Far Side – Calvin & Hobbes – Bloom County

Bloom County is not competitive in this poll.

Mordy I will bet you five gummy bears it gets more than ten votes.

FIVE of them. Kosher bears.

Far Side has made me laugh out loud more than any other comic strip. I probably have more emotional attachment to C&H---this is cliche but they are impossible to compare!

voted Far Side because I think it will get short shrift but it was a HUGE part of my childhood.

C&H=G.O.A.T.

Bloom County

Calvin and Hobbes by a country mile. Hell, they'd win it for the "HELP I'M A BUG" strip alone.

I did love The Far Side, though.

Peanuts > all of these

Abbot, I will take that bet.

And I love gummy bears. So I will be anxiously awaiting them in the post.

Far Side just seems to tap into something that always make me giggle. like the one where the sheep looks up for a second and says "hey, we're eating GRASS!" (prob remembering that wrong)

and my all time fav is the "Horse Parliament" where it has this picture of all these horses looking at one with a sheepish grin on his face and it says: For the first time that anyone could remember, someone voted "yay."

I'm a cowboy howdy howdy howdy

C&H

cankles otm

this kind of has to be Calvin & Hobbes in a landslide, doesn't it?

c&h > far side >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>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county

I remember more bloom county strips than I do calvin & hobbes
the presidential campaigns and the bob woodward books and the lost at sea with cutter john saga! bloom county made for a great bizarro version of the decade, I have no idea why people would hate on it

Peanuts never sucked, but they didn't compare to the three here listed near the end of the 90s. I think it's a good poll, and possibly a great personality test. And wrt C&H, Peanuts kinda made C&H possible. Waterson would admit this.

I thought The Far Side would be close, but I found an old Far Side collection in my bookshelf recently, read it, and while a third of them were howlers, the others weren't nearly as funny as I once thought they were.

Bloom County/Outland.. I loved it at a specific time and place more than anything.. they made the late Reagan years/GWB I years tolerable, but Bloom County itself had a tolerance cap.

Winner is Calvin & Hobbes just by process of elimination.. however, even if the other two were measures higher, I still think Calvin & Hobbes would win. It's ageless and amazing.

C&H easy

Any time anyone ever uses the expression "(x) off a duck's back" I think of the Far Side cartoon with researchers in a lab pouring a list of substances over a duck. They have crossed off "milk" and "orange juice" and next on the list is "acid".

I mean Bloom Cty is pretty great in its way but it never gets beyond its essential Pogo+Doonesbury mashup factor. C&H is very singular. Far Side is good but the actual cartooning is nothing special.

Had Dilbert died in the late 90s, it could have been a contender. Dilbert's quality level dropped just as badly as the dot com bust at the same time.

but still, Zimbu!

i dont remember the boston globe ever carrying bloom county, i never read it at least if they did

calvin & hobbes beats the far side for me, though i love them both

Peanuts is better than pretty much everything so I don't see what the point is in bringing Schulz up really.

I like all three of these but I (arbitrarily, I admit) put FS in a separate category: one panel comics.

I would never have included Dilbert.

M. White, what else is in one-panel besides that, Family Circus & Denace the Menace?

Or DENNIS for that matter?

Dilbert rightfully excluded

um there are lots of one panel strips - Marmaduke, the Yellow Kid, etc.

i love bloom county but it's kinda of its time and doesn't play as well as it once did, though it's still hilarious. far side is really good. calvin and hobbes basically ruined comic strips for me, though, because everything in its wake looks like shit.

There is only one really excellent option here.

I wouldn't count Yellow Kid bcz I don't think they'd really 'invented' panels yet? I mean there is a million things going on in that shit and it was half a page big.

What was that one with the kid who didn't talk and his face kind of looked like some butt cheeks? I am mad at myself for not remembering this.

I am sure I am in the minority here, but I think 'Rose is Rose' is a decent heir to Watterson's hole, at least in terms of visual playfulness.

Looking at the state of newspaper comics over the last 20 years C&H becomes even more incredible. Watterson was on a completely different level.

well, early Dilbert is kinda slept on, which was my point. It wasn't syndicated nearly enough as it was when it started to suck.

Far Side = What if Gahan Wilson couldn't draw.

Bloom County = What if Garry Trudeau wanted to make a shitload of money on plush dolls

> What was that one with the kid who didn't talk and his face kind of looked like some butt cheeks? I am mad at myself for not remembering this.

Henry

The only comic I think that comes close to the sheer beauty of Watterson's work is Mutts. Far Side was very clever but the art was also very rudimentary and Brethed's work was excellent but never as wistful.

thx

I was looking up Harvey and like, "NO not the freaking Casper publishing company!"

I remember Henry best bcz of a Mad magazine thing about "if all the comics characters aged like in Gasoline Alley." Henry looked the same, and he revealed he'd been an old man the whole time.

I always hated Mutts. It has all the aesthetics of a classic daily cartoon without being classic whatsoever.

> I am sure I am in the minority here, but I think 'Rose is Rose' is a decent heir to Watterson's hole, at least in terms of visual playfulness.

It is a nicely drawn strip, but it's also kind of like being smothered to death with a scented candle.

remember when watterson decided his sunday strips would take up half a page, and nobody could fukkin stop him? WHAT A PIMP.

i love far side but i sorta wonder if it deserves blame for the likes of xkcd

I like Mutts but then I'm a sucker for pet humor.

I admit half of what I like about Rose is Rose is Jimbo's wish that Rose was a fattey:

http://www.nightswimming.com/rose/jimbo/dream056.jpg

I totally agree with M. White here - Mutts is the last great newspaper strip. Its pretty clear the medium is dead these days, and will not be coming back.

The highlight of my funny pages reading these days is Keith Knight's new thing.

I also enjoy Edge City and My Cage.

I think part of why I dislike Mutts is that it became syndicated in L.A. right around the time I discovered Ren & Stimpy. Obviously, you can't compare animated cartoons vs. daily non-animated cartoons, but Ren & Stimpy kinda changed things for me, so Mutts just laid there in its own twee lifeless world on the sidelines. Matter of perspective and time.

As far as the creative process and the charity on McDonnell's part, that's great! I would make a meal for Patrick McDonnell.

Wow I had never heard of Keith Knight before but this guy is pretty great!

Mutts always seemed to be aiming for Krazy Kat and landing in Garfield.

McDonnel's first panels in Sunday strips alone merit artistic mention; there's as much experimentation and variety as an artist I can think of.

Mutts always seemed to be aiming for Krazy Kat and landing in Garfield.

This is a PERFECT summary of that damned strip.

Keith Knight's got two seperate weeklies, as well. PROLIFIC!

I love love love Far Side, but C&H wins on the strength of Dad explaining to Calvin how the weight limit on bridges is determined ALONE.

The only daily that consistently makes me laugh these days is "Get Fuzzy." And sometimes, sadly, "Pearls Before Swine."

Surprisingly, they sell a lot of women's slumber-party type pajamas at Wal-Mart featuring Mutts characters.

calvin and hobbes is the barry sanders of comic strips~

McDonnel's first panels in Sunday strips alone merit artistic mention; there's as much experimentation and variety as an artist I can think of.

^^^yes. the key thing is that McDonnell is just a better, more deliberate, more artful, more concise cartoonist. He is great with a brush. I am always struck by the unbelievable shittiness of most daily cartoons - cartoons by people who are clearly severely limited in their grasp of the medium. The Dilbert guy, for example.

Not a comic artist but highly indebted to them and someone whose vision of SF I greatly admire.

http://www.paulmadonna.com/aoc/

For recent comics, I've been digging Pastis' Pearls Before Swine.

xpost to Shakey.. well see, that's the argument everyone makes.

It's like arguing that Kula Shaker or Fleet Foxes or whatever are an amazing band because they just know the TRUE ART and CLASSIC APPROACH to the medium, man!

Sanders shocked the world by announcing his retirement after the 1998 season. He had only played ten NFL seasons and was seemingly in his prime. He would have easily broken Walter Payton's all-time rushing record, possibly even the following year. Sanders finally announced a few years later that the Lions' inability to consistently win and propensity to lose was his reason for retiring. Sanders finished his career with 15,269 rushing yards, 99 rushing touchdowns, 2,921 receiving yards, and 10 receiving touchdowns. He was a Pro Bowler each of his ten years in the league, two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year, and was named Co-NFL MVP in 1997. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

xp - which is too bad, because I figure McDonnell kinda laughs at all the arguments in his favor and just does his thing and is content.

owned

that is a great comparison omar ;_;

Pearls before swine is fun, Mordy.

A comic artist whose vision of SF I greatly admire and who was really nice guy, too.

http://www.farleycomicstrip.com/

It's odd, tho. Because outside Pearls Before Swine, sometimes Get Fuzzy, and I guess Doonesbury, all the daily comics I read are webcomics.

i know ;_;

xxp

Not me. I read them all after I finish the crossword.

I think there are pretty clear orders of magnitude of difference between someone like the Dilbert guy - who can clearly barely draw, but gets by on subject matter and ability to craft reliable three-panel-gag structures - and someone like McDonnell who has a grasp of the history of the medium draws on a wide variety of techniques, who is able to play with its structures and conventional forms in novel and entertaining ways, who understands things like tone and composition and the how to best use minimalism... I could go on and on.

Mostly what people complain about with Mutts is that its too "cutesy" and not "funny". I do not care about these people.

Same people complain that Peanuts is not "funny" (I'm lookin at YOU cankles)

I think I dislike Mutts for being narratively predictable (even as the art is often interesting). But I don't hate it. I mean, McDonnell is not Keane. And that gets him points in my book.

SHakey, that's total fucking bullshit.

Peanuts pwns.
Mutts suxx0r

Pearls Before Swine artwork is some godawful ugly shit I dunno what's wrong with you people

Schulz loved McDonnell fwiw

that said, Mutts >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the other 95% of comics, which isn't saying too much.

PBS is eccentrically ugly.

Schulz probably hated coconut too. I love coconut, and peanuts. who cares?

i'm farting on U, shakey

lol

stay classy cankles

Pastis is pretty bad, like Adams bad, but the joke writing gets it over into the acceptable pile (despite my harsh words earlier in the thread, I do like Far Side and Bloom County, mostly.)

If you like "Mutts", I've got a handful of picture books to sell ya.

Mutts is too indie electro

I really like Pastis' writing.

If you like "Mutts", I've got a handful of picture books to sell ya.

I already got a copy of "Hug Time" for my daughter thx tho

TS - Krazy Kat vs. Peanuts vs. Pogo vs. etc. what is the greatest newspaper strip of all time

Old thread where some of this already got hashed out a bit.

on an almost entirely different subject: re-reading my Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics it is hard not to be struck by the preponderance of racist stereotypes running through the history of comics - it seems almost entirely absent now, but man in the first half of the 20th century it seemed like every single strip had some completely egregious "lolz those negros/chinamen/injuns/whatever" in them on a regular basis.

anyway carry on

Neither "Far Side" nor "Calvin & Hobbes" had Hodgepodge, Lola Granola, and the best couplet ever to use "Caspar Weinberger" as a rhyme, so "BC" wins.

