Calvin and Hobbes
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"Calvin and Hobbes" was a popular comic strip written by Bill Watterson about a boy named Calvin and his best friend, a talking tiger named Hobbes. First syndicated in 1985, Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers. Almost 23 million Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed. The strip is based on Calvin, a 6 year old boy, and his tiger Hobbes. In the first strip, Calvin meets Hobbes when he catches him with a rope noose baited with a tuna fish sandwich.
There has been much discussion over whether Hobbes is imaginary or a stuffed animal that actually comes to life. Bill Watterson explains that while stuffed animal Hobbes is in one reality, living Hobbes is in another, and readers may decide which one is real. Together Calvin and Hobbes run into all sorts of trouble and adventures. The comic strip ran from November 18, 1985 until December 31, 1995.
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[edit] Characters
[edit] Primary Characters
[edit] Calvin
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- Main article: Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)
Named after 16th century theologian John Calvin, Calvin is an impulsive, imaginative, hyper, curious, smart, and often selfish and rude six-year-old boy, whose last name the strip never gives. Despite his low grades, Calvin has a wide vocabulary range that rivals that of an adult as well as an emerging philosophical mind. "You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid?" he says. "Well, mine are even worse!" He commonly wears his trademark red-striped shirt. Watterson has described Calvin this way:
- "Calvin is pretty easy to do because he is outgoing and rambunctious and there's not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth."[1]
- "I guess he's a little too intelligent for his age. The thing that I really enjoy about him is that he has no sense of restraint, he doesn't have the experience yet to know the things that you shouldn't do."
[edit] Calvin's alter-egos
On many occasions, Calvin sees himself in one of his many alternate guises: as the superhero Stupendous Man, the astronaut and explorer Spaceman Spiff, the private eye Tracer Bullet, and many others. There comparing to his imahinitve worlds to the real world in the strip, it guides him thorugh fun and adventure when actually compared to his everyday lifestyle.
[edit] Hobbes
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- Main article: Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)
In classic comic tradition of sidekicks, Hobbes represents Calvin's potential maturity, and externalized conscience. A comic about a young boy throwing snow balls into a neighbor girl's head would be sad and trite without Hobbes there to wisely tease him, "You think she's cute, right?"
From most characters' point of view, Hobbes is Calvin's stuffed tiger. However, from Calvin's point-of-view, Hobbes is as alive and real as anyone in the strip. He is named after 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who had what Watterson described as "a dim view of human nature."[2] Hobbes is much more alert and aware of consequences than Calvin, but rarely interferes with Calvin's troublemaking beyond a few oblique warnings — after all, Calvin will be the one to get in trouble for it, not Hobbes. Hobbes also has the habit of regularly sneeking and jumping upon Calvin, mostly happening when Calvin returns home from school and walks into the house.
From Calvin's point of view, Hobbes is an real, intelligent, loyal, and cunning tiger, much larger than Calvin and full of his own attitudes and ideas. But when the view changes to any other character, readers see merely a little stuffed tiger. This is, of course, an odd dichotomy, and Watterson explains it thus:
"When Hobbes is a stuffed toy in one panel and alive in the next, I'm juxtaposing the "grown-up" version of reality with Calvin's version, and inviting the reader to decide which is truer.[3]"
Although the first strips clearly show Calvin capturing Hobbes by means of a snare (with tuna fish as the bait), a later comic (1 August 1989) seems to imply that Hobbes is, in fact, older than Calvin, and has been around with him his whole life. Nonetheless, Watterson decided that it was not important to explain how Calvin and Hobbes had first met.[2]
[edit] Secondary Characters
[edit] Calvin's family
Calvin's mother and father are for the most part regular Middle American middle-class parents; like many other characters in the strip, their relatively down-to-earth and sensible attitudes serve mainly as a foil for Calvin's immature and selfish behavior. Both parents go through the entire strip unnamed, except as "Mom" and "Dad", or such nicknames as "hon" and "dear." Watterson has never given Calvin's parents names "because as far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." This ended up being somewhat problematic when Calvin's Uncle Max was in the strip for a week and couldn't refer to the parents by name, and was one of the main reasons that Max never reappeared.[2]
[edit] Susie Derkins
Susie Derkins, the only character in the strip with both first and last names, is a fellow classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. She first appeared early in the strip as a new student in Calvin's class. In contrast with Calvin, she is polite and very smart and willing to improve in her studies and grades at school, and her imagination usually seems mild-mannered and calm, consisting of a several stereotypical young girls' games such as playing house or having tea parties with her stuffed animals. Her approach to these games is arguably more modern, however, some might say even cynical. (In a game of "house" she usually casts herself as the traditional working wife while Calvin is the lousy and useless husband or some version similar to that.) "Derkins" was the nickname of Watterson's wife's family beagle, and he liked the name so much he named this character after it. As much as either of them hate to admit, Calvin and Susie have quite a bit in common. (Susie is shown on occasion with a stuffed rabbit known as "Mr. Bun," and Calvin always has Hobbes.)
