battle against a monster from Calvin's perspective.

A complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes strips, in three hardcover volumes totaling 1440 pages, was released on October 4, 2005, by Andrews McMeel Publishing, it includes color prints of the art used on paperback covers, the treasuries' extra illustrated stories and poems, and a new introduction by Bill Watterson in which he talks about his inspirations and his story leading up to the publication of the strip. The alternate 1985 strip is still omitted, and two other strips (January 7, 1987, and November 25, 1988) have altered dialogue.^[70][71][72] A four-volume paperback version was released November 13, 2012.

To celebrate the release (which coincided with the strip's 20th anniversary and the tenth anniversary of its absence from newspapers), Bill Watterson answered 15 questions submitted by readers.^[30]

Early books were printed in smaller format in black and white, these were later reproduced in twos in color in the "Treasuries" (Essential, Authoritative, and Indispensable), except for the contents of Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons. Those Sunday strips were not reprinted in color until the Complete collection was finally published in 2005.

Watterson claims he named the books the "Essential, Authoritative, and Indispensable" because, as he says in The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, the books are "obviously none of these things."^[38]

Academic response[edit]

In 1993, paleontologist and paleoartist Gregory S. Paul praised Bill Watterson for the scientific accuracy of the dinosaurs appearing in Calvin and Hobbes.^[73]

In her 1994 book When Toys Come Alive, Lois Rostow Kuznets says that Hobbes serves both as a figure of Calvin's childish fantasy life and as an outlet for the expression of libidinous desires more associated with adults. Kuznets also looks at Calvin's other fantasies, suggesting that they are a second tier of fantasies utilized in places like school where transitional objects such as Hobbes would not be socially acceptable.^[74]

Political scientist James Q. Wilson, in a paean to Calvin and Hobbes upon Watterson's decision to end the strip in 1995, characterized it as "our only popular explication of the moral philosophy of Aristotle."^[75]

Alisa White Coleman analyzed the strip's underlying messages concerning ethics and values in "'Calvin and Hobbes': A Critique of Society's Values," published in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics in 2000.^[76]

A collection of original Sunday strips was exhibited at Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in 2001. Watterson himself selected the strips and provided his own commentary for the exhibition catalog, which was later published by Andrews McMeel as Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985–1995.^[36]

Since the discontinuation of Calvin and Hobbes, individual strips have been licensed for reprint in schoolbooks, including the Christian homeschooling book The Fallacy Detective in 2002,^[77] and the university-level philosophy reader Open Questions: Readings for Critical Thinking and Writing in 2005; in the latter, the ethical views of Watterson and his characters Calvin and Hobbes are discussed in relation to the views of professional philosophers.^[78] Since 2009, Twitter users have indicated that Calvin and Hobbes strips have appeared in textbooks for subjects in the sciences, social sciences, mathematics, philosophy, and foreign language.^[79]

In a 2009 evaluation of the entire body of Calvin and Hobbes strips using grounded theory methodology, Christijan D. Draper found that: "Overall, Calvin and Hobbes suggests that meaningful time use is a key attribute of a life well lived," and that "the strip suggests one way to assess the meaning associated with time use is through preemptive retrospection by which a person looks at current experiences through the lens of an anticipated future..."^[80]

Jamey Heit's Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes, a critical, academic analysis of the strip, was published in 2012.^[81]

Calvin and Hobbes strips were again exhibited at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University in 2014, in an exhibition entitled Exploring Calvin and Hobbes.^[82] An exhibition catalog by the same title, which also contained an interview with Watterson conducted by Jenny Robb, the curator of the museum, was published by Andrews McMeel in 2015.^[83][84]

Legacy[edit]

Years after its original newspaper run, Calvin and Hobbes has continued to exert influence in entertainment,^[3][86] art,^[87][88] and fandom.^[89][90]

In television, Calvin and Hobbes are depicted in stop motion animation in the 2006 Robot Chicken episode "Lust for Puppets," and in traditional animation in the 2009 Family Guy episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven."^[91] In the 2013 Community episode "Paranormal Parentage," the characters Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) and Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) dress as Calvin and Hobbes, respectively, for Halloween.

