Calvin & Hobbes C or D

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possibly the most accurate representation of childhood ever?

― ejad (daje), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Absolutely. The last strip makes me tear up every time I look at it.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, except obviously it's not "accurate" in any literal way.

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

colour me very surprised that there's never been a C&H thread before

classic, of course. i like Calvin's dad.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:36 (twenty-two years ago)

And anyway, I'm not sure that Peanuts wasn't a more "accurate" representation of childhood. (I'm not arguing that C&H wasn't classic, of course.)

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Chris, how many kids did you know who regularly had their kites eaten by malicious trees, played entire sonatas on toy pianos and could quote book and chapter from the Bible at every conceivable occasion?

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:47 (twenty-two years ago)

About as many as had stuffed tigers who they believed to be real.

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Plenty of children do have imaginary friends and the like.

― ejad (daje), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

My childhood was nothing like Calvin's, as I was not half as clever/imaginative as he is. I wish I was tho :(

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, and plenty have frustrations at things they can't do (like flying a kite) or are weirdly talented (like Schroeder's piano-playing).

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 13 April 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

As both a Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes fanatic, they are both brilliant and capture a certain something in different ways. Watterson was rarely as utterly self-torturing as Schulz could be, but there was more than enough contemplation of a sometimes brutal universe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 April 2003 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

But I think also Peanuts' ensemble cast allows you to have an easier time picking out which character represents you, or to find shades of empathy in the different characters. And I think it explored a greater number of interactions, and thus gave a broader sense of, ah, you know, all the reasons why hell is other people.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Peanuts always seemed so empty to me. But you know, now that I think about it I think I can pinpoint the specific reason I felt that way. It's cause in the Peanuts cartoons they always had real kids doing the voices; and kids aren't that good at delivering lines, so there would be all these irregularities, like an abnormally long pause before a character speaks or something. Plus the voices were all so hammed up. It broke entirely through my suspension of disbelief or whatever it is that allows one to get into a narrative, so I always just sat there thinking about the people that made the cartoon, like "ugh, this is so dumb". And then that feeling seeped into the comic strip. Bummer.

― Dan I., Monday, 14 April 2003 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Err, but yeah, Calvin and Hobbes is Classic.

― Dan I., Monday, 14 April 2003 00:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe Calvin and Hobbes represents the earlier stage of childhood, like ages 3 to 6, when kids play by themselves more and don't have much of a grip on reality. Peanuts is about ages 7 to 11 when the cold reality of human society sets in.

― ejad (daje), Monday, 14 April 2003 01:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Then there's FoxTrot, about when you're 11 to 17 and having a blast (this might not be true).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 April 2003 01:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Calvin's dad is MY dad...

― jm (jtm), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:20 (twenty-two years ago)

wouldn't a calvin and hobbes movie or something with voices be liable to irritate the same hell out of you? i've never liked animated versions of comic strips, that i can recall. anyway, did they ever do anything like this, set voices to Calvin and Hobbes?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

C&H = classic
Peanuts = dud

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

no, I don't think bill watterson would let them.

there isn't much calvin and hobbes merchandise, either.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Sundar makes me sad.

Watterson has always made it clear that Calvin and Hobbes would not be licensed and essentially took his syndicate to the mat to get that to be the case -- it almost went to court. There is no official C/H merchandise.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Unfortunately, whenever I think of Calvin and Hobbes now, I think of that disturbing sex thing that someone posted here a few months ago.

― kirsten (kirsten), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:50 (twenty-two years ago)

yes.

:' (

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 14 April 2003 02:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I've met jm's dad and it is so troooo.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 14 April 2003 03:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, right?

― jm (jtm), Monday, 14 April 2003 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

i never got the adulation and praise.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 14 April 2003 04:36 (twenty-two years ago)

this is because you are a bad person.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 14 April 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Anthony, "adulation" and "praise" are the same thing.

Bill Watterson had some interesting things to say about Peanuts in the C & H 10th anniversary book. I'll try to dig it out later.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 14 April 2003 05:22 (twenty-two years ago)

no
they are not.
praise is when you lick the cock and adulation is when you deep throat.

as well,
i dont like it.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 14 April 2003 05:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I know a guy who looks just like Calvin's Dad. He looks nothing like *my* Dad tho.

Fave C&H, when they're on the long car journey and Calvin wants to "visit the bathroom", says so and his mother tells him to think of other things. Calvin loudly announces that all he can think of is Niagara Falls and the Hoover Dam, his mother says that now *she* wants to go and the father mutters something abt going on vacation on his own next time!

