Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes had no friends. I mean, yeah, he had his stuffed tiger, but that doesn’t count as “real.” Sure, Susie would play with him occassionally but even she would get disgusted and leave, which suited Calvin just fine. Other than that…nothing. No neighborhood kids, no classmates, nothing. His parents didn’t seem to care about this all that much and it seemed that Calvin enjoyed being a loner. Or, rather, with Hobbes at his side, he probably didn’t think of himself as alone at all.
But Hobbes was there. An imaginary character for Calvin to play with, through thick and thin. The strip never really delved into the origin story of Hobbes but I’m wondering how Calvin came to be the way that he is. Why doesn’t he have friends? Why doesn’t he relate to other kids?
I’ve set up a poll with two theories but feel free to create your own. My two theories are a flip of each other’s cause and effect. Understand that when I say “weird” or “normal” in this poll I’m not making a judgement. I’m merely comparing it to general societal behaviors.
One of the very early strips had Calvin in some local version of the Cub Scouts but Watterson realized that having other kids around wouldn’t allow Hobbes to be “real”.
Bees, the one that runneh linked to is also fake, or more accurately it’s a strip by another artist that purportedly (but not seriously) shows what happened after the last genuine C&H strip.
I would say neither in response to the poll. As mentioned upthread Watterson kept Calvin as a loner to have Hobbes be real.
Having imaginary friends is not weird, even for kids in “real life”. My 3 year old plays with an imaginary friend, quite extensively. But she also goes to preschool and has play dates with other kids. The imaginary friend doesn’t go to school with her or stays around when others are over.
The strip just wouldn’t be as interesting without Hobbes and Hobbes is really only around when Calvin is by himself.
I selected the first option. However, I don’t really think Calvin was really “weird” per se. He was just a kid with a very active and vivid imagination. Hobbes is actually kind of irrelevant, as he was really just there as the “straight man” for Calvin’s imagination to play off, and to some degree he was the “voice of reason” (as opposed to Calvin’s parents, who were merely flabbergasted all the time).
I do so want this T-shirt, though:
(Linked shirt SFW; many other shirts on that site probably not.)
I completely understand the artistic reasoning behind why Calvin was a loner. From a story standpoint, it makes sense because Hobbes is only in the imagination and that doesn’t work when you’re around everyone else.
But that’s my question, really. Calvin isn’t around kids because the story would be weird. Calvin is just weird around other kids. Sure he’s got an overactive imagination and there’s nothing wrong with that. But he’s got no one else besides Hobbes that he ever relates to. Why? Was he always like that and it drove everyone away? That seems the most likely situation.
But the alternative is that he was just slightly awkward, and never related to anyone, and it was the shunning that drew him more and more into himself where even he can’t admit that the only reason he acts like he does is because he’s trying to compensate for the fact that no one else likes him.
I think he became increasingly “weird”, but not because he couldn’t relate to others. His imagination was just growing. And, unlike most people, it became so powerful that some of it really was real, like that one time Hobbes tied Calvin up. (Either that, or all of it was real, and Calvin is the only one who can see it.)
I’d say his loner status was pretty much constant throughout.
And as far as the poll, I picked the first option. Suzie, for example, seemed to really want to befriend him, but he was just too weird for her. I suspect that a lot of other kids felt the same way. Besides, they probably couldn’t understand what he was talking about most of the time, since he had the vocabulary of a college student.
As I recall, the very first C&H has Hobbes being caught outside in the woods in Calvin’s “tiger trap”. So clearly, Hobbes was an alien infiltrator who imprinted on Calvin in order to study humanity for its eventually destruction.
I believe it was Calvin’s uncle who questioned why Calvin had no friends and asked the mother if it worried them. She replied, something along the line of “no,” and that in time he’d give it up.
Besides, he had Susie to play with too. Susie loved Hobbes and Hobbes LUSTED after Susie. Which made interesting strips as Calvin could possibly lose his best and only friend, especially to a, YECH, girl.
I view the strip as just a PART of Calvin’s life. We only see him in the times he’s with Hobbes and not the times he isn’t. Because Calvin’s life without Hobbes is boring and we don’t want to read about those times.