Watterson admits that Calvin and Susie have a bit of a wild crush on each other (Said by Calvin, "It's shameless the way we flirt."), and that Susie is inspired by the type of women Watterson himself finds attractive (which has led to speculation that Susie is based on Watterson's wife). Her relationship with Calvin, though, is frequently conflicted, and never really becomes sorted out, and the closest things are times when Calvin sends dead flowers and hate-mail as Valentine's Day gifts for his own enjoyment. (She feels he likes her enough to send her that gift, and he rejoices in her noticing.)
On occasion, Hobbes takes action to attract Susie's romantic attention, often with success, and much to Calvin's anger and jealousy. Although on the surface these events take the form of Hobbes teasing Calvin and showing off his charms, they may be Calvin's way to disguise his own crush on Susie, by pretending that it is Hobbes' crush instead.
[edit] Moe
Moe is the traditional bully character in Calvin & Hobbes, "a six-year-old who shaves" who is always shoving Calvin against walls, demanding his lunch money and calling him "Twinky." Moe is the only regular character who speaks in an unusual font: his (frequently monosyllabic) dialogue is shown in crude, lower-case letters. Watterson describes Moe as "every jerk I've ever known." And while Moe is not smart, he is, as Calvin puts it, streetwise. "That means he knows what street he lives on."
[edit] Miss Wormwood
Miss Wormwood is Calvin's world-weary teacher, named after the apprentice devil in C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. She perpetually wears polka-dotted dresses, and serves like others as a foil to Calvin's mischief. Calvin's response to the boring studies of schoolwork is endless dreams of his imagination. His teacher is waiting to retire, takes a lot of drugs and medicine, and is apparently a heavy smoker and alcoholic drinker.
Although there is a definite progression of time in the Calvin and Hobbes universe, mainly exhibited by the changing seasons, Calvin (and Susie) returns to Ms. Wormwood's first-grade class every fall.
As usual, for an adult entering Calvin's world, Miss Wormwood sees it differently from Calvin. When she confronts Calvin regarding missing homework, for example, Calvin's Spaceman Spiff persona perceives a large slimy threatening snarling alien. "Slowly, carefully, Spiff draws his death-ray blaster".
[edit] Rosalyn
Rosalyn is a teenage high school senior student and Calvin's main babysitter, whenever Calvin's parents go on a night out together. She is the only babysitter able to tolerate Calvin's mishchievous behavior, which she uses to demand raises and advances from Calvin's desperate parents. She is also, according to Watterson, the only person Calvin truly fears— certainly she is his equal in cunning, and doesn't hesitate to play as dirty as he does. Rosalyn was known to have a habit of sending him to bed at 6:30 which he opposes and only causes more trouble. Rosalyn's boyfriend, Charlie, never appears in the strip but calls her occasionally. These calls are often interrupted by Calvin. Originally she was created as a nameless, one-shot character with no plans to appear again; however, Watterson decided he wanted to retain her unique ability to intimidate Calvin, which and ultimately, led to many more appearances.
