IMHO, C&H was the greatest comic strip ever. There are a handful of others I think approached it – Krazy Kat, Pogo, Peanuts, Doonesbury, Bloom County – but none matched or exceeded its greatness, and many of them long outlived their original genius.
The end of C&H was like a death in the family, but we have to give Watterson credit for leaving at the top of his game and not letting the strip descend into repetition and fade into a dull shadow of its former glory.
I think it’s time for me to re-read the whole canon again. I have the big two-volume collection, but it’s a bit cumbersome to read from, especially in bed. But we gave all of the paperback editions to the grandkids. Maybe I’ll steal them back for a few months.
I totally agree. I read the comic regularly during its run, and bought each paperback as they were released.
And I got the big two-volume collection as well. I kept the paperbacks too because they’re more convenient to read, and so my son could easily read them when he was growing up.
A love of C&H was something my dad and I shared in my teenage years. For several years, every Christmas I’d get him the newest book, and we’d spend the day passing it back and forth laughing with a “You gotta read this one!”
Agreed. I ran a Megapoll in fact over on Giraffe Board and it easy won. The poll was clearly for 2nd best as Calvin and Hobbes easily won every round. BTW, Far Side took second.
More proof of C&H love: Despite my campaigning for Samwise; Hobbes also edged out Samwise Gamgee for best sidekick ever. Hobbes had easily defeated his other 7 opponents to face Sam in the final.
I listened to that NPR interview this morning also.
I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence or not, but the ten year C&H run coincided with the years I used to read almost every page of The Los Angeles Times everyday. The comics section and especially C&H was my reward for making it through the rest of the paper.
Not disagreeing that it was awesome, but on the shoulders of giants would certainly qualify as I think he owes a huge depth to Schulz at the very least.
I do think he bailed at just the right moment-proof of that was the use of Galaxoid and Nebular, which was the first time I thought he was really straining for a joke. The issue is that if he tries to make the strip too different, it could ruin all the character dynamics, but to keep it (and them) the same would risk things becoming stale and repetitive. How many times can Calvin protest about his homework or chores, or play mean tricks on Suzie?
I had, for example, come up with a plot where Calvin finds an injured Suzie in some deep ravine in their backyards, and, while he goes back to his house for his wagon (and Stupendous Man costume!) in her woozy state she starts talking to Hobbes (whom Calvin left behind to “guard” her), resulting in them eventually laughing hysterically as they discuss the various silly things Calvin has done.
When Calvin returns he is shocked to the core to see the two of them laughing together. They then do a dramatic double-take at his costume, and laugh even harder. After reconciling the new reality there, Calvin loads them onto the wagon and pulls her out of the ravine.
But now their dynamic is forevermore changed, or Watterson indulges in a reset button where she dismisses what happened as a bad series of hallucinations. Either way I could see no elegant way forward for the strip past that point. This is a decision pretty much every artist in whatever medium in question has to make at some point, be it in painting, music, or literature. I’ve seen very few succeed once the formula has been firmly established: either they run their format into the ground, and (in the case of comic strips) eventually become franchise zombies like Blondie or Cathy. If they try to totally revamp things they risk losing their audience and/or not finding a fruitful new vein to mine (Funky, maybe Luann). Sic transit gloria mundi.
Visually, most certainly. But one thing that C&H did all those years beside Peanuts was demonstrate how one was about the wonder of childhood, and the other was using children as a stand in for adult insecurities.
I bought the first few hardbound collections of Peanuts by year (also gave them to the grandkids). I had read those first Peanuts strips in the paperback collections when i was a kid and enjoyed them, but re-reading them as an adult, I felt many, if not most, were pretty weak and unfunny.
I think Schulz’s peak was the late 50’s through the late 60’s but it took him the better part of a decade to reach that peak, and he kept going, churning out dreck, for decades after it was clear he had no new ideas. I would have a much higher opinion of Schulz today if he had walked away sometime in the 1970s (and if I hadn’t reread his first few years’ strips).
I grant that Schulz inspired Watterson in many ways, but visually? Watterson was a vastly better artist than Schulz, who never rose higher than competent journeyman, IMO.
I think Herriman’s Krazy Kat and Walt Kelly’s Pogo had much more of a visual influence on C&H than Peanuts, with the latter getting my nod for the best-drawn strip of all time.
I didn’t initially remember these characters, so I looked them up and came across this website.
And it says there was a show that ran for several seasons?
Along with a couple of movies?! I was mystified because I took Watterson at his word that he never wanted to commercialize C&H.
And then determined it’s all a bunch of fan-fiction/wishful thinking on the part of this fan website. But pretty elaborate…they’ve dreamed up ten seasons of an imaginary animated series.
You realize that soon every “AI” questionbot is going to be confidently asserting there is a whole SONY Pictures Calvin & Hobbes cinematic universe and a World Calvinball Cup that will be next held in Dubai…
In fact, ISTR reading commentary by Watterson in one of the C&H collection books in which he specifically cited Krazy Kat as one of his influences, especially for the Sunday strips.
And unlike Watterson, Schulz kept Peanuts running LONG after it had jumped the shark. I loved early Peanuts but once Schulz started the Snoopy/Red Baron crap I stopped following for good.
Speaking of influences, Watterson usually created some original art (often with poems) for the paperback collections, following the practice of Walt Kelly in the Pogo books.
Me on sick days, with a stack of Calvin n’ Hobbes books. Some of my best memories.
I tried to show my son the books last year, and he was entertained enough for a while, but he’s a bit too young. Still, he has a deep personal relationship with his Lightning McQueen squashmallow, Beep Beep, that reminds me so much of Calvin’s relationship with Hobbes. He even positions Beep on the bench right inside the front door, every morning, so it will enthusiastically greet him when he comes home from school.
So I think at a certain point it’s going to click for him. Right now he is all about Shel Silverstein.
I will tell you one thing - rereading Calvin and Hobbes after becoming a parent is a whole new experience. That scene where Calvin hammers nails into the coffee table… Oof. Lots of cringe moments. Yet I also realized how emotionally distant the father is. It’s interesting what I notice as an adult versus when I was a kid.
Like others, Calvin and Hobbes is my all time favorite. (Well, all time till now anyway.)
I used to read the strips aloud with my son–he was Hobbes (and most of the other characters) and I was Calvin. Now I’m reading them aloud with my grandson, my son’s nephew. He’s Hobbes (and most of the other characters) and I am Calvin. Well, I’ve had practice. Grandson, who is nine, complained yesterday: “How does Calvin know all these WORDS?” (I think the word in question was “proximity.'“) “I don’t know all these words, and Calvin’s only SIX.” To which I said, “It helps to remember that Calvin is a fictional character…”
The Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown NY is doing a Calvin and Hobbes show till the end of next month. I’m going to try very hard to get us there (and probably to the Hall of Fame as well)–it’s about two and a half hours but should be worth the journey!