Ha ha, Alfred, it's weird that that final panel is one of the salient things in my entire collection of BC that I always remember.

It's perfect comic timing, really:

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/E603/web04/Jason/Portfolio/image018.jpg

I liked Bizarro better than Far Side.

That said, I can still bring myself to tears by remembering the Dennis the Menace/Far Side "I see your tiny skull sitting on a shelf somewhere" caption switcharoo.

silent panel #3 = Breathed cops Trudeau's moves #10,345

silent panel #3 = Breathed cops Trudeau's moves #10,345

^^^OTM

jokes about cabinet members = Trudeau cop #10,344

that being said it is still a funny strip

if it ain't broke don't fix it etc

Shakey, admit it: you suffer from penguin lust.

Yeah, most of being good is knowing what to steal and from whom.

xp

bloom county = ghastly unfunny nerd fodder on a par w/ red dwarf, terry pratchett etc

cul de sac by richard thompson (not the etc) is the best new american newspaper strip since calvin & hobbes

http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac

So that's a comic strip about an autistic child, then?

more terrible artwork and atrocious lettering = do not want

Oh, wait, that's just today's, the others are about less charming topics

"Bloom County is not competitive in this poll."

WHA?!?!

loved BC as a kid and can still quote it chapter and verse but haven't reread those books in like 10 years, just because i'm afraid they'd suck and it would break my heart.

i don't quite get all the praise for mutts but mcdonnell wrote a great book on george herriman and krazy kat so i can't hold too much against him.

I'm voting C&H despite the BC insult.

In Far Side's defense, neither Calvin & Hobbes nor Bloom County ever made a "Cow Tools"

and PLEASE FOR LUV OF TEH GODD don't use "BC" for Bloom County, just the approximation to B.C. alone is an insult.

I love love love Far Side, but C&H wins on the strength of Dad explaining to Calvin how the weight limit on bridges is determined ALONE.

yeah, calvin's dad is quite possibly one of my 5 favorite characters in all of comics. not least because he appears to function as a brilliant (half-conscious?) send-up of the notoriously cranky, anti-technology, anti-commercialism etc etc watterson. my favorite, though, was his explanation of how "solar wind" made the sun move.

Sanders finally announced a few years later that the Lions' inability to consistently win and propensity to lose was his reason for retiring.

Their propensity for loss is my one constant in this crazy and tumultuous world.

C&H is the greatest.

was never seriously into bloom county. far side is classic, and i think larson's artwork suits his jokes fine, but c&h is like the perfect combo of great jokes and beautiful, kinetic artwork

my favorite, though, was his explanation of how "solar wind" made the sun move.

can we collect all these nuggest of wisdom somehow? I also recall the one about the world being black and white pre-1940s and how the sun shrinks to the size of a quarter when it sets.

What was notable about Calvin and Hobbes was how quickly it achieved universality -- I swear that everyone in high school got into it and started talking about it at right around the same time. No other strip in my experience before or since had that impact.

oh someone already did it

Calvin: Why does the sun set?
Dad: It’s because hot air rises. The sun’s hot in the middle of the day, so it rises high in the sky. In the evening then, it cools down and sets.
Calvin: Why does it go from east to west?
Dad: Solar wind.

Calvin: Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets?
Dad: That’s all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire.
Calvin: Where does the sun go when it sets?
Dad: The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near Flagstaff. That’s why the rocks there are so red.
Calvin: Don’t the people get burned up?
Dad: No, the sun goes out as it sets. That’s why it’s dark at night.
Calvin: Doesn’t the sun crush the whole state as it lands?
Dad: Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun’s just about the same size.
Calvin: I thought I read that the sun was really big.
Dad: You can’t believe everything you read, I’m afraid.

Calvin: How come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?
Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It’s just that the world was black and white then. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
Calvin: But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
Dad: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
Calvin: But… But how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?
Dad Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the ’30s.
Calvin"Calvin
Why does the sun set?
Dad
It’s because hot air rises. The sun’s hot in the middle of the day, so it rises high in the sky. In the evening then, it cools down and sets.
Calvin
Why does it go from east to west?
Dad
Solar wind.

Calvin
Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets?
Dad
That’s all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire.
Calvin
Where does the sun go when it sets?
Dad
The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near Flagstaff. That’s why the rocks there are so red.
Calvin
Don’t the people get burned up?
Dad
No, the sun goes out as it sets. That’s why it’s dark at night.
Calvin
Doesn’t the sun crush the whole state as it lands?
Dad
Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun’s just about the same size.
Calvin
I thought I read that the sun was really big.
Dad
You can’t believe everything you read, I’m afraid.

Calvin
How come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?
Dad
Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It’s just that the world was black and white then. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
Calvin
But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
Dad
Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
Calvin: But… But how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?
Dad: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the ’30s.
Calvin: So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?
Dad: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

Calvin: Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don’t understand why time goes slower at great speed.
Dad: It’s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain more time, because it doesn’t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you’re going west.

Calvin: Why do my eyes shut when I sneeze?
Dad: If your lids weren’t closed, the force of the explosion would blow your eyeballs out and stretch the optic nerve, so your eyes would flop around and you’d have to point them with your hands to see anything.

Calvin: How do bank machines work?
Dad: Well, let’s say you want 25 dollars. You punch in the amount and behind the machine there’s a guy with a printing press who makes the money and sticks it out this slot.
Calvin: Sort of like the guy who lives up in our garage and opens the door?
Dad: Exactly.

Calvin: What causes the wind?
Dad: Trees sneezing.

Calvin: Why does ice float?
Dad: Because it’s cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes to the top of liquids to be nearer to the sun.
Calvin: Is that true?
Dad: Look it up and find out.
Calvin: I should just look up stuff in the first place.

Calvin: How come you know so much?
Dad: It’s all in the book you get when you become a father.

um I seem to have fucked something up there - sorry

I have both the Far Side and C&H collection box things, but if I had to choose:
Far Side = consistently brilliant (and about science! yay!)
C & H = often brilliant, but sometimes corny kid-loves-his-mom-awww in a "Simpsons was great today but the end sucked" kinda way

loved BC as a kid and can still quote it chapter and verse but haven't reread those books in like 10 years, just because i'm afraid they'd suck and it would break my heart.

i don't quite get all the praise for mutts but mcdonnell wrote a great book on george herriman and krazy kat so i can't hold too much against him.

― J.D., Thursday, December 18, 2008 3:07 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i read this as b.c. too

btw 60s pre-fundie b.c. >>>>> far side

Those Calvin/Dad convos are cracking me up.

Don't forget this gem:
http://www.freewebs.com/calvin-hobbes-org/dadandcalvinsrecordplayer.jpg

if i sat down with a collection of each right now, i'd probably go C&H... but man, Bloom County was like my favorite thing ever ages 10-13.

This is where I admit I have never read C&H due to the local newspaper not carrying it when the strip was actually running.

due to the local newspaper not carrying it when the strip was actually running.

WAHT!

seriously lolsing my shit at that c&h strip

Nicole: my personal opinion, which I do not expect anyone else to share, is that you were not missing a whole lot

wtf nabisco

calvin & hob-sb'd

I got into C&H because my fifth grade teacher liked it. That man, Mr. Johnson, was my Personal Ultra Hero and is to this day.

nabisco what did you vote for?

Calvin was the Tony Soprano of the comics world.

Nabisco voted for the Cosby Show

Nicole: my personal opinion, which I do not expect anyone else to share, is that you were not missing a whole lot

Chal-hobbes.

nabisco always struck me as a Hi & Lois kinda guy

lol, but I think I see Nabisco's point, maybe.

Did Calvin & Hobbes connect more with guys than girls? As a guy, I can't answer for the girls.

Are we about to have a Suzie/objectification debate?

Haha this is not like a Master & Commander thing where I'll argue for it, I just never really liked Calvin and Hobbes. Especially Calvin. Such a little prick.

I voted for Far Side, mostly due to the Cosby Show not being an option.

lol Watterson said Suzie was based on the kind of girl he was attracted to.

nabisco is off the money

Yeah, Calvin's always pissing on things, like La Migra, and then worshipping the cross.

(i kid, nabsico)

xpost - Actually Mackro I've never thought about why I didn't get into C&H, but I don't think it's weird to wonder if the level and dynamic of someone's personal identification with Calvin might be a factor. E.g. I'm sorta not kidding when I call him a little shit, cause I remember him reminding me of most of the kids in my life I disliked. Then as I got older it just seemed like it pretended to be smart and airy and dreamy but wasn't any of those things, not really.

I feel bad saying that about a strip that had lots of grammar-and-usage jokes, which I commend.

I mean it was better than most strips and as a kid I rarely skipped it, but I didn't, like, connect with it very much. There was even a brief period when I preferred Sally Forth.

i just suggest banned u and i'll see u in hell nabisco

nabisco also hates hugs and rainbows and sunny days.

i felt the same re: dennis the menace when i was a kid, but calvin had LAYERS man!!!!!!!!

"nabisco otm" meme is now dead 2 me

xpost - Oh yeah, then he'd get all sensitive as if he hadn't been a total prick all week up until then, like I'm supposed to sympathize with him now

Hahaha what, dudes, I have to like everything?

Calvin IS a shit. That's why he and Hobbes or he and his mom or his Dad (who often gives as well as he gets) or he and Miss Wormwood or Susie are so funny. Makes you wonder whether Joe wasn't on to something.

Whish is also to say that he's an omphaloskeptic narcissist, like most children.

there's a great intro to one of the C&H books where the writer (a fellow cartoonist, I think? can't recall) notes how Calvin is a great character because he is all things to all people and then runs down how he appeals to little kids, to grandparents, to moms, to dads, to college students, etc.

nabisco so wrong I dunno what to say

Not to get all lit-crit about it, but isn't the whole point of the strip that Calvin is a young dude struggling with conflicting impulses?

This is the year's best can of worms!

It's not a can of worms, it's a dude who didn't care for an old comic strip

No, it's a dude who didn't care for the comic strip.

Maybe if Calvin had run around pre-emptively salting stuff, I dunno...

CAN OPENED, NABISCO

NOT EVEN HOPE IN THE BOTTOM

just grits, which are easily confused with canned worms

I am perplexed as to why nabisco thinks characters in works of fiction need to be likeable in order to be interesting/compelling/great/worth paying attention to

I'm with nabisco: if Calvin had traded jokes with Dr. Huxtable, I'd have read it more often.

cuz this is what he said about Tony Soprano too lolz Alex OTM upthread

This is like having a friend that doesn't like The Godfather.

There would be weird days where Calvin was anxious while Dr. Huxtable was in the washing machine.

I just called my parents and asked them, without any leading, "what is the greatest comic strip ever?" They both said Calvin & Hobbes with no hesitation. I imagine that's the case for a lot of people.

