Calvin and Hobbes

[roadgeek01]

Use this thread for the discussion of the newspaper comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. 

For those who do not know the strip, here is the wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes
And the GoComics link: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/



Anyway, since I have first read the strip, I fell in love.  I have read the strip multiple times  , and I have a few tee-shirts about Calvin and Hobbes.  I have a quote from the strip in my sig.  The strip always makes me laugh, something only a very good cartoonist can do. 

[xcellntbuy]

One of the best comic strips drawn and written.  Hilarious.

[1995hoo]

I'm prompted to remember my junior year of high school. Everybody read Calvin and Hobbes. You might recall there was a storyline where Calvin had to write a report for school and he wrote his about bats and decided to put it in a "professional clear plastic binder" because it would ensure him a good grade when Miss Wormwood saw how good it looked.

Well, I had a paper due in English class when that storyline was running, so I naturally couldn't resist using one of those covers. When we handed in our papers, I waited until the room was quiet and called out, "Mrs. Turley, I want to make sure you note I used a professional clear plastic binder." Everyone started laughing and she must have enjoyed the joke as well because she replied, "I hope your paper is better than Calvin's!" 

[kkt]

I'm prompted to remember my junior year of high school. Everybody read Calvin and Hobbes. You might recall there was a storyline where Calvin had to write a report for school and he wrote his about bats and decided to put it in a "professional clear plastic binder" because it would ensure him a good grade when Miss Wormwood saw how good it looked.

Well, I had a paper due in English class when that storyline was running, so I naturally couldn't resist using one of those covers. When we handed in our papers, I waited until the room was quiet and called out, "Mrs. Turley, I want to make sure you note I used a professional clear plastic binder." Everyone started laughing and she must have enjoyed the joke as well because she replied, "I hope your paper is better than Calvin's!" 

Mrs. Turley is cool 

[Big John]

[kurumi]

The kanji compound for "bat" (蝙蝠) contains "bug" (虫) -- twice. So maybe Calvin is right :-)

Road-related C+H:

[wxfree]

The kanji compound for "bat" (蝙蝠) contains "bug" (虫) -- twice. So maybe Calvin is right :-)

Road-related C+H:

The father seemed to have a penchant for making up absurd answers to Calvin's questions.  I remember he once explained that the reason the eyelids close when a person sneezes is so that the eyes don't pop out and stretch the optic nerves and you end up spending the rest of your life aiming your eyes with your hands.  When Calvin asked why old photographs weren't in color, he explained that they actually were color photographs, but the world years ago was black-and-white.  The world gradually transitioned to color, but the photos of the black-and-white world were already in color, so they weren't affected and still show black-and-white.

[1995hoo]

http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html

[kkt]

Calvin's great imagination comes from his father's side.

[hbelkins]

Loved Calvin & Hobbes. The cartoonist recently made a comeback, but can't remember which strip he was a guest artist for. Possibly "Pearls Before Swine," which I also love.

[exit322]

Loved Calvin & Hobbes. The cartoonist recently made a comeback, but can't remember which strip he was a guest artist for. Possibly "Pearls Before Swine," which I also love.

It was PBS.  I forget the exact dates, but Pastis' blog had entries about it.

XT1585

[1995hoo]

June 2014.

[empirestate]

My mandate also includes weird bugs.

[triplemultiplex]

"Oh G.R.O.S.s.! Best club in the cosmos..."

Yep, I'm a fan.
Watterson was not only skilled and inventive, not letting his stuff be merchandised was such a baller move.  Calvin & Hobbes hasn't been diluted by marketing or a lame attempt to cash in on 90's nostalgia.  It will live forever the way we remember.

[formulanone]

The father seemed to have a penchant for making up absurd answers to Calvin's questions.  I remember he once explained that the reason the eyelids close when a person sneezes is so that the eyes don't pop out and stretch the optic nerves and you end up spending the rest of your life aiming your eyes with your hands.  When Calvin asked why old photographs weren't in color, he explained that they actually were color photographs, but the world years ago was black-and-white.  The world gradually transitioned to color, but the photos of the black-and-white world were already in color, so they weren't affected and still show black-and-white.

I do this when joking around with my kids; when it's time to stretch their imagination, I just bluster my way through truth like Calvin's Dad.

