C: Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best available choices.
Some People are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise.
And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads.
H: I wonder which YOU are.
C: I pragmatically turn my whims into principles!
God I love Calvin and Hobbes!
Here in Flint, one of the most common stickers you see is Calvin peeing on a Ford logo. Saw a truck a few weeks ago with (I swear I am not making this up) THREE of them. Dammit, I hate that. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
I’ve always believed that Calvin is the (gaaaaack, I can’t believe I’m going to say this) inner child of most grown men. Most males I know have a little bit of Calvin in them. Some of them even still act like him sometimes.
And the snow sculptures do rule!
I loved the strips with Susie…she was sort of the anti-Calvin
(paraphrasing)
Susie: I can’t wait to get to school and learn all sorts of new things.
Calvin: stares at her
Susie: What are you looking at?
Calvin: Your bangs do a good job hiding the lobotomy scar.
And I hate those window stickers, too. When I see one, I automatically subtract IQ points from the driver.
Oh, and I love Calvin’s dad. I have this strip hanging on the bulletin board in my cubicle right now:
Calvin: What does it mean when someone says to “give it the ol’ college try”?
Dad: It means you join your friends, get some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow.
Mom: That’s not what it means!
Dad: Where did you go to college?
Calvin: Never mind
C & H is the best. Add my vote to the Snow Sculptures being the pentultimate feature.
“They drive bigger and bigger trucks over it until it breaks. Then they weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge.”
I use this explanation all the time when my kids ask me questions. ANY questions.
One of my favs is the strip where it is drawn like Mary Worth or some other adult comic and Calvin and Susie are playing house and Susie tries to use a bunny rabbit doll as their child.
I am actually laughing now.
Just the other day I was thinking about starting a thread warning all pregnant women not to read Calvin and Hobbes.
I read three of the books in two days while I was carring our now four year old son.
I now have a little blonde child who carries around a stuffed Tigger with the wildest imagination.
Okay, nobody boo me but we do have a bootleg sticker on our van and it is a nice on with Calvin and Hobbes with wicked little grins. I had to get it. And yes the other tasteless ones disgust me.
Any way my son insists that the sticker isn’t Calvin and Hobbes that it is Dylan and Tigger.
This is also the child that instead of telling his father that he needed a drink or what not to get out of bed, changed his voice and to his dad that he wasn’t Dylan that he was a robot and they don’t need to sleep.
I blame this all on my husband. You see if he wasn’t a die hard fan I wouldn’t have found a love for C&H and read the books during pregnancy which caused us to look as harried as the parents in the strip.
We are always asking each other what is next with him. Can’t wait to see our yard when he starts building snowmen. And for some odd reason he love to play in cardboard boxes!
Ya’ know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world even though it gets trying at times. 
I think what I like best about him is the GLEE in his face when he tells Calvin one of those whoppers…you look at Calvin’s folks and think “Where did he get it?” and it’s obvious that he’s his Daddy’s little boy.
my two favourite C & H joke is when they do the play and Calvin meets Suzie at the bus stop dressed in his onion suit:
the first is when calvin is waiting with Hobbes at the bus stop and hobbes yells:
QUICK RUN FOR YOUR LIFE- ITS A PRODUCE TRUCK!
the other is with suzie before the play
C: Im an onion. what are you?
S: Im fat
C: nono I mean in the play
[C gets beats]
I love the Calvin and Hobbes strip dearly. The strip that ran the same week my grandmother died was wonderfully synchronistic. The preface panel was a beautiful rendering of a dead sparrow. And the wording included “ruthless”: Ruth was my grandmother’s name. It was about loss. It sounds a bit overwrought now, but the timing brought me to tears. I called my aunt and sister, both C&H fans, and they were in the same state of laughing tears. My grandmother was a devout Sunday Morning Paper Reader, and had passed it on to us all, so it was a sly and fitting synchronicity.