I am perplexed as to why Shakey chooses not to read properly

Aw, poor Nabisco. He has an unpopular opinion, and look what you do. ;_;

My dad's answer would be "Tank McNamera".

you cited your immediate personal dislike of Calvin (and Tony Soprano) as a key reason you did not "get into" them. where am I misreading you.

xpost - Though to be honest I was about to post that my feelings about Calvin are kinda similar to Tony.

If Calvin had been 100% evil-menace I think I could have found that likable and amusing, but then we'd have to spend all this "introspective" time with him, and something about that time seemed to me to suggest that I wasn't supposed to find him an intolerable snotty little asshole the rest of the time (which, as a child, I didn't find cute in the least, not just because he was a child -- I was a child!), and I can recall something in that gap bothering the hell out of me and hardening me against the strip

xpost - you are misreading me with that post that begins "you cited"

My folks would say "Peanuts", which is basically the same thing.

ok, not same thing, but same analogy, fiap

http://www.transvidium.com/shop/IRAN.jpg

i never got this strip

something about that time seemed to me to suggest that I wasn't supposed to find him an intolerable snotty little asshole the rest of the time

once again, yr problem with the source stems from conflicted feelings about identifying with the main character. Does identifying, even on a superficial level, with people that are evidently evil/assholes make you unduly uncomfortable or something? Isn't this what good art does?

I mean isn't a sign of a good work of art that it raises and provokes uncomfortable questions and sparks self-examination?

To be fair, Shaeky, nabisco was a kid.

yeah but he's saying these things NOW!

uh yeah but he's explaining what his rationale was WHEN HE WAS A KID

It's a residual prejudice. I can understand. More's the pity for him, but hey, whatever.

I mean, C&H is like scripture to me so, yes, I am inclined to burn him at the stake, but that wouldn't be terribly comic, would it?

I never got that Calvin was evil. Not even in the faux-menace mannerisms of a Dennis the Menace. His misbehavior always seemed quintessentially young boy (breaking windows by accident, being mean to Suzy) and I think some of the most charming moments are when he non-evilness is explored. Ie: Breaking his fathers binoculars, pushing the car into a ditch, hitting Suzy with a snowball and then getting slammed back by her a moment later.

I related because I also had a very rich imaginative life when I was growing up (often in the middle of class), I felt ostracized from other students, from the teacher, etc. And on top of this, Calvin is incredibly precocious, which meant that as I grew up with the strip, I could transition from relating to his own dynamic as a child to appreciating the nuances and the more adult humor.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_9mmcLneVLUc/Ri-D_7L7ELI/AAAAAAAAADU/vpmR5XMcII8/s1600-h/BBMAIN.jpghttp://cards.littleoak.com.au/196970_nabisco_footballers/nabisco.gif

ah fuck

http://www.mobileimage.com/images/CalvinPiss.jpghttp://cards.littleoak.com.au/196970_nabisco_footballers/nabisco.gif

I know this thread isn't the "what's the best comic strip thread", but I want to give a shout out to "Nancy".

Do the Russians love their Calvin too? ;_;

No I'm not, you're just being illiterate

once again, yr problem with the source stems from conflicted feelings about identifying with the main character

No, the problem I have and am pointing to has to do with the mechanics of the strip and how it leads the reader through itself emotionally. The mechanics of a narrative are affected by the way the narrative asks you to relate to the characters -- the difference between a tragedy and a comedy can reside entirely in who you want to triumph. This isn't a matter of thinking you have to like characters, it's a matter of judging a piece partly on how well or coherently it places you in regard to the characters and manages your expectation of them. For instance, that record-rotation strip up above works much better if you are relating to Calvin in a certain way -- if other parts of the strip have led you to see Calvin as a different kind of character, that last panel has a completely different emotional impact.

This is one of various reasons I'm saying I've never particularly cared for the strip. (Note that I haven't said anything about whether I think it's "good," or whether fictional characters have to be likable for the art to be worthwhile -- I have talked about why I never liked reading a particular strip.) I have also said that as I got older my main issue with it was that it seemed to think it was being brainy / airy / dreamy despite not actually doing any of those things to my satisfaction.

Seriously, I don't really care if I'm the only person who doesn't enjoy the strip, but for Christ's sake, don't go on some weird offensive of deliberately misreading and mis-paraphrasing my reasons

you seem to be under the impression that the strip thinks itself to be a bad prog/ambient album

It seemed to think that on Sundays!

When I took Existentialism in lol college the instructor handed out C&H strips frequently and then spent like 15-20 min analyzing their existential content.

dunno why ppl are acting so flat-out ASTONISHED that nabisco doesn't truly dig watterson - it's far from obvious or certain that calvin and hobbes - or peanuts - is the 'best' newspaper strip of all time - there are many many contenders - especially if the adventure strips are taken in to account, too (it's hard to imagine a more formally perfect - marriage of words/pictures yadda yadda - than caniff's peak years on terry and the pirates) - i mean, krazy kat, thimble theatre, barnaby by crockett johnson (the most obvious precursor to calvin & hobbes), pogo, polly and her pals, gasoline alley are all as fine in their own sweet way (and big props to ethan for recognising the modernist brilliance of johnny hart's early work - at the time, as fresh and different as peanuts was)

i'm sorry people were so dismissive of the richard thompson strip, which i think is funny and humane and wonderfully drawn (and yes, lettered) and which i am certain will only grow in popularity over the next few years (i was alerted to it by tom spurgeon's excellent comics reporter site)

P.S. omg I can't believe you just made me post multiple argumentative paragraphs about Calvin and Hobbes on the internet

easy explanation: nabisco is an intellectulol.

i thinks it's weird cause c&h is mad emo and nabisco loves mad emo.

ward is right, but almost all of those strips are from the first half of the 20th century, so they almost feel like they're in a different genre/profession/whatever than the comics page that produced C&H; watterson stands out so much because he was better than anyone in the last 40 years of american comic strips (except schulz).

Note that I haven't said anything about whether I think it's "good," or whether fictional characters have to be likable for the art to be worthwhile

whatever nabs - I have hard time believing that someone can simultaneously think a work of art is "good" while personally disliking it. that's some bullshit. and I was merely pointing out a common thread in your criticism of two well-regarded works, that's all. the crux of your argument still hinges on the likeability of the characters and how the works try to get the audience to identify with them.

specially if the adventure strips are taken in to account, too (it's hard to imagine a more formally perfect - marriage of words/pictures yadda yadda - than caniff's peak years on terry and the pirates) - i mean, krazy kat, thimble theatre, barnaby by crockett johnson (the most obvious precursor to calvin & hobbes), pogo, polly and her pals, gasoline alley are all as fine in their own sweet way

all of this stuff predates the average ILX poster's newspaper strip reading by several generations and most of it began in the first half of the 20th century so cut folks some slack for not being familiar with it.

but yeah OMG has anyone seen the recent mega-oversized reprint of Gasoline Alley - fucking nuuuuuts

but yeah OMG has anyone seen the recent mega-oversized reprint of Gasoline Alley - fucking nuuuuuts

Those are so nice!

I saw it next to a copy of the recent Little Nemo reprint (which is like $300 or something) and felt poor.

the crux of your argument still hinges on the likeability of the characters and how the works try to get the audience to identify with them

I don't understand how "handling of primary characters" is an invalid thing to consider when deciding whether you like something. There are loads of things I like that include unlikable characters, they just happen to handle unlikable characters in a way that works for me. But if you handle a character in a way that doesn't match how that character presents to a reader/viewer, then the piece isn't going to work for that reader/viewer -- this is true of just about everyone! Treat a dumb character as if they're brilliant, a sweetheart character as if they're a jerk, etc., and these things are all pretty valid for people to think of as issues.

I partly find this argument funny because I'm currently reading and enjoying The Ginger Man, whose main character punches his wife in the first 50 pages, and it's sitting in a bedside pile somewhere near some Louis-Ferdinand Celine (although his narrators are the kind of morally unlikable that's still "likable" to spend time listening to)

Haha the other funniness here being that we're talking about comic strips, a format in which half of the job lies in creating charming characters, and it's not like I have intense moral objections to Calvin, I just find him un-charming; I don't think I've ever seen anyone who liked a syndicated comic strip without finding the main character charming! It's kind of a major deal

I still think that Calvin should get a pass because he's a little kid. Little kids are notoriously ambivalent morally and since you first encountered him when you were trying to work through that, it's soured you. That's no crime but I think you're trying to rationalize something which isn't really rational when you say of Watterson: "...if you handle a character in a way that doesn't match how that character presents to a reader/viewer, then the piece isn't going to work for that reader/viewer..." I certainly never felt it didn't work.

Li'l Lulu is a totally loathsome bitch, to name just one example, and that strip is fantastic.

See, I can totally understand nabs not liking it as a kid, because wtf, kids think all kinds of weird stuff when they're kids ... I for one thought TMNT was the greatest work of art known to man when I was 10, for example. But C&H has only become more meaningful for me as I've gotten older, and it's strange that you haven't reappraised it.

Not charming? Imagining dinosaurs and missiles destroying his school, having philosophical conversations with a stuffed tiger while hurtling through the air in a wagon, building grotesque snowmen, pushing the limits with his babysitter, and the list goes on and on.

guys nabisco doesn't like calvin, calvin doesn't work for him, etc. etc. let it go. he's spelled it out pretty well, i think.

surely hobbes's presence in the strip — as voice of reason, wisdom, innocence, decency — was more than enough to offset calvin's un-charmingness?

One of the genius bits about C&H is how Hobbes is simultaneously a stuffed Tiger animated by Calvin's imagination and yet also a real autonomous tiger and Watterson plays on that constantly, which not only offsets Calvin's 'lack of charm' but is, in fact, part of Calvin's charm.

Haha Mr Que OTM -- Michael, I would do reappraisal before saying I thought it was a horrible strip (and even as a kid I didn't think it was a horrible strip), just saying I never really got into it! I've looked at some online during the course of this thread, but you can probably tell I'm not invested enough in comic strips to spend part of my current life doing an extensive rereading

xpost - ha, JD, as a kid I remember feeling bad for Hobbes that he had to hang out with Calvin all the time -- Hobbes could have done better

Ah, that explains it -- you don't like Calvin because you were jealous he got to hang out with Hobbes.

Ha ha!

One of the genius bits about C&H is how Hobbes is simultaneously a stuffed Tiger animated by Calvin's imagination and yet also a real autonomous tiger and Watterson plays on that constantly, which not only offsets Calvin's 'lack of charm' but is, in fact, part of Calvin's charm.

^this

C&H is obviuosly gonna win, perhaps justifiably, but I'm voting Far Side cuz of subject matter and WA State

We should put the winner up against Peanuts in another poll

Peanuts gonna lose 'cause Schultz didn't stop when he ran out of ideas.

I'm not sure about libcrypt's take there but it is instructive to notice that Peanuts was still in the paper when C&H debuted and I think much of its initial charm was precisely in being some kind of successor.

guys i'm gonna go dig up some C&H books and read them on the crapper

Hobbes is simultaneously a stuffed Tiger animated by Calvin's imagination and yet also a real autonomous tiger

Ok not taking shots at this strip anymore, but is this really particularly different from any other "they only come alive to the child" situation? Was that something that was only everywhere post-Calvin? I feel like it's pretty common, no?