One I've always cherished - It's the only strip I've ever cut right out of the newspaper:

[DTComposer]

IMO, newspaper comics had their last great peak in the late '80s, when Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side and Bloom County were all at their peak. There are some great comics today (I love PBS, but even it has become a little one-note with the puns and snark), but most of the talent that would have been on the comics page 20 years ago is online today.

[hbelkins]

One of the things I miss the most about a daily newspaper subscription (I had read a daily newspaper since I was very young, and had to let my subscription go a few years ago for financial reasons) is the comics. Fortunately, I've found that I can subscribe to most of the ones I've read by email, and the others I can read daily via website.

I like Mutts, Pearls Before Swine, BC, Beetle Bailey, Dilbert, The Wizard of Id, Blondie and Rex Morgan M.D., along with a few others. And Mallard Fillmore >>>>> Doonesbury (I love the former but detest the latter and do not read it at all.)

I was a big Far Side fan but never cared much for Bloom County. It's made a comeback online but meh.

[roadgeek01]

Here is another road related C+H:

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/04/14

[roadman]

Here is another road related C+H:

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/04/14

Of course, there was also the time Calvin pushed his parent's car out of the garage - so he could turn the garage into the G.R.O.S.S. clubroom - and it wound up in a ditch across the street.

Calvin:  Oh man, oh man. oh man.
Hobbes:  Yeah.  I didn't think you'd wreck your parent's car until you were seventeen.

[The Ghostbuster]

The major reason Bill Watterson ended his strip was because of all the pressure he received from people who wanted to "license" and "merchandize" his creation. Watterson only wanted Calvin and Hobbes to be a comic strip, nothing more. He spent years fighting to keep his strip from being licensed. In Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995, Watterson described his 10 years drawing the strip as "a wonderful experience, but an all-consuming career."

P.S. Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic strip of all-time, along with Garfield. I have all of the books.

[kphoger]

I have almost all of the Calvin & Hobbes books, plus a shoebox full of newspaper clippings.

P.S. Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic strip of all-time, along with Garfield. I have all of the books.

I have several Garfield books too.  IMHO, the strip was at its best for the first two books, then quickly diminished in quality.  I don't like how Garfield became more human–both in appearance and movement.

[hm insulators]

The major reason Bill Watterson ended his strip was because of all the pressure he received from people who wanted to "license" and "merchandize" his creation. Watterson only wanted Calvin and Hobbes to be a comic strip, nothing more. He spent years fighting to keep his strip from being licensed. In Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995, Watterson described his 10 years drawing the strip as "a wonderful experience, but an all-consuming career."

Exactly. Bill Watterson just basically got sick and tired of dealing with the syndicate.

"Calvin and Hobbes" is my favorite strip of all time.

[Desert Man]

Calvin and Hobbes fan here, I have all their comic strips books (from 1985 to the last on New Years eve 1995). Calvin and Hobbes is among the funniest and most humorous comic strips there is. And too bad it's no longer produced by Bill Watterson, in fact a movie "Dear Mr Watterson" about the creator was made by fans interested in his work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtmV7-f_j7Y

[csw]

I love Calvin and Hobbes! I've got all the books and reread them every so often. I always love the Spaceman Spiff and G.R.O.S.S. strips. I think I also cut out the Pearls Before Swine strips from the newspaper when they ran.

I love newspaper comics, I have a shelf full of books. FoxTrot, Pearls Before Swine, Calvin and Hobbes, Get Fuzzy, The Far Side, you name it. Probably at least 50 books.

[mgk920]

I love Calvin and Hobbes! I've got all the books and reread them every so often. I always love the Spaceman Spiff and G.R.O.S.S. strips. I think I also cut out the Pearls Before Swine strips from the newspaper when they ran.

I love newspaper comics, I have a shelf full of books. FoxTrot, Pearls Before Swine, Calvin and Hobbes, Get Fuzzy, The Far Side, you name it. Probably at least 50 books.

In some for or another, I have the complete run (to last Sunday) of Prince Valiant.

As for Calvin, one of his standout strips was one where he and Hobbs, dressed in 19th century western USA frontier outfits, angrily: "This town just isn't big enough fer the both of us!!!" "Yea, I recon we'll have to annex part o' the county!"



Mike