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 06:54 (twenty-two years ago)

The Peanuts was great, but it kept going for too long (=until Schulze died). Watterson was the only newspaper comic artist to quit while at the top of his game; even Gary Larson had lost his edge before he retired. Does anyone know what Watterson is up to nowadays?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 14 April 2003 06:56 (twenty-two years ago)

some friends of mine thought the Calvin & Hobbes book on my landlord's bookshelf was abt the *other* Calvin & Hobbes. You'd think the cheery typeface on the spine would've told them that it wasn't.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually I kinda like the late Peanuts strips. Sure, they're not as brilliant as the prime 60s/70s stuff, but there is a certain grace and charm to their wobbly line, smaller form, and their awareness that the end of the strip is coming, and that a few things need to be wrapped up (such as the sequence where Charlie Brown finally gets a kiss).

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

would it be fair to say that Peanuts is abt childhood in the sixties and C&H is abt childhood in the eighties? Peanuts = large groups of kids playing unsupervised, C&H = only child playing alone (apart from imaginary friend), being ferried abt by parents ect ect.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Herriman (Krazy Kat) was better than ever in his last years. Watterson quit at just the right moment, I think. I like lots of later Peanuts, especially the last ever football strip (Lucy is called away so she gets Rerun to hold the football for CB, Rerun comes in the house and refuses to say whether he pulled it away or not...), though the jokes were sometimes more impenetrable than Zippy on a good day.

Peanuts never seemed to be taking place anywhere in particular; Calvin obviously had the biggest backyard in the country.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark's point is a good one, but it always seemed odd that Calvin's school interactions were that limited. They lived in a presumably distant suburb of a city; you'd think he'd end up interacting with more than just his neighbor and the bully.

Of course, that would have totally thrown off the dynamics of the strip.

But so yeah: C&H was more about internal escapism, and Peanuts was about social interaction. The thing is, Peanuts also did a good job with internal escapism (especially with Snoopy); C&H's social dynamics never got nearly as complex as Peanuts'.

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic Schultz quote:

"We actually had a dog called Snoopy. A real dog. Fans of the strip are not going to like this, but we got rid of him. He fought with other dogs, so we swapped him for a load of gravel."

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the solipsism of C&H though; the fact that he must be voicing his best friend as well as himself and we, as readers, know this, adds a real sense of blissful sadness to the cart rides down the hills and through the streams, or the times when they're just laying together under a tree near the creek. Plus the dynamic of the relationship between C&H is remarkable, it's pure love and comfort between the two of them. Plus it's consistently piss-funny, every single strip.

Favourite strip? Either the one where Calvin burps outrageously at the dinner table and his whole face contorts astonishingly before he says summat like "Better out than in!" and summat else exquisitely unpolite before his mom says "Three strikes and you're out kiddo"; or else the one that's on my desktop wallpaper;

Calvin & Hobbes listening to the radio; Calvin breaks into lengthy spiel...

Calvin - "The problem with rock n roll is that the generation that created it is now the establishment. Rock pretends it's rebellious with it's video posturing, but who believes it? The stars are 45-year-old zillionaires or they endorse soft drinks! The 'revolution' is a capitalist industry! Give me a break! Fortunately, I've found some protest music for today's youth! This stuff really offends mom and dad!"

Hobbes - "Easy-listening muzak?"

Calvin - "I play it real quiet too."

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:53 (twenty-two years ago)

BARGE COMING THROUGH!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:25 (twenty-two years ago)

That's the one!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick, I don't think it should make you feel sad. Calvin isn't "being" Hobbes because he's friendless, or scared - this is his reality, it fulfils him totally.

The only times he seems to want to step outside that reality - the valentine for Suzy scenario - it adds a layer of awkwardness that doesn't really work (tho it's cute, obv), and Watterson says the same.

Totally, unequivocally classic.

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I think C&H owes a lot to these characters:

http://www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/images/johnson.books/barnaby_and_mr_omalley.sm.jpeg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:50 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.alloftheabove.net/images/CAHR/snow_art/IceCream_Eatin.gif

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark C - blissfully sad! As in, I wish I had a creek and a tree and a tiger! Not at all a bad thing in any way!

mark s - Can you find any pix of Calvin's snowmen when he goes all avante garde and surrealist? They're so cool...

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:03 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.macomega.com/comics/Calvin&Hobbes-237/Calvin&Hobbes-Snowmen/images/snowmen0.gif

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Perfect!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Calvin & Hobbes == Tweeists
Peanuts == Geezaesthes

When viewed in these terms, the inevitable vistory of C&H is made clear.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Twee? Explain yourself? (it's not.)