Peanuts in the 70s was just abysmal.

Nabisco, it is because he went a step further. Hobbes spends most of the strip being a kind of walking, talking domesticated Tiger pet/guest with a very distinct personality and not only pounces on Calvin and beats him at Calvinball but also zings him constantly but there are also situations where the 'reality' of him being just a stuffed tiger are presented, too.

but is this really particularly different from any other "they only come alive to the child" situation?

I can't think of any other strip that does this.

watterson once said he didn't know or care whether hobbes was 'real' or not, and that he thought both calvin and non-calvin perspectives on the issue were valid.

i feel like someone ought to base a philosophical school of thought on this issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velveteen_Rabbit

Yeah, it's in the intro to one of the collections, right?

Shakey, to be fair, it's a pretty common gimmick in children's fiction.

I bought the C&H anthology on Amazon when it went on sale for $60~ a year or so ago. Even though I already had most of the books and anthologies it was still worth it to know I had them all in one place.

There aren't any comics out I've seen that come all that close to the greatness of C&H, although Frazz seems like a grown-up Calvin, and Lio is charmingly morbid in a way that I think Bill Watterson would approve of.

http://books.google.com/books?id=NV4WEqQtvTYC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=%22do+people+grow+from+spores%22&source=bl&ots=xdv7QzaxG0&sig=LoEaAr66OQSTZoJo1T8_CEWni1o&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result

the 'do people grow from spores' comic is klassikk

children's fiction /= comic strips M.

I realize that but I agree that it has been extensively used wrt tales about children, which at some level, C&H is, too.

oh the imaginary friend thing is very common in children's lit/TV programming - but Watterson dealt with it in a way that was, most importantly, unique to the medium of the comic strip, and I can't think of any other strips that have done it.

Bloom County for me. As much as I loved C&H, Bloom County was the first strip I really followed from age 8 until it ended.

I still have a plush Opus, bought in great condition from a garage sale this summer.

nabisco's right, Hobbs is no "Not Me"

I have a plush Opus too - not in the best of shape tho

(have owned since the mid-80s)

bloom county easy, no hesitation

Actually, guys, I feel a need to note that the comic-page equivalent of Tony Soprano was clearly Hagar the Horrible, and I like him okay

What does that make Andy Capp?

or Crock?

Andy Capp doesn't run a crime syndicate, Hagar does

Billy and the Boingers 45 > Duke action figure >>>>>> BC Plushies

This is a very important poll. Loved them all at the time, but C&H has stuck with me longer. Maybe as much because Watterson can really, REALLY draw as anything else, but also for the spirit, wit, compassion and intelligence of the writing. It's as funny and as smart as the Far Side, as incisive and humane as Bloom County, but it also has an X factor quality that makes you actually feel for the strip and its characters. One of the best things ever.

http://bp1.blogger.com/_BurC6enfE8U/RngTEB1bORI/AAAAAAAAAOI/CW2-XqjLAwc/s320/calvin.gif

I have hard time believing that someone can simultaneously think a work of art is "good" while personally disliking it

TBH Rogert Ebert (among others) has (partly) made a career out of both this and its opposite. (Thinking a work of art is "bad" while liking it.)

Despite neo-cubist and gravity bill Calvin, I remember Bloom County a lot more is the only one I go back to read.

Can we go back to this: the other funniness here being that we're talking about comic strips, a format in which half of the job lies in creating charming characters and boggle at the word "charming" here? I would punch all of these charming strips in the dick.

Garfield is like the most popular and least charming late-20th century creation.

Hating him too, btw.

I can't even think of a charming comic character! Maybe FBOFW's Farley?

voting c&h on the strength of that series where calvin breaks his dads binoculars

C&H, easily. I try to think of something that encapsulates why I love it, and dozens of things come to mind. Tracer Bullet, the Transmogrifier Gun, Calvinball, that strip where Calvin impersonates his dad and his mom loses her shit, etc.

voting c&h on the strength of that series where calvin breaks his dads binoculars

― beyonc'e (max), Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:20 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

man that storyline really hit me hard, that shit was real as fukk my dude - realer than any documentary~~~

on a vaguely related note when the hell is someone going to reprint Barnaby?

My favorite character building exercise is when they went camping, and Calvin is miserable and complaining to Hobbes, and his dad bursts into the tent, it's 6am or so, with his rain gear on and says (paraphrase) "who wants to learn how to gut a fish?". Classic.

voting c&h on the strength of that series where calvin breaks his dads binoculars
― beyonc'e (max), Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:20 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

man that storyline really hit me hard, that shit was real as fukk my dude - realer than any documentary~~~

― cankles, Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:25 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

for real tho i first read that when i was probably like 7-8 not that much older than how old calvins supposed to be and i still dont think ive read anything that better captures what its like to have done somethin really really bad that you werent supposed to and trying to figure out how to tell your parents

http://www.wac.ohio-state.edu/tutorials/images/calvin-writing.gif

Added to C&H storylines that I'd vote for on their own: mutilated snowmen. Plus the Sunday Strips. Watterson one of the only dudes left who ever took the time to do something formally interesting (even beautiful) with the space and color afforded. (Yeah, Chickweed Lane guy tries, but no. Just no.)

chickweed lane art makes me wanna retch

bloom county bores the living piss out of me

C&H all the way

Far Side was most important to my (very dorky) childhood, but I like the consistent "world" of C&H very much, whereas Far Side (while also consistent) is more about one-liners. In a way I feel like it was probably influential on the kind of irreverent/free-associative quick-joke humor that we're now almost numb to from years of Simpsons and its progeny. So tough call. Except for not picking Bloom County.

feel free to clown me for this but I kind of like Sally Forth now. That and Pearls Before Swine are the only newspaper strips I regularly read.

Apparently Hugo Burnham has the original art of a Sally Forth strip that mentions the Gang of Four.

Thanks to this thread, I'm remembering tons of awesome Far Sides:

"Sssssh. The maestro is decomposing"

guys i'm gonna go dig up some C&H books and read them on the crapper

― cankles, Thursday, December 18, 2008 4:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, this thread makes me really want to read my sister's stash which i don't currently have access to. i love the way watterson drew calvin's feet/shoes.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/2071553734_a01ecca910.jpg

Again, I voted for C&H, but just as an ostensibly unintended cultural mindfuck, The Far Side conquered with "Cow Tools". Granted, the story about the aftermath of the syndication of this is amazing.

I loved the story about the switched Far Side/Dennis the Menace captions, in which Dennis ended up telling his mom, "I see your little, petrified skull, labeled and resting on a shelf somewhere."

I rather liked Bloom County when I was 12-15 or so, despite not getting half the references. I had NO clue who on earth Lee Iacocca was, for instance, but I still laughed at those damn strips. Alas, while I -do- get a much larger percentage of the strips now, I no longer find all that many of them to be funny. Absurdity > Marmaduke > political topicality.
Anyways, while I love both Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side, I tend to find the former to be much more likely to still be funny the second (or tenth) time around

So I'm sitting here reading C&H strips I can find online now, and two things strike me:
1: I love Calvin's dad's explanations of how things work. My dad had the exact same penchant for making up complete bullshit instead of saying he didn't know.
2: So THAT'S where I have that "it builds character" thing from. I say that way too often.

Oh, also, I love the hell out of these:
http://biessman.com/calvinAndHobbes.gif

(Oh damn. Err, do "view image" or something and you should get the proper size)

yeah i suspect those strips play much funnier if you have no idea who lee iacocca, casper weinberger etc. are. i glanced at the last few weeks of "opus" and he was making jokes about opus's past with sarah palin. oy.

reading the first two anthologies before goin to sleep last night, i wondered if nabisco's impression of calvin was based on the early years of the strip, when he was written and drawn as a much more one-dimensional loud-mouth twerp. his antics became much more absurdist and less dennis the menace-y as the years went on. also i love following the evolution of watterson's dinosaurs, from crude blobby lizardbeasts to lovingly rendered, super realistic dinos.

There's something about that obfuscatory-writing "academia here I come" strip upthread that could probably be used to talk about why it never clicked for me, but I'm not really sure how to word it. (It has to do with Calvin's point of view and diction, and the relationship between the cartoonist and the characters, and maybe smugness.)

I always liked the snowman grotesques, though, totally.

Like, my sense of him as a prick might be because when he was being a little prick he seemed real to me, but in a lot of the other weekday strips it felt like the cartoonist was making a so-so adult joke from an "innocent" perspective (almost like a Gallagher "why are words spelled weird" bit) and then just drawing a child near it.

my least favorite c&h cartoons are the ones abt like... academia or the art world or whatever. much better when he sticks to the weird minutiae of childhood and yr relationship w/ yr parents and stuff.

yeah c&h is amazing but all the "ima write about the semiotics of dick and jane lmao!!!" bill bennett ones are kinda proto-xkcd imo - designed to end up taped to the doors of professors offices & shit

he used to do a lot of them about art as i remember... like one where calvin signed a landscape or something... and i remember being sort of *rolls eyes* about it. less "i dislike u" more "shut up dad"

haha xpost --

(P.S. I realize that's not super-unusual for comic strips -- Bloom County, Boondocks, etc. -- but those things have a certain coherence/consistency that works for me, whereas Calvin spends a lot of time being psychologically 9 years old and inviting us into some kind of Childlike Wonder & Whimsy realm, which sits badly next to a freaking 9-year-old making jokes about obfuscatory academic writing. I often didn't get the sense of a kid's wonder, I got the sense of an adult going "what's the deal with X" and using the kid's POV to make it seem more full of wonder than it maybe deserved.)

he's six years old

I was gonna say six, nine, whatever, but geez, six just seems wrong

Do you think Snoopy would really be thinking about the Red Baron, or even know who that guy is?

Snoopy is an anthropomorphic dog

And the point's not about reality, it's about consistency/coherence

You all are really onto nabisco's shit about this, aren't you?

dude didn't get into Calvin & Hobbs, let it go.

dude didn't get into Calvin & Hobbs, let it go.

Except he keeps tying to explain why he didn't in ways that just make no sense. Zillions of people had no problem w/any or most of the stuff he brings up and he probably doesn't wrt to loads of other comics or books or whatnot but why explain? It's like the difference I used to perceive about the English and French chauvinists; the English just know they're God's gift, they wouldn't stoop to explaining it whereas the French, with their cartesian mindset, not only think they're the best, they also will try to convince you through argument. De gustibus disputandum and all that, but his attempts to explain why he could suspend his incredulity wrt C&H seem forced. Sometimes he's just not that into you C&H.

Er, "could not", that is.

Just admit that you're Calvin, dude

I'd prefer Hobbes, nabisco.

wouldnt we all

Tigers are mean
Tigers are fierce
Tigers have teeth
And claws that pierce.

Tigers are great
They can't be beat
If I was a tiger
That would be neat!

