# Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Calvin and Hobbes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [November 18, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955 "2025-11-18T15:21:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/81 "2025-11-21T16:37:27Z")
Was a major fan. Here are my two favorite strips: [Regular strip](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161215963136416&set=gm.3553910878210421&idorvanity=1951125591822299) [Saturday / Sunday strip](https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/pfr6cl/bugs_in_shampoo_july_29_1990/) Calvin was very relatable to me as a kid and the whole premise was super original. I don’t lightly term something “the best ever produced,” but as comic strips go, I would be hard-pressed to find another candidate for the title. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/82 "2025-11-21T17:33:15Z")
My favorite. > **[https://i.redd.it/9y600epijdy11.jpg](https://i.redd.it/9y600epijdy11.jpg)** But then, I enjoy subversive answers to easy questions. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/83 "2025-11-21T22:06:16Z")
Born early sixties. I loved Pogo, still do. Never did get into Krazy Kat though. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/84 "2025-11-21T22:59:17Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > World Calvinball Cup that will be next held in Dubai… This is JUST A RUMOR at this point. Look, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum keeps pushing for this (he even tried to bribe Hobbes with Dubai chocolate!), but even the nightime climate there is just too hot for Calvinball. Even the [“friendly” games in Arizona](https://UnofficialCalvinballTournaments.sport) resulted in heat stroke … _of every single player!_ As well as the announcers, a third of the spectators, and the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs vendor. People underestimate the sheer physicality (as well as the psychological toll) of Calvinball. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/85 "2025-11-21T23:01:42Z")
> [@digs](#): > > This is JUST A RUMOR at this point. > > Look, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum keeps pushing for this (he even tried to bribe Hobbes with Dubai chocolate!), but even the nightime climate there is just too hot for Calvinball. It’s definitely not going to happen. Maktoum forgot to sing “Mary had a little lamb” backwards, so his bid doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/86 "2025-11-21T23:14:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > t’s definitely not going to happen. Maktoum forgot to sing “Mary had a little lamb” backwards, so his bid doesn’t count. - While his opponent wowed the crowd with his rendition of “Knick Knack Paddy Whack” on a nuclear powered harpsichord. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/87 "2025-11-22T00:29:42Z")
Where would you have been reading Krazy Kat in the 60s/ 70s? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/88 "2025-11-22T03:49:16Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > But don’t you all be bad mouthing Peanuts! There’s room for more than one great comic strip. I think that most of the “bad mouthing” here is about the strip’s later years. Obviously, no one was going to tell Charles Schulz to hang it up, and it was clear that he still very much enjoyed creating the strip in his later years, but even many fans of the strip recognized that, by the 1980s, it had become formulaic and overly focused on Snoopy, and it had become a shadow of the groundbreaking, award-winning strip it had been in the 1960s and early 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/89 "2025-11-22T03:54:10Z")
These criticisms apply to the majority of comic strips. Is Garfield formulaic? No doubt the earlier works of many artists are more subversive or impactful. If all Schulz ever did was the TV specials, he would still be a great artist. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/90 "2025-11-22T04:37:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Both Pogo & Krazy Kat always felt both vapid and dated to me. They might have been just the thing to my parents, but as a kid/teen in the 60s & early 70s they were (in the vernacular of the day) lame; very lame. Wow. I’m of the same vintage, but adored _Pogo_ strips basically from the time I was old enough to read them, as did my siblings and parents. Well, _de gustibus non est disputandum_. > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Born early sixties. I loved Pogo, still do. Of course, some _gustus_ are simply better than others. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/91 "2025-11-22T17:27:40Z")
Spaceman Spiff, a formidable opponent. [![](https://i.ibb.co/ccx4Hb6H/Galactusvs-Calvin.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/ccx4Hb6H/Galactusvs-Calvin.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/92 "2025-11-22T18:38:48Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Obviously, no one was going to tell Charles Schulz to hang it up, and it was clear that he still very much enjoyed creating the strip in his later years, but even many fans of the strip recognized that, by the 1980s, it had become formulaic and overly focused on Snoopy, and it had become a shadow of the groundbreaking, award-winning strip it had been in the 1960s and early 1970s. In my grouchy old fart opinion that decline started in 1966. ---
**Author:** ![FMera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fmera/32/9857_2.png) [@FMera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FMera)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/93 "2025-11-22T19:02:22Z")
> [@icon](#): > > I like to believe that mine was the only proposal that got that reaction, but who knows if that was the case. Good for you, that’s awesome! I have heard of entire semester college courses on the philosophy of/in Calvin + Hobbes. Could you have inadvertently written the entire syllabus for them? ---
**Author:** ![gre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d78d45/32.png) [@gre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gre)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955/94 "2025-11-22T20:00:44Z")
Calvin & Hobbes is an all-time favorite. Sometimes, though, when I see a panel that has his mom, I think “That’s Michael J. Fox.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-launch-of-calvin-and-hobbes/1024955.md?page=4)