I just want to say how much I miss this comic strip. I just finished reading through all the books for about the 100th time, and I still love them.
“When this happens, you can be darn sure those of you who were mean to me in school will suffer appropriatly! I’ll employ my resources to make your puny lives miserable! I’ll crush you pitiful dreams and ambitions like bugs in the dust!
…But there IS an alternative! I’m not accepting a limited number of applications to be my pal. The cost is just $20 per person, and you can revel in the association for a lifetime! Any takers?”
Me too! I really miss Spaceman Spiff. Does anyone know why Bill Watterson retired? This strip wasn’t around anywhere near as long as some others.
C.-“I have more brains than I know what to do with.”
H.-“So I’ve noticed.”
Hey dad, know what I figured out? The meaning of words isn’t a fixed thing! Any word can mean anything!
By giving words new meanings, ordinary English can become an exclusionary code! Two generations can be divided by the same language!
To that end, I’ll be inventing new definitions for common words, so we’ll be unable to communicate.
Don’t you think that’s totally spam? It’s lubricated! Well, I’m phasing.
I think the surest sign that there’s intelligent life out there is that it hasn’t tried to contact us.
BTW, SuperNova, I’ll gladly pay $20 to be your friend. Just understand that friends give me presents on a weekly basis with at least a $25 value to them.
I used to love Calvin and Hobbes, they’re the greatest comic strip ever. Hobbes is part of the reason I adore tigers, we even made him white and used him as a class mascot for a while (we’re the white tigers)
Loved Calvin and Hobbes, and miss it lots. Lizard, I kinda remember reading something about Bill Watterson wanting to end the strip before it got tired, but that’s such a common reason for ending a strip/show/whatever, I may be mistaken.
One of the things that made C&H great, I think was, the fact that once in a while it would tackle something very touching or, gasp, serious, without being preachy or too sugary. There was one where Calvin found a dead bird, and a week’s worth of strips (I think) in which he tried to nurse some small animal back to health (it died). When I read those in the collections, they make me cry-- and a few pages later, I’m laughing at his post-modernist snow sculptures, or his attempts to hold elections for a new dad.
Well, let me just say that I miss Calvin & Hobbes terrribly as well.
I adopted this User name after the first comic treasury came out, and I have used it faithfully ever since.
I used to love the “imagination” strips, where he would imagine something is worse than it is in reality, or better in some cases. Such as the Playground slide that went to orbit, the Tyrannosaurs in F15s , The Combination Train wreck, Gas leak, Plane Crash, and earthquake all conversing on the spot of Farmer Brown’s house, The deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, etc etc etc…
But I have to say that I was most partial to the “Stupendous Man!” segments, and hence my name.
I understand that Watterson retired becasue he didn’t want to be under the pressure of coming up with new ideas all the time, and thus didn’t want the strip to lkose it’s appeal with time.
I also admire the fact that he didn’t engage in the marketing game, putting Calvin & Hobbes on every piece of merchandise he could just to become filthy rich as fast as possible. The strip was about the comic, and not about the money.
Few comic strip writers deserve the kind of respect that Watterson did, except of course for the late Charles M. Schultz, who shall always have a place in my heart. These two gentlemen will have a place in history as the two greatest cartoonists of our time.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Watterson will be back someday though, even if it is not to continue C&H… He can’t be out for good yet.
As a chef, one of my favorites was when Calvin walks past his mother in the kitchen. His mom is crying and Calvin asks why. She replies that she’s cutting up onions. Calvin wanders off muttering;
“It must be hard when you anthromorphize your vegetables.”
I always viewed Hobbes as some figment of Calvin’s adult alter ego. Especially hilarious was when Calvin used the Transmogrifier to turn himself into a Tiger. When Calvin steps out for the first time, seeing the ever eloquent Hobbes reduced to saying, “Words fail me”, almost had me wetting myself, as with Calvin’s sudden desire for a tuna fish sandwich. We won’t even go into the “car accident” snowmen.
If you would please. A moment of virtual silence for the passing of Calvin and Hobbes and for The Far Side too.
C- I’m waiting for insiration.
H- What kind?
C- Ihe inspiration of last-minute panic.
I am a firm believer os this kind o f inspiration, as I am the self-proclaimed Queen of Procrastination.
A few years ago I was building one of Calvin’s weird snowmen in my parents yard. A lady walked by with her little girl and they both stopped to look at the two-headed, three armed creation. She didn’t even ask what it was though, just exclaimed “Oh! You’re building a snowgoon!”
Ooooh…I LOVED the snow sculptures!
But the best was…Calvin Ball!
And don’t forget Get Rid of Slimy girlS club-GROSS. Calvin is Dictator for Life, and Hobbes was president. And little Susie Derkins-remember when Calvin would try and gross her out with what he had for lunch?
Teehee!
If you’d read Watterson’s Tenth Anniversary collection, you’d know SO much.
He fought a long battle with his syndicate about licenscing. They wanted to, he didn’t. He wanted to keep the strip pure, about the strip. Compare Calvin & Hobbes to Garfield, which has been plastered on every damn bumper in America.
After spending about 5 years fighting them, he finally did win. They rewrote his contract so that they couldn’t go over his head and licence without his permission (the original contract permitted it).
However, five years of fighting a large corporation with virtually no support will sort of wear someone out. He quit for several reasons. He was worn out. He wanted the strip to quit while it was ahead, still original and funny (again, unlike Garfield). He felt he was running out of ideas, so he wanted to stop the strip.
Calvin & Hobbes always has been and always will be my favorite comic strip.
“Knife Weilding Mother Hacks Icthyoid! Grim spectacle part of cannibal suburban ritual”
Baby racoon got hit by a car. “Poor little guy never had a chance.” “Stupid racoon, why’d you have to go and die? Two days ago I didn’t even know you existed, and now you’re dead.”