Tigers are nimble
And light on their toes
My REspect for tigers
Continually grows.

Tigers are perfect
The e-pit-o-me
Of good looks and grace
And quiet dignity!

Tigers are great
They're the toast of town
Life's always better
When a tiger's around!

There's something about that obfuscatory-writing "academia here I come" strip upthread that could probably be used to talk about why it never clicked for me, but I'm not really sure how to word it. (It has to do with Calvin's point of view and diction, and the relationship between the cartoonist and the characters, and maybe smugness.)

I always liked the snowman grotesques, though, totally.

― nabisco

And, yeah, Watterson DID use Calvin's "wise innocence" to poke holes in adult foibles fairly often, and yeah, that can be a grating device. But I think he pulled it off more often than not, and the things that made the strip great have nothing to do with that tendency anyway.

Should admit here that I have a very high tolerance for sentimentality and saccharine whimsy in an "art for kids" context, especially when washed down with ace linework. Understand that others may not be so strongly fortified in this regard...

Transmogrification

Fandom: Calvin and Hobbes
Written for: Niamh St. George in the Yuletide 2005 Challenge
by Hyperfocused

Calvin can't even remember a time when Hobbes wasn't around. At six years old, he knows Hobbes is the kind of friend few will have, loyal and true. The kind who will help you hide a body, if only they knew where to find one. He should ask his dad about that, but most likely his dad would just give him the evil eye. Calvin wonders if people really do have evil eyes and if so, do they ever revolt against their better owners and try to pop out of their heads, jump down their throats and choke them. When he asks his mother this, she just says, "Calvin, please stop playing with your olives and eat them already." Then she goes into the other room, where Calvin can hear her saying "It's only a week until school. You can handle it. He'll be their problem then, for a whole 5 hours a day." It's only recently that he's noticed her going off to talk to herself, which is weird, but she doesn't have a friend like Hobbes to confide in. It's too bad. Tigers are excellent company.

At ten, his teachers still give him that same tired look, or make him into the example of what not to do, or just sit at their desk looking like they want to cry - or possibly drink like those people on the daytime TV -- and he gets a string of bad report cards, too.

It isn't that he tries to be bad, it's just that Hobbes is an impatient sort, and there's a world out there to explore. Everyone knows that it takes years for stuff to get into a textbook, and by the time it does, it's out of date. He doesn't want to miss out on all the cool stuff going on, just so he can learn about whatever boring things happened when his dad was a kid a thousand years ago. Besides, you try to stop yourself from leaving when a tiger grabs you.

His parents send him to a special doctor - an Educational Psychologist --, and Hobbes bravely prevents her from giving Calvin a shot. In fact, Hobbes is so convincing that all she does is make him play with some weird blocks and funny pictures, and asks him questions like in those memory games Roslyn brings over when she babysits. It's a little lame, but kind of fun, and Hobbes helps him cheat by whispering answers in his ear.

A few days later, they go back to visit her. He doesn't know why. He could have played more exciting games at home, especially if his dad would relent and let them take the tires off his car and build that obstacle course he'd been imagining.

The doctor tells them he's got something called Eighty H-D, and gives him some pills to take for it. He wonders how many HD's a kid is supposed to have, and what it means that he has 80 of them. He doesn't feel sick, but maybe he is, and if he's lucky he'll get to stay home from school. If he's even luckier, they'll raise money for him on TV and he can get parts for that new tele-porter he and Hobbes started to build.

She says it'll be just like taking his vitamins, but as far as he can see, these pills don't look like cartoons. The pills are called Ritalin, which sounds too much like Rosalyn for his liking.

Calvin doesn't think the pills ae doing much. His mother gives him one when he wakes up, and he has to go to the nurses office every day for his next one. It's kind of a pain because he's always in the middle of Science when he does it, and he hates missing out on what might be the experiment that blows up the school.

A few months later, he can sit through a class without disrupting it, but he still keeps Hobbes in his backpack under his desk, and doodles secret messages to him in the margins of his textbooks when he finishes his work.

Twelve years old, and they put him in the Gifted program, and say if he keeps up the good work, he might get to take math and science classes at the high school. He wins a scholarship to Space Camp, and is disappointed, if not surprised to learn they don't actually go there. Even though he knows it's impossible, there's a part of him that wished he really could go into space. Sadly, it's not as easy as stepping into a box.

His old babysitter Roslyn, now an elementary -education major at the local university tutors him. She's still a cruel taskmaster, but at least now he can suppress the urge to slip out the window when she's around. She must be doing some good. He manages to get an A on his Viking ship diorama, even though Hobbes tells him the Vikings would have been cooler if there had been a tiger aboard ship.

"It would have taken care of that pesky rat problem," he gripes. Sometimes he's too noisy for Calvin to get anything done, so he keeps him in his locker most of the day. Hobbes says it's stuffy and smells like socks in there, and the tuna sandwiches are moldy. Calvin tells him to chill, he'll get to him when he's done with his work.

By fourteen, Calvin's longstanding fear of being pounced by his best friend has turned to happy anticipation. The pouncing has changed, too.. Hobbes is wild and eager, and teaches him things Calvin's parents would be shocked to know he knew. There's something to be said about being home all day, and able to get around the NetNanny. They play games that beat the Transmogrifier and childhood time travel by a mile. Sledding off that 3 foot cliff had felt like a leap into the great unknown when he was six, but it's nothing compared to the rush he feels when Hobbes touches him. That to everyone else Hobbes iss just an toy means nothing. Calvin knows the truth, and it hasn't changed just because he's older now and doesn't talk about him in front of people. He also doesn't carry Hobbes to school anymore. What people don't know won't hurt them. Calvin's learned how to fit in, or at least how to pretend to.

He and Susie are sixteen when they try the dating thing, but he knows from the start it's as fake as her old tea parties. They go to homecoming together, mostly because both their families push them into it. Separating almost as soon as they'd walked into the gym, Susie -- Sue, now--spends most of the night with her friends from Model U.N, and Calvin hides out in the third floor boys bathroom.

His former nemesis, Morrison, "Moe" Turner is there too, proving with the offer of half a pack of Camels, a thermos of doctored punch and a blowjob that he's inclined to be friendlier than he was when he used to beat Calvin up for his lunch money.. Perhaps turning nineteen has given him some semblance of maturity.

Calvin turns down the cigarettes, but accepts the rest, reciprocating with a hand job. Moe is big -- all over-and he feels kind of powerful doing this for Moe. They'd talked about sublimating feelings in his psych class that week, but Calvin didn't think he ought to bring that up with Moe.

He comes home feeling more abnormal than ever, sure that he's an even bigger freak than he'd imagined. But try as he might, he just can't pretend to be something he's not. And he's never going to be what people expect of him. He doesn't want to play on a team, or date any of the stupid girls in his class. The way he felt with Moe makes him pretty sure he doesn't want to date girls at all.

"Why are you still here?" Calvin asks miserably. "I'm such a fuck-up my only real friend is a stupid stuffed tiger."

"Friends don't abandon each other, Calvin, don't you know that? I'll be here 'til you no longer need me." Hobbes' furry arm wraps around Calvin's slumped shoulders. "Besides, I'm not too good with a can opener, and I do love my tuna-fish sandwiches."

He leaves for MIT the week before he turns eighteen, and it's the best thing he's ever done. He find friends there, and none of them make fun of him for bringing his old stuffed tiger. They're all too smart not to be weird, too.

The first guy Calvin ever fucks, is a tall runner with a shock of orange hair and a penchant for striped shirts. His name is Timothy Hobson, but everyone calls him Hobbes. Calvin takes this as a sign that things will work out for them. That, and the fact that he's a tiger in bed.

Epilogue: Calvin - his newly minted doctorate in hand - brings both Hobbes' back to see his parents before they start their new jobs in Colorado. His folks wouldn't understand what it is he's going to do, and he's not allowed to tell them, anyway. Another galaxy. He can hardly believe it's real.

He hopes this Dr McKay won't be as terrifying a boss as rumor has it. He also hopes that the real thing will live up to the cardboard boxes of his childhood.

When he packs for Atlantis, his personal item of choice is an orange stuffed tiger.

This is a pretty good discussion. I wonder what you guys think of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" with Jules Feiffer illos, though.

xpost Watterson always did expressions better than anyone. The blank stare Hobbes always has when Calvin is really going off on something kills me to this day.

'The Phantom Tollbooth' is excellent.

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/calvin-father-on-black-and-white-pictures.gif

Didacticism and everything?

xp

I wonder what you guys think of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" with Jules Feiffer illos, though.

― Oilyrags

This is a pretty good discussion. I wonder what you guys think of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" with Jules Feiffer illos, though.

PT roxxors! don't really see how it figures in though. not being a comic strip and all.

I love it too, but its a really unconvincing portrayal of a young kids imagination, and that seems to be a big part of nabisco's problem with C&H.

I guess Milo is supposed to be quite a bit older than Calvin.

I dunno, Alice in Wonderland is a pretty "unrealistic" portrayal too and that's even MORE classick

Yeah, I'm totally not into fiction about imaginary otherworlds for, you know, acurate portrayals of how kids actually think.

Wrt Calvin's age vis a vis his vocabulary, etc... I never really cared if he seemed authentically 6 or not. I was always interested enough in where Watterson might go not to feel he had to be restrained by a strict credibility. One of his better jokes or observations was worth a little lack of versimilitude.

looking thru the strips i could find on the internet im not loling as hard as i remember at c&h, but i think that has more to do with the taste of the ppl scanning the clips than with the lol-worthy qualities of c&h

It does! Looked at a couple collections at the bookshop today, and liked 'em nearly as much as I did way back when. Then again, it's newspaper comix: one good laff for every 20 strips is a damn good ratio.

You know the Wittgenstein observation that, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world"? We may remember being 6 but I don't think we can really think again as we once were; we have too much experince and too much vocabulary now and as if, as Wilde had it, it's fiction's duty to be at least larger than life enough to make it distinguishable from the humdrum of much of our daily existence, I don't mind an implausibly precocious or eloquent child.

Posts that demonstrate what they assert.

Are you calling me a precocious child or a larger than life fiction?

Dudes, you guys are acting like my issue with that academia strip is a demand for verisimilitude, and it's just flat-out not -- I didn't say it needs to be psychologically realistic, accurately evoke childhood thinking, or use appropriate vocabulary.

I was saying that the gaps between the very adult "wise innocent" jokes and the childhood-wonderment angles didn't sit well together for me, made the characters and tone feel less coherent, more artificial, less involving, etc. etc. etc.

None of which made me feel like it sucked, but probably contributed to my not getting particularly into it.

you are weird and no one agrees with you

nabs I fully support your right to disagree, I just think it's weird.

has anyone posted those soap opera C&Hs

http://www.freewebs.com/calvin_hobbes_home/baby.gif

http://www.freewebs.com/calvin-hobbes-org/Docter.jpg

Shakey I'm sure you'll come around when we have the Bill Watterson RIP thread

I kind of see what he's saying actually and I guess I just thought of the strip has having different modes depending on Watterson's fancy was or something. I totally support naisco's right to like or dislike whatever the hell he wants to, and frankly every word I've posted on this thread stems from the fact that there was a time when Watterson's modern brand of stoicism was like gospel to me. I still love that every day when I'm in Paris, I can buy the IHT and there's Calvin and Hobbes.

our baby is a RABBIT??

