Well, with the exception of the lush and incredibly detailed landscapes, which always looked like he had worked his fingers to the bone.
“Allo? Eez deez der pooblik lahbrorry? Yah? Allo. I em beeg important rezearcher und I require voolgar Eenglish zynonymz für disgoostink bodily vunkzions, yah? …Allo? Allo?”
We have a half dozen or so of the C&H anthologies, and the whole fambly is Calvin & Hobbes-literate. In fact, when my daughter was learning to read, she turned to those comic books for independent reading. Probably had a great influence on her development.
Just two of my favorites:
Calvin approaches a sleeping Hobbes and holds a cookie under his nose. Hobbes smells the cookie and mutters in his sleep, “Cookies? For me? Why, sure, back up the truck.” Calvin smiles and says, “I like messing with his dreams.”
The image of dreaming about a dump truck filled with cookies being dumped in the back yard delights me.
Calvin asks Hobbes what he would wish for if he could wish for anything. Hobbes says a sandwich. Calvin explodes at the stupidity of wishing for a sandwich when you could wish for power, money, fame, all the standard wishes. Later, back in the house, Hobbes has made himself a sandwich, and says to Calvin, through a mouthful of peanut butter, “I got my wish.”
Brilliant philosophy, that.
The combination of great writing (which was often thoughtful as well as funny) and excellent illustration/draftsmanship make Calvin & Hobbes one of the all-time great comic strips. A pity Watterson ran himself dry and hated the newspaper format so much. We could use more of his kind.
Ah, yes, the philosophy of Calvin and Hobbes. Like all the conversations they have in the wagon while careening through those beautiful landscapes.
The two strips that you mention are both warm fuzzies to me.
I love all the times that Hobbes has to go in the washing machine. Which leaves the question of what Hobbes is. Watterson maintains that he’s not sure, and I have always chosen to believe that Hobbes really is alive when nobody else is around. It’s just as good if he’s just in Calvin’s imagination. That almost makes it more special.
Dad: Didn’t you ever have an imaginary friend?
Max: Sometimes I think all my friends have been imaginary.
“Calvin The Bold will be referring to himself in the third person”
I really believed that he had a video cam in my house recording my son. True story:
The exact day this cartoon ran (Calvin calls dad at work, Dad answers ‘I’m really very busy, if this isn’t an emergency, please call back’, ok dad, flip to scene of Calvin w/Hobbes in kitchen on sink, water overflowing sink onto floor, Calvin says “I figure this will qualify in about 30 minutes”). I read it , think 'yea, Ben would do that. THAT NIGHT! Ben’s in the bathroom “mom, I can’t turn the water off”. Ok, I’ll be there in a second. Ben, more urgently “Moooom, I can’t turn the water off” Ok, Ben, I’ll be right there. Ben, very urgently “Mooom I can’t turn the water off” , and yes, the water was on full force, had filled up the sink and was gushing out onto the floor.
Another favorite: Calvin calling from the door “Mooooom”. Mom replies “please don’t yell, come here and talk to me”. Calvin walks up and says “I stepped in Dog do-do. Where do you want me to put my shoes?”
My biggest regret is that now my son is a teenager, I don’t have the Calvin cartoons as a road map to guide me.
The absolute best Calvin cartoon I ever read was the one where he was having dinner again and it suddenly started to recite Shakespear. It finally stops and then it starts singing ‘Feelings’. When Calvin finally ate it and his mother asks how he liked his fodd, his reply is: “Let’s never have that again please.”
I always crack up when I see Calvin blink at what he just saw when the food plunges the fork in its heart on “For in this sleep of death what dreams will come to shuffle off this mortal coil must give us pause”.
I’ve often remarked that I am not going to have children unless they’re guaranteed to be as nutty as Calvin.
My two favorites? I have them framed on my wall:
Calvin and Hobbes under a tree:
Calvin: I asked my mom the other day whether I was a gifted child. She said she certainly wouldn’t have paid for me.
(silence)
Calvin: You can relay that little story when the reporters ask how I went bad.
The other is when Calvin is sitting at the dinner table and he makes this big speech:
Calvin: Somewhere I bet there’s a little boy in Russia, and he’s suffers under communism and he’s heard about American and the freedom and opportunity here. Someday I’d like to meet that little boy…AND TELL HIM THE AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT THIS PLACE!
Dad: Eat the peas calvin.
