calvin & hobbes?

Question

what's your favorite thing about it? or which strip (for lack of better word) is your favorite?

Answer 1

Calvin & Hobbes combines all the elements of a great comic strip; we see a kid in typical kid situations, but his reactions are totally bizarre. Who else would make duplicates of himself just to get out of homework, and create those duplicates using a cardboard box?

One of the great things about C&H is that you sometimes couldn't be sure how much of it was actually happening, and how much was in Calvin's imagination. LIke when he created his duplicates, they even reacted differently than the "real" Calvin, making it seem as though they were actually different people.

Hobbes, real or imaginary, was a great voice of reason. Somehow he managed to be smarter, more skilled, and a much nicer person than Calvin (much to Calvin's annoyance).

On a side note, it took me a while to get the joke in the names of the characters ... "Calvin" was named after John Calvin, who believed that our lives are pre-destined; "Hobbes" was named for Thomas Hobbes, who believed in free will.

Calvin (the kid) keeps trying to excuse his actions by saying that our destinies are chosen for us, and so it's not his fault that he's a rotten kid.

Answer 2

Strip is the word for it because comic strips are blocks of pictures lined up in strips in newspapers. I love a lot of things about Calvin and Hobbes. I'd say ditto to what some of the other answers said. I'd also add that I really respect Watterson for refusing to comercialize his characters like so many other artists have. He made several books of his strips and I have some of them. But he never licenced his characters out for t-shirts, toys, cartoons, movies, games etc. I like some of the ones who have too like Peanuts and Garfield; but there is something cool about the purist attitude he took to his work that you don't see much today. I think he realized that there is such a thing as market saturation and product overkill. Remember when Peanuts characters could be found everywhere? You don't see it quite as much now since they got carried away and the popularity of the characters turned into a fad. People go crazy on fads and buy up the stuff for a while but eventually even the big fans get tired of it and quit buying more. Watterson was smart to keep us hungry for more.

Answer 3

Hobbes is definitely the best. There are so many faves that I have its hard to pick just one. I love the ones where Calvin comes home from school and Hobbes attacks him when he opens the door. I also love the babysitter ones. But I guess the best one is the Christmas one where Calvin realizes he didn't get Hobbes a gift and they have the big best friends scene

Answer 4

I really like the ones where it seems to be a different strip altogether, like Susie and Calvin are playing house and he gets upset becasue their kid is a rabbit, or Calvin is imagining getting his guts blasted out by the vile Amazon Woman, and then everything reverts in the last panel. It is so dissociative!

I wish I could meet Bill Watterson, because I think his young days must have been a living hell, traumatized by Moe the bully, and reacting by retreating into a fantasy world where his stuffed toy was a live tiger capable of protecting him. And of course, the time when Calvin brought Hobbes to school, and Moe was too proud to be seen with a stuffed toy, so he left Calvin alone. Because Calvin's (Watterson's) psychotic defense "worked", it prevented him being able to really stand up for himself and learn to socialize and all that.

All the infantile power fantasies about blowing up his school with an F-16 and being able to turn back time as Stupendous Man derive from the terrifying helplessness of childhood, where one is helpless agains the superior strength of bullies and the guilt-and-shame producing adults. No wonder the poor kid retreated into madness. And it is only in comparing the strip to our own lives and looking back on our own childhood that we can see, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Bill Watterson, thank you. You took what caused you pain and gave us insight, and humor. Thank you. May God bless you and comfort you.

Answer 5

My favorite comic strip is the one where calvin locks rosalyn out the house (scientific progress goes boink!)
Simply because it's daring, Locking a babysitter out the house, I'd never do that, When she gets in, I'm killed, Calvin is a very daring child, He doesnt care whether he is in huge trouble or not, He just does anything to get out of homework, Made the worlds first transmogrifier, Went to the jurassic period, ETC. The kid has quite a huge imagination, and making his stuffed tiger come to life, He is perfect, I never grew up with garfield or peanuts, I grew with c&h, It was the best idea for any comic strip, Taking many good ideas for imagination and putting it in a comic, I love it!

Answer 6

The anti-smoking strip, in which Calvin tries out one of his grandpa's cigarettes, and runs for a glass of water, saying "How can people get started on these stupid things anyway?"

Same thing happened to me when I was about 7 years old.

Answer 7

I loved everything about it. Such a vivid imagination. Bill Watterson knew when to be funny and when to be poignant.

My fave strips were always Calvin pretending to be other things, like animals. The one about the song sparrow, going something like "A sparrow alights on a branch, but this no ordinary sparrow, it is a song sparrow. Swaying gently in the wind, it prepares to break forth into melody... ON TOP OF SPAGGGGHHEEETTTTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

I just about peed myself laughing over that one.

Answer 8

I loved that Calvin thought and talked like an adult, and still kept his childlike innocence and imagination.

And yes, Hobbes is adorable. :)

Answer 9

Calvin's very active imagination.

I remember one where they spent a few weeks on when the family's home was robbed. it was kind of serious.

Answer 10

The babysitter ones with Rosalyn!!! Hysterical