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't mean tweeist (biased against twee) , I meant twee.

No, hang on, what d'you mean explain? It's Calvin & Hobbes! It's about the inner world, imaginary friends and so on (apart from the bits about the aliens). IT'S TWEE, ALLRIGHT?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Watterson went to the same college I attended for a couple years (but obviously long before me). Apparantly he didn't talk much and rarely left his dorm room. Makes sense.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 288 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Uncle Max breaks my heart

https://i.redd.it/evlad03a9hw21.jpg

― jmm, Sunday, 17 November 2019 14:25 (six years ago)

I just cracked open a C&H book for the first time in over a decade and I’m already falling out laughing at this:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/49/a6/d049a6c8ea52f09ac85983d879ca5d14.gif

― 💠 (crüt), Sunday, 17 November 2019 14:33 (six years ago)

I think as a kid I did actually categorize Miss Wormwood and Rosalyn as "villains," when really they're the absolute heroes of this universe.

― jmm, Sunday, 17 November 2019 14:40 (six years ago)

Moe is irredeemable.

― jmm, Sunday, 17 November 2019 14:44 (six years ago)

"Sometimes I think ALL my friends have been imaginary."

"Like, you know, the guy with the orange cat who eats lasagna..."

― pplains, Sunday, 17 November 2019 16:45 (six years ago)

^ https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/749bfi/uncle_max_lyman_theory/

― 💠 (crüt), Sunday, 17 November 2019 17:01 (six years ago)

surly morning calvin looks like john terry

― deems of internment (darraghmac), Sunday, 17 November 2019 17:13 (six years ago)

I just cracked open a C&H book for the first time in over a decade and I’m already falling out laughing at this

Thanks, my belly responded similarly! Also hard to repress the thought "who knows, that boy might grow up to be president!"

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Sunday, 17 November 2019 18:45 (six years ago)

Xxp
Lol. I love obscure knowledge/insight about funnies. I think Lyman got dropped because people were asking if Jon and Lyman were lovers

― brain dead operatus (FlopsyDuck), Sunday, 17 November 2019 19:16 (six years ago)

did u know about this year's big garfield revelation?
https://youtu.be/ZSPidZP_3X8?t=534

― wasdnuos (abanana), Thursday, 28 November 2019 20:50 (six years ago)

i remember seeing that older drawing of Garfield in a Garfield book once, i don't think this is that big a revelation

― 💠 (crüt), Thursday, 28 November 2019 23:08 (six years ago)

three years pass...

!!!!

Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson has a book coming out in the fall. https://t.co/JytiWwnV8B
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 14, 2023

― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 14 February 2023 23:54 (three years ago)

holy shit

― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Tuesday, 14 February 2023 23:57 (three years ago)

O_O

― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Tuesday, 14 February 2023 23:58 (three years ago)

OH DARN

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:10 (three years ago)

Ok!

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:18 (three years ago)

this was not the reason I feared the thread got bumped, thank God.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:50 (three years ago)

This is great. What a legend

― hrep (H.P), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:51 (three years ago)

lol yeah him dying seemed way more likely than him releasing something

― frogbs, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:51 (three years ago)

Hmm:

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 00:52 (three years ago)

Wow, this is cool!

I finally got the collected C+H for xmas after hinting about it for like a decade. I kinda wanted the hardcovers buuuut the softcover box set somehow weighs like 413 lbs so I'm ultimately glad that I received a version I will hopefully be able to physically wield in my dotage

― Beautiful Bean Footage Fetishist (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 01:57 (three years ago)

man, this looks and sounds very odd!

― POLIZISTEN VERSINKEN IM SCHLAMM (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 February 2023 05:14 (three years ago)

TBH the cover image looks a lot like an AI with a medieval prompt, just saying, but I am super intrigued by the concept.

― Evan, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 16:05 (three years ago)

We need more oddness out there, and sort of a bummer that the first thing that might come to mind is “AI prompt” when talking about that art but I understand that this is where we’re at these days.

― omar little, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 16:16 (three years ago)

I acknowledge the bombardment of AI lately influences me, but that image in particular really brought me there immediately (not just due to "weirdness" factor, either, I consume plenty of objectively weird current outsider comics).

― Evan, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 19:16 (three years ago)

Can someone make for me a picture of that scared dude pissing on a Tesla logo, thnx.

― pplains, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 19:38 (three years ago)

this book sounds p bad

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 11:22 (three years ago)

Oh so you're the guy

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:00 (three years ago)

literally nothing about it sounds good and the cover is not helping!