At one time during the strip shown in the book collection "The Revenge of the Babysat", Calvin's parents prepare to go out on a night with a dinner and a movie while leaving Calvin with Rosalyn. In freight of the news, he runs up to Hobbes and explains the situation. Later when Rosalyn appears, Calvin and Hobbes over hear Rosalyn needing to study for a big science test which they plan to stop. After Calvin's parents leave, Calvin shows up to Rosalyn in curious of what she's doing. After slyly talking her way to her science notes, he quickly grabs them and heads to the bathroom door with Hobbes, and locks the door while Rosaln yells from he outside demanding her notes back. Once the "flushed" her notes (in which they only pretended to and flushed an empty toilet causing a hysteria for Rosalyn. Moments later when the wonder if Rosalyn has gone, Calvin opens the door only to find Rosalyn pounce upon him and throw him to bed at 7 o'clock which Hobbes notes tht they went to bed 30 minutes later than usual. The ending shows Calvin's paents coming back home to find Rosalyn charge extra money for the job while Calvin's parents argue if here's another babysitter in town.
[edit] Reoccuring/Background Characters
[edit] Principal Spittle
Although Prinicpal Spittle was well widely known throughout many readers, he appeared only a few times in the strip only when Calvin overwent Ms. Wormwood's patience and would send him to the principal's office for his lastest misbehavior. Principal Spittle appeared early in the strip as Calvin's elementary school's principal, he along with Ms. Wormwood, were several Calvin's main obstacles he went through school, especially on his outrageous behavior.
[edit] Calvin's classmates
Usually when Calvin's in school the strip mainly focuses about his daily routine through school which were described as "Wake up, get up, shut up, listen up, throw up, mix up, goof up, and hurry up". But the only notable characters in Calvin's class were Susie Derkins and Moe, well including Ms. Wormwood. But other one-shot chacrters also appreared with names of "Candice", "Jessica", and "Tommy Chesnutt".
[edit] Calvin's doctor
Calvin's doctor is usually seen as a mild-mannered and child friendly person as of which he rarely gets angered by Calvin's michevious behavior and rather asks the nurse to call the zoo. There, he normally appears for Calvin's annual check up or when he becomes ill like catching chicken pox. Although Calvin;s peditatric doctor remained unnamed since he appeared early in the strip and throguhout the time, he was generally seen talking in first person words such as "I" which prevented the presence of knowing his name.
[edit] Aliens
In Calvin's imagination and sometimes in real life (although it was argued wether several aliens really existed while not in Calvin's mind) he comes across many different aliens while usually in his "Spaceman Spiff" universe. As Spaceman Spiff, most of the aliens he runs into are hostile, insect-type creatures and other forms of aliens that usually would shoot his small, red vechile down into an uncharted planet, capture him and try to excute him, or would be attacked by native aliens in different planets. Although the aliens range from the Star Wars type where aliens appear in gigantic spaceplanes with an array of deadly weapons that chases Spiff through many places to simple insect type aliens native to the planet that had no intelligence. But on rare cases in the strip, some of the aliens (which was actually Calvin's mom in the real world) helped him survive by bringing him sandwiches and lemonade or a hat and some sunblock lotion when either "scorhced by twin suns" or in needs of shelter.
While the aliens in Calvin's mind was instantously known as pure imaginitve adventures, at a time during the strip's end, two aliens known as Galaxoid and Nebular appeared to Calvin stating that they wished to take over the world. At first when Calvin made a false agreement by asking for 50 alien leaves from antoher planet so he would be able to turn in a last-minute assignment at school, Hobbes asks what would they do if the aliens then ruled the world. Calvin's simple reply was that he didn't care and said, "girls would make great zoo exhibits". Several months later (approxiametly around mid-December) the two aliens return while the enraged two demand Calvin to fix to climate (which Galaxiod and Nebular had snow on their skin that made them cold and angry). Hobbes then suggests to donate his and Calvin's Christmas stockings to the aliens to wear them from the cold. At first when Calvin angrily demands his Christmas stocking back, the aliens thank him and leave while Hobbes remind Calvin that he did a spontanoeus act of good which Calvin exclaims that he's hit the jackpot.