Oh also BTW I think the sunset one is great right up until that last frame, which contains some of what puts me off, that sort of big-sigh simple-wisdom "nap til dinner" thing that mugs a little for the non-existent camera -- I know that's a basic of lots of comics and it just reads as Peanutsy, but for some reason it detracts from the enjoyable rest of the strip for me, and it's not an issue with, just for example, the comic I voted for in this poll

Nabs that last panel is just about how Hobbes views the world as a cat.

Umm yeah, I am aware he's a tiger

I think you're looking for something that isn't really there.

I think you're missing a quality that's pretty on-the-surface

I mean it's not really digging for subtext to read the phrase "the world is a complicated place, Hobbes" as kind of a *sigh* line

Funny, nabisco, 'cause what you don't like there is precisely that stoicism-meets-zen thing I found so endearing in the strip.

*furiously SBs 'bisco*

Hahaha root of issue! How would you compare that quality to Peanuts? Because it seems a little similar, maybe, I and do like Peanuts fine

A big part of Calvin and Hobbes's dynamic is that Calvin is always questioning, pushing limits, overcomplicating, and while Hobbes can certainly hang with him intellectually, he just doesn't care a lot of the time. Watterson talked about getting Hobbes's behaviors from observing his own cat and making him more cat-like as the strip went on. If you wanna call this "big-sigh simple wisdom" I mean sure you could but that's not really supported by 99% of C&H material.

I don't understand that at all, man -- nothing in that paragraph refutes or even addresses my sense that Hobbes's last line in that strip is kinda advancing an idea! I mean, Michael would seem to enjoy and know a lot about the strip, and he appears to think that last panel is putting forth a particular sensibility that he likes, and is not just a joke about cats being lazy.

bisco did you read c&h on your own as a kid or did you come to it thru a recommendation? ur feelings about it strike me as the kind of feelings i tend to have abt stuff that people over-praise before i get to it.

I read it in the newspaper as a kid and in my early teens. I don't recall everyone getting all into the books until I was graduating from high school.

<shrug emotico>

I'm not disagreeing with you that Hobbes is "putting forth a sensibility" at all. I just think the point of that is to contrast with what Calvin is thinking about and that their basic dynamic is built around seeing the world really, really differently. I mean what Hobbes is saying doesn't resonate with me personally, but it's nice when you have a friend who can offer a completely different perspective than your own.

I think BW was more widely intellectually curious. I don't really know where Calvin lives but Peanuts really IS very much like Santa Rosa whereas C&H doesn't just have Snoopy vs the Red Baron, it has dinosaurs and Tracer Bullet and transmogrfication and soap operas and space travel and superheroes etc... If Schultz is a nice, slightly quietist Christian from a small town, Watterson is more searching and less intellectually confined to me. One thing I think is incontrovertibly superior in Peanuts, though, is the breadth of the regular 'cast'.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1hrRU0IQP80/R2k8S2FfKXI/AAAAAAAAASA/Zs0xq8pz4D8/s1600/ch931031.gif

There's only so far you can go before a talking cat's 'zen-like living in the moment stoic acceptance of how things are and looking at the bright side' has some human valence. I mean my cats may be just as cool and clever as Hobbes but all they say is, 'feed me', 'show me affection', 'I want to play' and occasionally, 'If you do that again, there will be blood.' I just like Hobbes 'cause it's not cop-out zen. It's not 'all is maya, desire is the root of all unhappiness'. He likes tuna fish. He apparently has a thing for chicks. (Go figure. Take that Santorum: tiger on woman whoopee.) He likes naps and being warm but he's just much cooler about his likes than Calvin who's a bit of a spaz/space cadet or his hardworking parents. It's the privilege of a kept cat, I guess.

you are weird and no one agrees with you

I agree with you, nabisco. Calvin & Hobbes never really went past "okay" for me and I really don't get the cult following.

I think BW was more widely intellectually curious. I don't really know where Calvin lives but Peanuts really IS very much like Santa Rosa whereas C&H doesn't just have Snoopy vs the Red Baron, it has dinosaurs and Tracer Bullet and transmogrfication and soap operas and space travel and superheroes etc...

haven't been to santa rosa, but i always interpreted peanuts — at least in the "classic" years — as taking place in schulz's hometown of st paul.

i think schulz is definitely a lot less self-conscious than watterson, and he's a much better writer. linus talking about thomas aquinas or various editions of the bible comes across as part of his character, whereas calvin talking about the pretentiousness of the art scene comes across as watterson using calvin as a mouthpiece for his own views.

that said, watterson's occasional bittersweet sentimentality about childhood is nothing next to breathed's puke-worthy and entirely phony "clouds and ice cream and oh isn't imagination a wonderful thing" homilies, which made me cringe even when i liked bloom county.

calvin and hobbes is my favorite because I like to read it best!

bloom county seems way older than the other two, mostly because i actually can remember calvin and hobbes and the far side being in the newspaper. bloom county was gone before i was in kindergarten, and i don't really know any people my age that went back and read it after the fact.

Nabisco's basic point is OTM. I was gonna mention earlier (but didn't) that the awesome Sunday strip andy posted is only awesome (again) up until the last panel. Hobbes' "...I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" is consistent with his being a cat, but it's also an ladleful of wise-innocent sentimental goo. And I hate that shit. And Watterson goes for it A LOT, often much more egregiously. In both cases, though, I like the surrounding material well enough to forgive it, or more accurately to ignore it, to put my fingers in my ears and go lalala and pretend it never happened. Not hard, 'cuz C&H was rarely about the punchlines, as far as I was concerned. The humor was in the drawings, dialog and situations. While we're bitching, another thing that used to bug me was the characterization of Calvin's mom. While his dad was clever, fun-loving and imaginative, his mom was nothing but a harried spoilsport. A whole bunch of strips consisted of dad making up some fantastic lie (as in andy's offering) only to be busted in the last panel by mom. That kind of fun dad/shrewish mom characterization sucks, unless you do something interesting with it.

Pretty OTM post except I'd disagree with "a lot"--Watterson really didn't go there all that often.

I'm not going to read this thread because I don't want to know if Calvin and Hobbes haters exist. Also, hobbes is real and the robot chicken thing was blasphemy. I understand why Waterson is such a dick about people imitating or ripping off his work... because every single imitation has been epic fail.

"NO! This is idiotic! I refuse!" strip cracks me up every time

things like linking up the soap opera comic strip genre with kids playing house is the reason I like Calvin & Hobbes so much

Has anyone mentioned the sled ride strips? A variant on Charlie Brown's perpetually unkickable football. They often ended with a nugget of late-arriving wisdom -- but in a good way. Usually more rueful than platitudinous. Or so I seem to recall...

contenderizer is OTM about the academia strip, actually - doesn't exactly sum up why I like the strip, but still cracks me up. On the other end of the spectrum is TYRANNOSAURS IN F-14s!

his mom was nothing but a harried spoilsport

yeah that isn't true

okay, too often nothing but...

she isn't granted the same right of imagination that Calvin and dad are

like I mentioned a few hundred posts back, there is that one moment of her cracking up at Calvin's dad-impersonation.

another favorite running gag - Calvin's polling of household 6-year-olds about his dad's job performance.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/2071553734_a01ecca910.jpg

While we're bitching, another thing that used to bug me was the characterization of Calvin's mom. While his dad was clever, fun-loving and imaginative, his mom was nothing but a harried spoilsport.

it's true that she's not often granted the same "right" to imagination that the other characters have, but in the strip above i really sympathize with her - her pragmatism puts the dad's head-in-the-cloudsness into a context where you can actually see it as self-involvement and selfishness. if all characters were everything there would be no dialogue and no contrasts

http://progressiveboink.com/jon/images/calvinhobbes/bill2.gif

I only know C&H from the three, so I'll abstain from voting (even though I have much love for C&H). However, I've been staring at that Cow Tools pic and I think I'm missing something because it doesn't do anything for me. I don't even know if it's supposed to be funny or sad or whatever, it just doesn't make any impression. And yet, it seems to be a good one since it's been posted twice already in this thread, but I really really don't understand what's good about it.

it's been posted twice already in this thread, but I really really don't understand what's good about it. - whoops, that's what I get for not expanding threads before posting. Sorry 'bout that.

Jibe - it's notorious for being incomprehensible. In fact, at the beginning of one of the Far Side collections (side note, WHY DID MY PARENTS GIVE AWAY MY FAR SIDE AND C&H COLLECTIONS WHILE I WAS AWAY AT LOL COLLEGE?!?!?!?11) Larson goes on at length about all of the angry/perplexed phone calls and letters he received after Cow Tools was published.

Oh this is neat, an entire page of deleted BC toons, including one where Opus goes into pro-wrestling.

Also, one of the regular BC setpieces that I always loved was the characters interacting with/being attacked by/attacking the television:

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5826/blm850401mn4.gif

there are probably an equal number of C&H strips of calvin's mom being a "harried spoilsport" as strips with calvin's dad being angry, exasperated or frustrated.

http://bkmarcus.com/blog/images/comics/antifishes.gif

the thing that all of these strips have in common artistically: dynamic perspective

except that every bloom county comic hs its characters exactly the same size, seen from a height of about 4 feet

i.e. breathed REALLY doesn't like drawing shoes

there are probably an equal number of C&H strips of calvin's mom being a "harried spoilsport" as strips with calvin's dad being angry, exasperated or frustrated.

― congratulations

It may have also been based on Watterson's own family experience, since the dad is supposed to be a combination of him and his own dad.

I really like her reactions in this one (damn can't post it here) : http://gallery.gnat.ca/main.php?g2_itemId=13352

in the intro to one of the collections (maybe the 10th anniversary one?) watterson concedes that calvin's mom is somewhat one-dimensional and argues that there wasn't as much room to flesh her out as he might of wished. so he said he made a conscious effort to hint at her personality in the spaces between the moments that calvin barges in and takes control of our attention. she's also a lot more laconic and sarcastic than the dad character and thus maybe less... showy?

Loved all three - at their peak - and woulda had trouble choosing between heart (Calvin) and mind (BC), until that montage of snowman-strips, half of which I'd never seen before, made the decision for me.

I agree with whoever cited "Far Side"'s decline in it's latter years. Larson really seemed to be running out of ideas, exemplified by that late strip which was just a jumbled blur of the usual cows, scientists, ducks and matrons in cat-glasses accompanied by the caption "Technical difficulties...please stand by" or something similar.

except that every bloom county comic hs its characters exactly the same size, seen from a height of about 4 feet

I love that you posted this immediately after a Bloom County strip featuring three characters of different sizes.

