Bill Watterson Appreciation Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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One of my favorites is Calvin and Hobbes sitting at a table while Calvin is trying to read a book. It never fails to send me into daydreams of leaving college and wandering around just doing…whatever.
Calvin: The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you become more informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize that nothing is as clear and simple as it first appears. Ultimately knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I can’t afford to take that risk. (tosses book)

Hobbes: You’re ignorant, but at least you act on it. (rolls eyes)

One of these days I am going to realize I can’t afford to take that risk either. :slight_smile:

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brother rat said:

I do tell lies like that to my kids!! Unfortunately, they have become jaded through their constant exposure to the cynical media which pervades our lives, and they never believe me. But I’m not going to let that stop me.

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Try Zits http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/zits/about.htm
Jeremy Duncan is plausibly what Calvin would be like at 15: he even looks like him. The combined efforts of Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman are, IMHO, worthy of Watterson.

MarxBoy and Super Nova: The ransom was $100, but the hostage was Susie’s doll Binky Betsy, who only appeared for that sequence.

Some strips that had me ROFL were the one where Calvin practices giving “Bambi eyes” in the hopes that they’ll soften his mom into giving him a flamethrower. And the Sunday strip where C&H go off on each other with the transmogrifier gun: I love when Calvin is a daisy, and still manages to pull the trigger. And the one where Calvin’s parents are “bug-eyed aliens from Neptune” who want to make “a fresh batch of Earth-boy waffles!” After he wakes up momentarily, Dad carries him up to bed, and Mom observes, “His face was pressed into your leg so hard, it made corduroy lines!”

I loved the long sequences, like Calvin and Susie doing the report on Mars. When I was in grade 6, I was partnered with Mr. Brain for a report, and I was a lot like Susie. I was never able to convince him that presentation is just as important as content: he insisted that scribbling his diagrams in pencil was acceptable when one was as brilliant as he was. Hmph.

Remember that really long storyline he did in '89? Must have gone on for two months.

*Calvin binges on Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs so he can send away for a propeller beanie.
*Calvin waits and waits and waits and waits for the beanie to arrive in the mail.
*“Some assembly required. Batteries not included.”
*“My motor broke! The piece snapped! My propeller beanie is broken and I didn’t even get a chance to wear it! Stupid rotten piece of lousy JUNK!!!”
*“Hey mom! Dad fixed something!”
*“I don’t seem to be lifting off. This is very peculiar.”
*Next day, Calvin is a grouch at the bus stop. “Couldn’t you find the bugs you wanted for your insect collection?” asks Susie.
*Calvin frantically tries to gather 50 insects, mount them and label them scientifically on the way to school.
*Calvin somehow gets Susie in trouble, which distracts from his lack of an insect collection.
*Susie walks the Last Mile. “I think they make the hall to the principal’s office this big on purpose.”
*Principal Spittle reassures her: “Oh, yes, we’ve got quite a file on your friend Calvin.” (Several inches thick, with loose papers falling out.)
*“What did your parents have to say about it?” “Nothing, and if you’ll give me a hand with this shovel, it’ll stay that way.”

Sigh. My ne’er-do-well nephew and I used to act out C&H to great effect, especially those sequences. He has a Calvin tattoo, which I sometimes think is the only sign that there may be hope for him.

Anyone notice that my sig is a Calvin quote?

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Sorry to be anal, but it was at K-mart. Wal-Mart wasn’t even close to being that big when that strip was published.

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“Sometimes I think the surest sign of life on other planets is the fact that none of them have tried to contact us yet.”

And from an old sig of mine, which calvin yelled during a sunday strip playing calvinball. “Olly Wolly Polly Woggy Ump Bump Fizz!”

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My dad did that. Regularly. Remind me to tell the “Yellowstone” story sometime. I’ve told my dad that it’s forgiven, but when nursing home time rolls around… :wink:

My favorite C&H had Hobbes laying under a tree. Calvin approaches and says “Hobbes, how much does dad like the car”
Hobbes: Did you damage the car?
Calvin: I don’t know. If I could find it, I could check
Last panel: Hobbes is packing a bag for Calvin, who’s looking at a phrase-book: “Hola, Senorita, I am el fugitivo!”

The Mr O’Mally and Barnaby strips by Crockett Johnson may be the only other comic that scratches the same itch as Calvin and Hobbes. And Mr O’Mally only ran in the '50s.

Fenris

27

Wring had it exactly:

>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.<

When we get to Watterson maybe we can suggest that he do a book on Calvin-as-teenager. Inasmuch as teenage boys are unlikely to haul around a stuffed tiger, how would Hobbes get transmogrified?

I thought that I’d read a thread on Watterson here in the SDMB, “Cultural Center of the Internet,” but couldn’t find anything in the archives. A Google search turns up a lot of information on Watterson and his retreat from the spotlight. Clevelanders will easily recognize the rural eastern town where his Mom carts off signed cartoon collections to Fireside Books.

The best synopsis of Watterson is his speech to the Festival of Cartoon Art at Ohio State University in 1989. Read it here:
http://hobbes58.multimania.com/festival.htm