Also, Hobbes has given me a catchphrase that I use almost daily. He was writing the notes for G.R.O.S.S. one day and he wrote Hobbes = GRAT. Whenever I’m proud of someone or myself I say that. JARBABY = GRAT!
I love it all. I occasionally re-read an anthology and marvel that the vast majority of his work is still as enjoyable and poignant as the first time I read it. The expressions, emotions, and energy in the artwork still amazes me. It almost seemed as if you could see the actions taking place.
My all time favorites have to be any of the “Snowman” strips, particularly the “accident scene” and the “picket line”, with “bowling” being morbid but hilarious just for the reaction of the headless snowman.
I roll this one onto my screen for a background every once in a while:
Starts off with a pterodactyl flying over the ocean, cliffs and waves on the sides. CALVIN, PAY ATTENTION!! as a sea creature lurches from the ocean to bite the ancient, winged bird.
P-I-P: teacher leaning on Calvins desk, saying: “We’re studying geography! Now what state do you live in?”
Calvins simple and smiling reply: “Denial.”
Teacher walks away saying: “…Sighhh…I don’t suppose I can argue with that…”
Pterodactyl soars free across the bottom of the script…
Simply wonderful.
I get the daily “Calvin and Hobbes” e-mail from ucomics.com and it’s like getting a little sunshine every day.
Watterson definitely brought the complete package of skills to us every day: wonderfully witty and intelligent writing, simple yet deceptively complex artwork, and characters you just couldn’t help but identify with.
I usually found myself identifying most closely with Hobbes and seeing the world around me that I couldn’t control as Calvin.
My favorite stip of all time would have to be the one where Hobbes is describing the ideal woman:
No reason to pout, Marx - the lack of postings may be due to the frequency of this topic. Watterson gets a lot of appreciation around here.
I have a warm place in my heart for the back cover of * The Essential Calvin and Hobbes *, since it depicts a giant Calvin stomping through the town triangle of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, with the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop uprooted and clutched in his mighty grip. Watterson and I were classmates throughout childhood, but are not in touch anymore. He’s been a recluse for years.
If I remember correctly, it was a hundred bucks, not a million.
It’s Paul Gauguin. And he’s an artist. After seeing the comic the first time in the paper, I looked it up.
Time for my contribution to this thread:
Calvin: I’ve decided I believe in astrology and horoscopes.
Hobbes: Really?
Calvin: You bet. It only makes sense that evey facet of our daily lives should depend upon the position of celestial bodies hundreds of millions of miles away.
Calvin: Look here. Today I’ll have “Many key policies Implemented.” I get to have my way!
Hobbes: Oh those mischievous planets.
Calvin: The newspaper couldn’t print it if it weren’t true!
My all time Calvin & Hobbes strip has got to be the final one. I know it was kinda sad and all, Watterson retiring from the comics world, but it was a good way to go.
“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy… Let’s go exploring!”
And so, Watterson leaves our favorite duo off in the wide world of possibilities, where anything is possible with imagination. The comic showed no signs of Calvin’s usual laziness or irresponsibility, just pure curiousity. I believe it was finally time for the Calvins of the world to grow up, and, as I was about thirteen when it was published, I’d thought that it was time for me to grow up, too.
I loved Calvin & Hobbes when I was a kid. Now I’ve got to re-read my collection!
Watterson’s decision to stop producing art (not just stopping his comic stip, but also not doing anything else) is such a loss. He could be creating meaningful art. Great artists shouldn’t be required to create of course. Franz Kafka wanted all of his writings burned. But thank goodness they weren’t!
Has anyone heard anything about what Bill Waterson is doing now? Is there any chance he’ll be returning?
I don’t see why he can’t just write new collections that can be released in a straight-to-book form. It would be a dream come true for me if I heard there was a new C&H book being released.
My favorite is an early one. Calvin and Hobbes are at the kitchen table and there’s a toaster.
Calvin “Wanna see something weird? Watch. You put bread in this slot and push down this lever … then in a few minutes toast pops up!”
Hobbes looks into the toaster and squints “Wow. Where does the bread go?”
Calvin “Beats me. Isn’t that weird?”
that just cracks me up. I also love all the lies the father tells. How the sun sets in Arizona. How the world used to be black and white. How he used to hunt dinosaurs. How Calvin was a blue light special at Wal-Mart. How they’re gonna get the christmas tree out of the trash after christmas. I wanna tell lies like that to my kid someday.