British artists, merchandisers, booksellers, and philosophers were interviewed for a 2009 BBC Radio 4 half-hour programme about the abiding popularity of the comic strip, narrated by Phill Jupitus.^[92]

The first book-length study of the strip,^[93] Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip by Nevin Martell, was first published in 2009; an expanded edition was published in 2010.^[94] The book chronicles Martell's quest to tell the story of Calvin and Hobbes and Watterson through research and interviews with people connected to the cartoonist and his work,^[95] the director of the later documentary Dear Mr. Watterson referenced Looking for Calvin and Hobbes in discussing the production of the movie,^[96] and Martell appears in the film.^[97]

The American documentary film Dear Mr. Watterson, released in 2013, explores the impact and legacy of Calvin and Hobbes through interviews with authors, curators, historians, and numerous professional cartoonists.^[98][99]

The enduring significance of Calvin and Hobbes to international cartooning was recognized by the jury of the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2014 by the awarding of its Grand Prix to Watterson, only the fourth American to ever receive the honor (after Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, and Art Spiegelman).^[100][101]

In 2016 and 2017, author Berkeley Breathed included Calvin and Hobbes in various Bloom County cartoons. He launched the first cartoon on April Fool's Day 2016 and jokingly issued a statement suggesting that he had acquired Calvin and Hobbes from Bill Watterson, who was "out of the Arizona facility, continent and looking forward to some well-earned financial security."^[102] While bearing Watterson's signature and drawing style, as well as featuring characters from both Calvin and Hobbes and Breathed's Bloom County, it is unclear whether Watterson had any input into these cartoons or not.

Grown-up Calvin[edit]

A number of artists and cartoonists have created works portraying Calvin as a teenager or an adult;^[103][104] the concept has also inspired writers.^[105][106]

In 2011, a comic strip appeared by cartoonists Dan and Tom Heyerman called Hobbes and Bacon,^[107] the strip depicts Calvin as an adult, married to Susie Derkins, with a young daughter named after philosopher Francis Bacon, to whom Calvin gives Hobbes.^[108] Though consisting of only four strips originally, Hobbes and Bacon received considerable attention when it appeared and was continued by other cartoonists and artists.^[109][110]

A novel entitled Calvin by CLA Young Adult Book Award–winning^[111] author Martine Leavitt was published in 2015.^[105] The story tells of seventeen-year-old Calvin—who was born on the day that Calvin and Hobbes ended, and who has now been diagnosed with schizophrenia—and his hallucination of Hobbes, his childhood stuffed tiger. With his friend Susie, who might also be a hallucination, Calvin sets off to find Bill Watterson, in the hope that the cartoonist can provide aid for Calvin's condition.^[112]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Watterson, Bill (1995). The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews and McMeel. ISBN 0-8362-0438-7.
• Watterson, Bill (2001). Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985–1995. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-2135-6.
• Watterson, Bill (2005). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-4847-5.
• Martell, Nevin (2010). Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip (Revised ed.). Continuum Books. ISBN 978-1-4411-0685-8.
• Heit, Jamey (2012). Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9031-8.
• Watterson, Bill (2015). Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4494-6036-5.
• Suellentrop, Chris (November 7, 2005). "Calvin and Hobbes: The last great newspaper comic strip". Slate. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012.
• Calvin and Hobbes at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Calvin and Hobbes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Calvin and Hobbes.

Listen to this article (3 parts) · (info)

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

This audio file was created from a revision of the article "Calvin and Hobbes" dated 2006-01-29, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Official website
• Fisher-Cox, Adam, ed. "The Calvin and Hobbes Album". AdamFisherCox.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
• "Radio show in which fans of the comic strip express their views about the ending of Calvin and Hobbes". (MP3). CBC Canada via TheHeartOfGold.org. 1995. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Missing or empty |series= (help)
• "Spiffy: 'The Complete Calvin and Hobbes'". Morning Edition (Real, Windows Media). November 18, 2005. NPR. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011.