[edit] Uncle Max
Uncle Max was a one-time shot character that appeared around the strip's middle ages a when Calvin's dad's borther was coming for a visit. There Max appeared in the strip for a week before leaving only to be never seen again. Uncle Max was described as a man with a mustache, wore no glasses, and with longer hair, but had a similar to appearence and age compared to Calvin's dad. Some other things known about him was that it was mentioned that Max also visited Calvin's family when Calvin was only a baby, but barely recongizes him as a family member.
[edit] Recurring subject matter
[edit] Snowballs and Snowmen
During the winter time, Calvin was often seen making ugly or frightening types of snowmen when once Calvin created the "Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons". Also his snowmen creations had snowmen with missing or multiple heads, snowmen taking another's head for a bowling ball, and snowmen being "knocked over" by his family's car.
Also Calvin frequently threw snowlls at Susie, most likely having himself being chased by Susie. Once Calvin (while in his "Stupendous Man" alter-ego) also made a gigantic snowball and dropped it at Susie while on top of a tree, as where Susie's mom described it as a "the size of a bowling ball".
[edit] Monsters Under the Bed
The monsters under the bed were described as scary, octopus-tenacled shaped creatures that lived under Calvin's bed everytime he went to sleep. Often they would try to bribe Calvin to come under the bed by giving him a new toy or by lurging Hobbes to push Calvin over in return for a fresh piece of salmon. According to Calvin he'd usually describe them as "all fangs and no brains". They often lie to Calvin when he asks "how many monsters are under my bed?, when they'd usually reply there's "only one" or "none and go to sleep". Although various monsters were known to exist under Calvin's bed, two named monsters "Maurice" and "Winslow" appeared and re-appeared during the strip's middle times.
[edit] G.R.O.S.S.
Get Rid Of Slimy Girls is Calvin's anti-girl club in which the club's goal is to annoy and bother girls, particulary Calvin's main target, Susie Derkins. The club has only two members, Calvin and Hobbes which Calvin takes role as "supreme dicator-for-life" and Hobbes being the "first tiger". There, the two usually plot on throwing water balloons or snowballs on her which sometimes end up with a flawed ending. But nonetheless, according to Calvin, everytime they finish a mission or meetings, they always award out medals, honors, adn promotions.
[edit] School and homework
Calvin hates school and homework as much as anything he says and usually tries to slip out from both of them. He struggles against his mom from catching the school bus, and would sometimes attempt to ditch the class and run home. At one Sunday strip, Calvin's imagination became so wild and vivid that he imagined getting in a F-14 warcraft and blasting his elementary school to piece with a number of missiles. Susie likes school and homework and better herself in academia.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Chris Suellentrop. "The last great newspaper comic strip", Slate magazine, November 7, 2005.
- "Missing! Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson.", Cleveland Scene, November 26, 2003
- Neely Tucker. "The Tiger Strikes Again", The Washington Post, October 4, 2005
[edit] Multimedia
- Radio show in which fans of the comic strip express their views about the ending of Calvin and Hobbes (mp3). CBC Canada (1995).
- Review of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes featuring an interview with Bill Watterson's editor Lee Salem (Real, Windows Media). NPR (2005).
- In Search of Bill Watterson: A podcast interview with Bill Watterson's mother (mp3). Jawbone Radio (2005).
[edit] External links
[edit] Official websites
[edit] Fan websites
- Cool Calvin and Hobbes Collection
- The Calvin and Hobbes Album
- The Calvin and Hobbes Online Museum
- Calvin and Hobbes: Magic on Paper
- Kim's Calvin and Hobbes Page
- Calvin and Hobbes Unofficial Website
- http://www.progressiveboink.com/
[edit] Articles/Misc.
- Chris Suellentrop. "The last great newspaper comic strip", Slate magazine, November 7, 2005
- "Missing! Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson", Cleveland Scene, November 26, 2003
- Neely Tucker. "The Tiger Strikes Again", Cleveland Scene, November 26, 2003.
- "Radio show in which fans of the comic strip express their views about the ending of Calvin and Hobbes (mp3). CBC Canada (1995).
- "Calvin and Hobbes at the Open Directory Project.
| Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson |
|---|
| Main Characters |
| Calvin | Hobbes |
| Secondary Characters |
| Susie Derkins | Miss Wormwood | Moe | Rosalyn |