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:03 (three years ago)

I'm definitely curious about the book, but I'm also reminded of what he said in The Calvin & Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book: "Graphic novels are incredibly stupid."

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:07 (three years ago)

What about it sounds bad? I mean from the description it could also be good.

― omar little, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:08 (three years ago)

Separately I have a really really distinct memory as a kid of the very first Calvin and Hobbes strip in the newspaper. I would read the comic section every morning religiously, and even as a 10-year-old or maybe even especially as a 10-year-old I recognized immediately that this was a cut above everything else. That and peanuts were my top two for life from then on.

― omar little, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:10 (three years ago)

bloom county and far side to complete the late 80s set imo

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:42 (three years ago)

I’ve got the same collection of C&H books I started acquiring with babysitting money as a child and BW is one of those guys where despite my love for C&H I’m just not interested in the new material. I thought about why and I think it’s partly the fear that he turns out to be personally dodgy in a way that ruins his work for me (cf Morrissey) and also, it just doesn’t seem intrinsically that interesting compared to the stuff I know him for.

― better than whoever you are (gyac), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:47 (three years ago)

Pulled a few boxes of books out of the basement last week and realized I had the first 3 big C&H anthologies down there. When I unpack the boxes again I'm gonna dive into those for sure.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:51 (three years ago)

loved those treasuries back in the day, even though i also had most of the 'regular' books.... having the color Sundays and the bonus stories was great. iirc, Watterson sort of rolls his eyes at those publications in the must-own Tenth Anniversary book, pointing out that he named them The Essential, The Indispensable, and The Authoritative "since the books were obviously none of these things."

i'm periodically tempted by the idea of owning The Complete paperback set. somehow though it feels like something would be lost not having things grouped under "Yukon Ho!" and "Scientific Progress Goes Boink."

― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:06 (three years ago)

― omar little, Wednesday, February 22, 2023 12:10 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I remember that, too! I was immediately struck by the design of the characters -- Calvin's Pac-Man mouth, mainly -- and how clever it was right out of the gate. I mean, the first week or so of C&H was exponentially more funny and creative than the previous 10-15 years of Beetle Bailey or Garfield or whatever combined. It felt like risks were being taken, and apart from Bloom County and The Far Side (as Tracer Hand pointed out), few other (if any) late '80s strips had that spirit.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:14 (three years ago)

The only strips that come even close to C&H are Peanuts and Pogo.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:28 (three years ago)

the artwork and lettering on pogo probably better than those two; C&H owes a big debt to walt kelly for those heavily inked stumps and trees and crags he was so fond of

pogo really so amazing. not sure any other comic has a book of sheet music?

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 19:15 (three years ago)

nine months pass...

There are few things in this world I enjoy as much as the small moments in Calvin and Hobbes when Calvin’s parents do something that make it clear that Calvin got his entire personality from them (even the parts that drive them crazy) https://t.co/CPzcXPN69T pic.twitter.com/GBEACE1eOO
— Billie Takespeare (@maynardgang) December 16, 2023

― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 23:16 (two years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBeIDqtXwAAf_3u?format=jpg&name=medium

In case strip doesn’t show in preview

― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 23:17 (two years ago)

Calvin’s parents the undeniable heroes of C&H. The strips with Calvin’s dad having a nightmare of a family holiday just ruin me

https://i.postimg.cc/X7GbyvQb/IMG-4358.jpg

― H.P, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:39 (two years ago)

Same

― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:40 (two years ago)

It’s amazing how invested the strip gets you

― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:40 (two years ago)

one year passes...

A Calvin & Hobbes reference is a central point in an important Supreme Court opinion. Just fucking sad it's for a horrendous reason.

― birdistheword, Sunday, 24 August 2025 01:34 (seven months ago)

Calvin peeing on the Bill of Rights

― Lady Sovereign (Citizen) (milo z), Sunday, 24 August 2025 02:00 (seven months ago)

two months pass...

debuted 40 years ago today . . . just like psychocandy

― mookieproof, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 23:19 (four months ago)

Huh. If Calvin was six in 1985, he wasn't all that younger than me!

― pplains, Tuesday, 18 November 2025 23:40 (four months ago)

one month passes...

Hey I found the most clueless person in the world:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/roy-lee-interview-weapons-minecraft-calvin-and-hobbes-1236451619/

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 December 2025 21:41 (three months ago)

Happy 30th to the farewell:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gkad5m374snqscbiymep2az2/bafkreiecqpspzsw6gtph2pwrdbi3bevqbjiw5zgfmkhs5sar7l2a7svdvu@jpeg

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 17:59 (three months ago)

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