I recall that at the time of the last strip, Mr. Watterson said that he was going to study"Fine Art". He certainly interspersed some delicate drawings in with the boisterousness of the cartoon, especially in the fall.
You have to admire his integrity. It’s the only cartoon that did not cash in on the merchandise train. He could have sold millions of stuffed Hobbes toys!
I do hope he comes back and shares his sweet mind with all of us, and that he doesn’t become the comic strip equivalent of JD Salinger. But, even if not, he made every day a whole lot better for a long run, and I thank him for that!
“Leave it to a girl to take all the fun out of sex discrimination.” Calvin and Hobbes, 1985
“There’s no problem so awful that you can’t add some guilt to it and make it even worse!” Calvin and Hobbes, 1986
“Boy! Ask a simple question and get all your television privileges revoked.” Calvin and Hobbes, 1986
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” – Bill Watterson, in Calvin and Hobbes, 1988
“Childhood is short and maturity is forever.” – Bill Watterson, in Calvin and Hobbes, 1989
My two very favorites are when calvin is grabed by his bedclothes (8Aug87) and when cola enhances Calvin’s sex appeal (9June86).
I keep looking through the website thinking I need to get this one framed for so-and-so. I wish they were not so expensive. Has anyone bought one of the strips? Is it worth $45 for a 5x13 BW on acid-free, archival-quality paper?
Calvin is hammering nails into a table.
Mon: What are you doing?!!
Calvin: Is that a trick question?
I loved the Dad elections.
One of my fav. Calvin and Hobbes strips was the one where he begins speaking in shakespearian language, telling his mom he’s going out to play (because she’s watching some on TV and he’s just bored to tears).
Yes it’s gone but Rose is Rose captures a lot of its qualities and has some fantastic, beautiful art, too!
I fully expect a Was Hobbes alive? thread to show up in Great Debates now.
I LOVED Calvin and Hobbes! I’ve been reading 'em since I was 7 and a friend gave me the first book. It’s a shame Bill’s no longer doing the strip, but he sure did give us all a lot of good memories, didn’t he? I cut the last Sunday comic out of the newspaper and had it framed. One of the best things hanging on my wall.
Dad (to Mom): I can’t find my glasses anywhere? Have you seen them?
(Calvin walks in wearing his Dad’s glasses)
Calvin: Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!
Dad (to cracking up Mom): Ok, maybe the voice was funny, but that’s one darn sarcastic kid we’re raising.
In honor of today:
“Bad news, Dad. The polls say your popularity is at an all time low.”
I, too, thought the snowmen Calvins (esp. his miniature armies) were some truly inspired genius.
But I’ve gotta give my props to Rosalyn the baby-sitter. We were able to see Calvin overtly rebelling against authority, something he never really did with his parents, or even his teacher ("…she’s up to three packs a day, unfiltered").
Of course, Rosalyn was compensated, tho’ I can’t imagine she got what she was really owed, not without putting Mom & Dad into Chapter 11.
I have cut out the last sequence with Rosalyn, because she and C. finally find a way to compromise: Calvinball!
What a great way to literally and symbolicly level the playing field. (“Sorry, you’re not allowed to question the masks.”)
I would have glady paid good money annually to watch professional Calvinball leagues.
There’s a Calvin and Hobbes web site but I can’t figure out if my favorite Sunday strip is up yet. It was one where Calvin yet again insults his mother’s cooking, and then she tells him they are having stewed monkey heads for supper. Calvin begins to get excited and then his father refuses to eat the supper. My copy of this strip had been damaged.
Olly wolly polly woggy ump BUMP fizz!
Okay, if Chocobo is going to resurrect this baby, then I get to chime in and say…
Doesn’t anyone remember Tracer Bullet? I think he had maybe four storylines, but he was easily my favorite Calvin personality. The beautiful noir drawings, the inspired narration…Tracer rocks!
“I decided to introduce him to a friend who’s very close to my heart. A little down and to the left, to be exact.”