I mean from strip to strip. Opus is always the same size in each strip, Steve Dallas is always the same size, etc.

And it's always a side view with very little to indicate depth, so he has to line everyone up like a police identification parade. My point was/is that this is the opposite of "dynamic perspective".

haha ok that makes much more sense

I never read much of Bloom County growing up, as it wasn't in my hometown newspaper for some reason (it being a conservative mid-level city in the midwest is probably why), but C&H & FS, and also Peanuts were pretty much my favorite sources of entertainment, outside of Nintendo, for a good 4 years or so. I still have all those books & the pages are worn thin from Cheeto grease and god knows what else. So I don't think I will vote in this poll, as I love both equally and for completely different reasons, most of which have already been discussed at length on this thread. What I will do, though, is go down to my local library and check out a bunch of anthologies to wax nostalgic over during the holidays (my originals are boxed up somewhere at my folks' place). Thanks for the great idea ILX!

Re: Cow Tools - This website has the same reader responses which were featured by Larson in The Pre-history of the Far Side. I think it is hilarious how many scientists and academics seemed legitimately bewildered by it.

Anyway, here's another favorite:

http://dhart.no-ip.info/pics/GL_Beware.gif

C&H=G.O.A.T.

― cankles, Thursday, December 18, 2008 12:10 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was mystified

not so much now

I first encountered both C&H and FS in my teens. Both have cracked me up laughing frequently but on balance I think my love for Calvin and Hobbes has lasted better and I confess to being more than a little baffled by some of the stranger Far Side strips. Also, my kids now read C&H and have been making time machines and transmogrifiers - laughing at half the strips and asking me to explain the other half.

My all time favourite Far Side was one with a couple of huge bugs standing at a front door at the end of a date, at the socially awkward "should we kiss?" moment. The male ant has a thought bubble with "Where are her lips? Are those dohookies her lips?" and the female is thinking "Oh no! He's looking for my lips!"

I didn't know about Bloom County until the Internet.

Voting C&H

I really liked the Far Side one about "The real reason dinosaurs went extinct". Not so much because the joke was great (they smoked cigarettes!) but because the damn dinosaurs looked so perfectly like teenagers who're really quite impressed with themselves for smoking

A-ha!
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg275/AnneTeldy/dinosaurs.jpg

Dunno, I always found C&H wayyyyy too cutesy in a way people a few years younger than me did not, so am with Dan/Nabisco on this one. Bloom County was my thing in early teenage (I got the political jokes) but in HS itself, Far Side seemed to be of a piece with the things my friends and I enjoyed, eg. Mr. Bill and Steven Wright.

Ladies and gentlemen, ILX:
http://eddie.niese.net/images/midvale-gifted.jpg

^

chiggers can't be boozers

omg that Cow Tools link makes that particular comic the greatest thing ever

See, I just don't get that cow tools thing AT ALL. I don't understand it.

I think it is hilarious how many scientists and academics seemed legitimately bewildered by it.

what are you referring to here - the fact that your link is by an anthropologist (lol)? far side was huge with scientists - all over office/lab doors in universities.

you two are certainly doing your best to prove suzy right here

My all time favourite Far Side was one with a couple of huge bugs standing at a front door at the end of a date, at the socially awkward "should we kiss?" moment. The male ant has a thought bubble with "Where are her lips? Are those dohookies her lips?" and the female is thinking "Oh no! He's looking for my lips!"

hahahaha this is a classic

what are you referring to here

the link is to some random page I found by googling, but which contains the actual text from Gary Larson's book. Thus, the commentary on the issue is from Larson himself & listed below that are some of the responses he received RE: Cow Tools.

ok, well obviously i barely scanned the thing, but i still see nothing about how scientists and academics didn't get the cartoon

scroll down to the bottom

sorry, that doesn't get you there, but just reinforces my point that scientists/academics found larson funny or even illustrative of questions they dealt with in their work

your point has nothing to do with his point

I think it is hilarious how many scientists and academics seemed legitimately bewildered by it.

^i am taking issue with the fact that pillbox provides zero evidence for this

"Enclosed is a copy of the 'Cow Tools' cartoon. I have passed it around. I have posted it on the wall. Conservatively, some 40-odd professionals with doctoral degrees in disparate disciplines have examined it. No one understands it. Even my 6-year-old cannot figure it out .... We are going bonkers. Please help. What is the meaning of I Cow Tools I? What is the meaning of life? " -Reader, Texas

There's a poor assumption here but this is the evidence for Pillbox's assertion.

(fyi in normal conversation, being superlawyery only makes people want to punch you in the dick)

(fyi a) ilx is not normal conversation, and b) i don't give a shit)

dan your name makes me :D every time

anyway, yes, that is evidence ("Reader, Texas" was enough for me), but pillbox makes too much of it

i mean, welcome to the internet, ^likes black girls

lol gabbneb knows when other people are making too much of something

Many xposts back to gabbneb: I wasn't suggesting that there was actual, intellectual debate being held over Cow Tools, I just found it amusing that such luminaries were concerned enough about it to write Larson at all. And the irony that Larson was not being purposefully enigmatic at all, but just took a little too much stock in his audience's desire or ability to go with him a little further into his own idiosyncracies than they were used to: His reaction is just "well it's a cow see. And cows are funny, right. So this is what a cow's tools would look like, if they had tools, because cows are comically inept"

Far Sides I like best include:

1. What we say to dogs vs. what dogs hear
2. Boneless Chicken Ranch
3. Cat at gumball machine full of mice, one says "Randy's going down!"

My mom still has a Men's Kouch Club strip from Outland turning yellow on our fridge, cannot find it online to post. ACK.

I just found it amusing that such luminaries were concerned enough about it to write Larson at all

luminaries such as "Reader, Texas"? all I'm saying is that scientists and academics were often the first to get him - perhaps because he came from their milieu - not the last.

you have as many suggest bans as the # of our sitting president right now

awesome!

OK, you win. I didn't really examine the comments that closely this time around. I mostly remembered being entertained by the Cow Tools controversy, as described by Larson in that piece, when I'd read the book in earlier years, the most recent of which probably over a decade ago. And to be fair, there was something about "doctoral degrees," and another dude who was a scientist or something, so my memory is that deluded.

*lol - "isn't"

I'M A COWBOY HOWDY HOWDY HOWDY

Dammit, I can't find the strip where Rosebud's ears catch a gust of wind and then become airborne.

Having read that description of the Cow Tools strip, I... find the phenomenon amusing.

all I'm saying is that scientists and academics were often the first to get him - perhaps because he came from their milieu

Dude has a BA in communications and was a professional cartoonist by the age of 30. What part of that particular milieu overlaps with academics and scientists?

http://progressiveboink.com/jon/images/calvinhobbes/jon6.GIF

LET'S CONSULT THE RECORD

Jeezus

Mr. Larson stands out as the darling of the scientific community. For years, his cartoons graced the bulletin boards, supply cabinets and incubators of, oh, 98.6 percent of all laboratories, here and abroad.

''His influence is pervasive,'' said Dr. Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health. ''I can't tell you how many seminars I've been to that had a Gary Larson slide in them.''

...

As a student at Washington State University, he started majoring in biology but changed course midway through college. ''I didn't want to go to school for more than four years, and I didn't know what you did with a bachelor's in biology,'' he said, ''so I switched over and got my degree in communications. I regret it now. It was one of the most idiotic things I ever did.'' Entomology, he said, ''is my fantasy, the road not taken.''

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E6DA1E3FF93BA15757C0A96E958260

wife is an anthropolgist, btw

you were saying, Z S?

Mordy I will bet you five gummy bears it gets more than ten votes.

Abbot, I will take that bet.
And I love gummy bears. So I will be anxiously awaiting them in the post.

― Mordy

WAIT JUST A SECOND, when did Abbott ever suggest that she would send the gummy bears to Mordy in the mail? And doesn't the mispelling "Abbot" negate the entire bet?!

So two years of college biology studies = coming from the same milieu as academics and scientists? By that measure, I'm an economist and statistician. Awesome!

My favorite Far Side is a guy who tiptoed out of a store wearing a trenchcoat that conceals a full-size grand piano. The store clerk is in the background, standing in the doorway and waving a piano bench, yelling, "Sir, you dropped something!" The thing that really makes this for me is the store is called PLENTY O' PIANOS.

lol

Perhaps it would warm Larson's heart, just a touch, to know that, elsewhere in internetimespace, another (miniature) Cow Tools controversy has occurred.

I was in a gifted program in middle school and every single one of the teachers had that particular Far Side on the wall.

The Cow Tools comic seems to me like the emperor is wearing no clothes; it's not funny, by Larson's admission it was fairly half-assed, and everyone seems to be beating themselves up trying to find the meaning in it. Just appreciate the surreality for 5 seconds and then move on.

Now, my favorite Far Side:
http://gurugilbert.com/wp-content/WashHands.JPG

wife is an anthropolgist, btw

...his brother was a ...zooologist, i think? definitely a scientist of some kind. the last volume of the Far Side compendiums was dedicated to him, i think.

what has he done, since stopping the Far Side?

cow tools isn't really that funny, beyond the controversy it stirs, which makes it hells of funny.

Perhaps it would warm Larson's heart, just a touch, to know that, elsewhere in internetimespace, another (miniature) Cow Tools controversy has occurred.

^THIS.

cow tools isn't really that funny, beyond the controversy it stirs, which makes it hells of funny.

so so so OTM

it is now my facebook profile pic

Far Side Day Calendars would be in like the OG 80s version of Stuff White People Like

lets talk about shitty far side biter THE ARGYLE SWEATER

http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/

xpost: I received one as a gift just last year, from someone who had no idea I was a fan. I wish someone would make some bootleg stickers of the Far Side characters pissing on things.

Shakespere's Pizza in Columbia, Mo., had a "Did Not Wash Hands" alarm stationed over its mens room door.

Guys, I don't know if this has been discussed upthread, but the thing that messes up Cow Tools and makes it into this wonderful bewildering thing is pretty much that Larson has made a horrible mistake, and drawn one tool that is clearly a saw. The premise of the joke isn't too bewildering, I don't think -- cows having tools that serve obscure cow purposes we would know nothing of. But one of the tools seems recognizable, so people begin breaking their brains to figure out what the other tools are. (I seem to remember something about this not being intentional on Larson's part.) Hence, you know, kerfluffle.

Something I always forget to give Larson credit for: a lot of the stuff in the milieu he worked with can just seem like Typical Larson Staple (insects, hunters, cows, scientists), but I find it really hard to think of another daily comic that had such a weird and specific milieu, this whole very stylized world that just worked in itself, not on the basis of characters existing in that world.

P.S. Also realizing how much Perry Bible Fellowship is really in that same vein, something I'd never bothered thinking about (because I don't often think of the Far Side anymore, I guess)

Yeah Larson admits two things about Cow Tools in that link upthread:

1) His thought path to get to Cow Tools was unlikely to be replicated by the reader.
2) Even if that happened, he screwed it up with the saw.

