Calvin & Hobbes Appreciation Thread

[Powder]

So, certainly I'm not the only fan here, right? I've been a fan of the comic strip for as long as I can remember. Much like the TMNT, it was (& at times continues to be) something that eased my mind. I was usually very sick (up until my mid/late teens) with a case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome often times so severe I could not leave my home, & my condition kept me in the bathroom for extensive periods of time. Of course when that's what you're dealing with, you've got to take your mind off of it as best you can. My gameboy came in handy, but nothing brought me more joy than the collected volumes of Calvin & Hobbes that I owned. My mom picked up one or two for me figuring it would be something I'd enjoy, and given my situation & fancy for the strips, over time I owned them all. Those comics were the only thing that really did the trick. They were funny, heartwarming, relatable (being a kid & all), wonderfully illustrated, frequently philosophical & they brought you into many different places as Calvin's imagination held no limits.

Generally speaking, newspaper funnies don't have a time-line. You can read them in any order, and not miss anything as they were simple gags that played out between three to six panels. Though that was the case with C&H on occasion, usually there was a storyline to follow with each new day that sometimes spanned over several weeks. So reading them in collected volumes was much like reading a standard comic book, which to my knowledge is uncommon for strips (though not unheard of). Stories with pictures, gotta love 'em.

I was a Calvin as a kid, so I felt right at home reading it. I latched on to my stuffed animals, giving them personalities & having imaginary adventures & conversations with them, the breadth of my imagination was unmatched, I was an only child terror with a big heart who drove his parents crazy, anything gross was right up my alley, & much like Calvin I didn't have many real friends. It felt like the book was made just for me. Being someone who didn't get out all too frequently and didn't get to enjoy the standard TV pilot childhood, it was wonderful to still feel on par with another kid, even if he was made of ink. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to look like orphan Annie or anything, but when you're a little kid it's much harder to deal with a crummy deck than it is as an adult. You feel like you're the only one in that position, you have the whole "why me" mentality 'cause you don't understand that "sh*t happens". Calvin & Hobbes always cheered me up.

Anyways, who else loves this strip?! Things that stick out the most for me are Calvin's dinosaur daydreams (that have an uncanny resemblance to Jim Lawson's "Paleo", now that I think of it!), the time he made a "transmogrifier" & turned himself & Hobbes into various critters, when clones of Calvin were wreaking havoc in the neighborhood, & the many train-wreck vacations their family had.

[oldmanwinters]

The Sunday strips were the ones I really anticipated every weekend. If I remember, the Sunday paper was the only one my family ever bought regularly (to get the coupons), so I didn't have much immediate exposure to the daily strips. However, since my dad owned just about all of the collected books back in the day, I did get to read the dailies sequentially in that format. Calvin really did have some great adventures with the Transmogrifier. All his plots to try and get out of doing his homework made me envious, although I also realized he could have saved himself a lot of worry by just doing it as early as possible and then enjoying the rest of his day.

[Jo Dawn]

Love Calvin and Hobbes. I have all the compilation books, and while I haven't read them in a few years, I am sure there are comics in there that will still make me laugh out loud as they did then.

Probably more, as I'm sure there are a few more I can appreciate now.

My brother has a Hobbes tattoo. We're both big fans.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jo Dawn

My brother has a Hobbes tattoo. We're both big fans.

Wow, you should really pressure him to a Calvin on the other arm (assuming the Hobbes is on an arm, that is!).

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Jo Dawn

My brother has a Hobbes tattoo. We're both big fans.

I've thought about getting one myself (of both characters), that's neat!

[Machias Banshee]

Loved Calvin and Hobbes growing up. I used to hang out at the library after school and look through the collected books..

[Jester]

Enjoyed Calvin and Hobbs, but I really need to reread a lot of the strips to get a real feel for them again.

[Fugitoid Jones]

As far as I can remember, I think I started reading C&H as soon as I was able to read. My sister had some of the collected books, and I remember reading her's, and then getting obsessed with them enough to ask for my own.

I loved Calvin's alternate personalities, like Spaceman Spiff, Spencer Bullet, and my favorite, Stupendous Man. My grandmother even made me a Stupendous Man cape and cowl for Halloween. I would wear it even when it wasn't Halloween, it was pretty sweet.

[Powder]

Let's all go play Calvinball. The only rule is that there's no rules.

[Eiko]

Now that i think about it i never really did read Calvin and Hobbes except for the ones that where in the newspaper's.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Powder

Let's all go play Calvinball. The only rule is that there's no rules.

Calvinball was the best game ever, because you didn't have to be any good at it to play it well! It was even better than The Far Side's "Tethercat!"

[BoggleKng]

I remember the run where Calvin got to Rosalyn (sp) the babysitter to play Calvinball so he could stay up later and then it backfired on him... The snowmen that Calvin made were my favorite though. I remember making some of them in my front lawn one time. The buried alive snowman and the hanging snowman..

[Fugitoid Jones]

The snowmen that Calvin made were awesome, the Snow Goons was one of my favorite C&H story arcs, I must've re-read that arc half a dozen times.

[oldmanwinters]

Ah... here we go:

[Dirty Blond]

Calvin, Charlie Brown, Bart Simpson. Why do little boys make the best cartoon characters?



My all-time favorite Calvin comic was when he peed on the Chevy logo.

Joking aside, it was a brilliant strip and I admired the artistic integrity of it's creator, Bill Watterson, inasmuch as he fought for more newspaper space on Sundays, as well as his resistance to license his work.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Dirty Blond

I admired...Bill Watterson['s] resistance to license his work.

My all-time favorite Calvin comic was when he peed on the Chevy logo.

I'm sorry, but this all together made me chuckle.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jester

I'm sorry, but this all together made me chuckle.

I thought about that too, but I'm pretty sure DB intended that as a joke:

Originally Posted by Dirty Blond

Joking aside

Anyway, Watterson only licensed C&H for the collected books and for a special educational book, Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes.

I would soooo love to find that thing in somebody's yardsale. $$$

[Dirty Blond]

I'm not with Watterson all the way regarding licensing. I think most of us can agree a plush Hobbes would have been cool to have.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Dirty Blond

I'm not with Watterson all the way regarding licensing. I think most of us can agree a plush Hobbes would have been cool to have.

How so...like he appears in "real life" or in Calvin's imagination?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jester

How so...like he appears in "real life" or in Calvin's imagination?

Yeah, that's the problem. Part of the beauty of the strip is that the reader is never sure which version of Hobbes is the most "real." Is it Calvin's point-of-view or the perspective of the rest of the more "mature" world?