It doesn't really matter though--the great thing about Far Side books is that every so often there's a comic that's just totally WTF and you come to expect it and look forward to it, because it was so obvious that the guy doing this stuff was just kind of weird.

Huh, the initial part of the joke -- "if cows had tools they would be totally obscure to us" -- doesn't seem like too much of a leap to me, but I guess it is a bit of a lateral joke.

I actually think the funniest thing about it is the craftscow standing proudly behind the table demonstrating. (I don't know how the guy managed it, but he could draw these totally blank-faced animals that still seemed to be radiating specific attitudes, like pride or smugness or whatever.)

Partly it's just situational, but ... here is a strip where you get a pretty firm emotional connection with a cat's experience:

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p276/MissSportyChica/CatFarSide.jpg

^^ahahaha

Earlier I was unsuccessfully trying to GIS that one, along with the one where the employee is calling his boss to inform him that the Haywire factory is going..."well you know".

lol @ "craftscow"

urgh there was another really great single-panel strip in the 80s that definitely had its own "self-contained world" vibe to it, and the art was very detailed and expressive but am totally blanking on its title or the name of the cartoonist - bah.

all I can recall is a strip that had the caption "After a long hard day, Bob retires to his "Corner of Excellence"" or something...

I love that one, nabisco.

Shakey - I think you're recalling Jerry Van Amborgen's "The Neighborhood" now renamed "Ballard Street."

AH! YES!!!

My strip trivia-fu blackbelt is NOT to be fucked with.

Amerongen

brownbelt

haha sorry

I am definitely amazed that you could identify him from my lame-ass description.

The best/worst thing about Sally Forth is that it may have been the aesthetic influence on Jack Chick, who decided to make a far more Machiavellian (dare I say parody?) version of Sally Forth type characters.

It's too bad Jack Chick isn't in this poll, lol.

O man, I think the chick website has most of the tracts up for reading. Lotsa lol if we poll those for sure.

best chick tract poll, is that the idea? even I haven't read them all, unfortunately.

(for another thread, but we need a Best Jack Chick Tract poll, stat)

oo jinxx

Hey computer man!

I was in the gifted program throughout school but I've pulled my share of PUSH doors and vice-versa and attributed it to left handedness.

the thing that messes up Cow Tools and makes it into this wonderful bewildering thing is pretty much that Larson has made a horrible mistake, and drawn one tool that is clearly a saw.

Nabisco Re: Bob's Assorted Rodents etc. - Also one of my favorites, and, in turn, prompted to me to seek out this likeminded Jem:

http://garyploski.com/wp-content/uploads/far-side-cat-fud.jpg

Personally, I'll take my Far Side either willfully obliqe or ruthlessly darwinistic plz.

http://garyploski.com/wp-content/uploads/far-side-cat-fud.jpg

http://www.haberco.com/ath/wp-content/uploaded-images/FarSideGodComputerSmall.JPG

I read Bloom County when I was a kid. I never liked Calvin & Hobbs.

Calvin readers are from the generation that had to deal with an emotionally dysfunctional Sesame Street character like Elmo. I weep for them and their many medications.

This no competition at all.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x264/nlytnmnt/Coffee_Mug_-_Far_Side_Just_Not_Reac.jpg

Calvin readers are from the generation that had to deal with an emotionally dysfunctional Sesame Street character like Elmo. I weep for them and their many medications.

ohsnap

actually, my emotionally dysfunctional shows were Wonder Years and Doug

I'm not sure which part of Nate's statement makes the least sense.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's dysfunctional about Elmo, but then I've never seen the Elmo-era Sesame Street.

Well, there was the time Elmo injected smack into his nutsack and beat the shit out of Maria.

I've missed a lot.

Obviously I was exaggerating. A little.

Not about Elmo though. That character has always bugged the shit out of me with his constant paranoia and insecurity. Is that a message that actually helps children grow somehow?

Is Elmo post-Henson? Might explain things.

No one is denying that Elmo could use a baseball bat to the head.

Calvin readers are from the generation that had to deal with an emotionally dysfunctional Sesame Street character like Elmo. I weep for them and their many medications.

No. I am pre-Elmo. I am also not on any medications (wtf?), except um, weed.

actually anyway I am pretty sure that Elmo got "annoying" in the mid 90s, when C&H was in it's last couple years. And I would argue that kids still watching Sesame Street would not have had the reading comprehension necessary for C&H. I mean, there were plenty of visual gags that anyone could enjoy, but also lots of tl;dr that was way over kids' heads.

YEAH, WHAT THE FUCK, NATE? THESE ARE FACTS, MAN. WHAT THE FUCK?

Haha, thanks for clarifying this.

Both were a little after my time, not that I can't enjoy quality children's entertainment.

I mean, I loved Dragon Wars. But I don't remember anyone whining or talking to their imaginary friends in that one.

Dragons are not real, Nate. It's all imaginary. Plus that movie is only as good as you are hi.

I am also not on any medications

Shakey, even though you have gotten on my ass about Calvin & Hobbes up in here, I consider you a cool dude and will therefore pass on the lazy zing you have put a "THIS WAY" sign in front of with this

http://comics.com/big_nate/

don't worry nabisco I'm sure ethan or some other loser will be along shortly

"Plus that movie is only as good as you are hi."

It was fucking awesome!!!

Of C&H and TFS, the former is easily the more well drawn, and the funnier when on form, though its occasional sentimentality counts against it. Don't think Bloom County ever really caught on this side of the Atlantic, at least I've never read it.

Bloom County was so of its time, it's a little unfair to compare it to the other two.

i think calvin readers are mostly the super grover generation

i can understand not liking calvin and hobbes if u were just a little too old to be raised at its teat because while it was my favorite thing ever when i was a kid, i remember digging out my old books at a backlashy age and thinking it was kind of preachy. but then i got the hardback complete edition a few years later and i was a big sappy mess rereading it

i never got into bloom county as a kid, i didn't know what the hell was going on and the art was kind of gross looking

for some reason i had nightmares inspired by the angry reader letters included in the 10th anniversary far side book

calvin readers are from the generation that understands that "This no competition at all" is not a sentence

"i think calvin readers are mostly the super grover generation"

No way. I loved Super Grover.

I think when Calvin & Hobbes was big, I was just more into reading Wolverine and Dark Knight and D&D Dragonlance novels.

I said I wouldn't read this thread - because I'm a big C&H supporter...
I said I understand why Waterson gets angry when people rip him off...
BUT AT THE SAME TIME I admit to trying to imitate his comic and sell the design to Threadless.com. Unfortunately, during the critique phase of my posting on threadless, everyone hated it. This is as far as I got (I could only use 8 colors):

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1897/melvinvr8.gif

My 7-year-old son just used this line when we did the old cookie & milk for Santa routine tonight :)

http://i41.tinypic.com/2wcracx.jpg

What is Bloom County? I've never heard of it. Anyway, I liked Far Side even if the humor is a bit too Monty Python, but Calvin & Hobbes are an irreplacable piece of my childhood. I still rock the Lazy Sunday Book sometimes.

onimo I hope you used that situation to your drunken advantage

C&H could win just on the strength of various Hobbes-pouncing-on-Calvin sequences.

This poll needs to end so I can get my gummy bears from Abbot.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

OMG EXCITING THIS ENDS TOMORROW?? GUMMY BEARS HERE I COME

Aliases and sock puppets to thread!

Calvin and Hobbes for Spaceman Spiff alone.

i love all 3, but obviously calvin & hobbes for all the obvious reasons -- artwork, artwork, artwork. i probably laughed equally, more or less, at all 3 strips, but bill waterson is a great comix artist and larson and breathed -- even though they sort of ingeniously found ways to make their limited draftsmanship work for their strips -- are not.

also an interesting grouping because i think all 3 are essentially 2nd-tier strips (or bottom half of the top tier strips) that live in the shadow of superior comics: peanuts for c&h, doonesbury for bloom county, charles addams for the far side.

watterson, that is. see, i never forget how to spell schulz.

(also the far side probably borrowed as much from gahan wilson as addams, i know.)

Second-generation, sure. Dunno about second-tier.

all are great but given that breathed punchlines pop into my head every other day at random times (not to mention the fact that i own even bloom county collection ever) i voted for bill'n'opus.

I actually thought Bloom Country was Doonesbury for many years.

County.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wo

I was expecting C&H to be more dominant, actually.

justice is served

damn. correct though.

ilx otm

Whatever happened to Watterson after C & H ended? Has he done any comic work at all?

He has a card game with Thomas Pynchon.

(Real answer - apparently he paints. He either sells his stuff under a tightly-guarded pseudonym or not at all.)

He wrote a review of the Schulz biography that came out last year.

I just realized Mordy owes me some gummi bears (see top of thread).

This poll needs to end so I can get my gummy bears from Abbot.

― Mordy, Wednesday, January 7, 2009 5:33 AM (1 year ago)

So wrong.

LOVE C+H but to quote Woody Allen the 'key joke of my adult life' is the Far Side single frame of 2 gorillas under a tree with a pile of bananas on 1 side of them and some skins on the other. i think about it with frightening regularity. still kills/ amazes me. can't find it online though.

i'm missing the punchlin of that one i think.

favourite far side is the buck pressed flat against a tree, with a hunter silhouetted in the background- "ok, stay calm, who do i know that might want to kill me? think, godammit, think"

We agreed on 5, right? :)

I have so much love for all three of these, but C&H just rules.

Stupendous Man, Spaceman Spiff, the Transmogrifier, Hobbes' running critique on human beings, ROSSLYN, and on and on.

hobbes dancing

Calvin realizing that owls don't have to go to school.

yeah the transmogrifier! man i loved that series of strips. also the dead racoon one which would being tears to the eyes of a statue :'(

Was just thinking about making this poll if it hadn't happened already.

Did you ever get your gummy bears Abbott?

ward was OTM about 'cul de sac,' it's so good! and bill watterson agrees with us!

cul de sac rocks

LOVE C+H but to quote Woody Allen the 'key joke of my adult life' is the Far Side single frame of 2 gorillas under a tree with a pile of bananas on 1 side of them and some skins on the other. i think about it with frightening regularity. still kills/ amazes me. can't find it online though.

― piscesx, Monday, November 8, 2010 8:40 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't get it?

I have a long-held challop that C&H is cute and fun and imaginative but not really ever funny. But I've learned that expressing anything even close to this in conversation, even in a very hedged and otherwise appreciative way, has the same effect on most of my peers as stabbing them in the heart. It's like, unforgivable.

Far Side and Bloom County have both made me laugh way more (you know, years ago) than C&H, Far Side is the 'best' out of them + Bloom County is my personal fav.

I found C&H outrageously funny when I was about 10, but now I'm 32 I definitely find it cute and fun an imaginitive and (this is the killer) amazingly, astoundingly moving in a wistful / nostalgia way.

I don't understand the thing about the gorillas and the bananas either.

Is this the pic?

http://flexitarian.christinesusskind.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/larson-bananas.jpg

(First GIS result)

ILX needs more breathed love