# True or False: Calvin and Hobbes was the best daily comic strip ever. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537 "2006-01-05T06:05:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/101 "2006-01-07T10:41:15Z")
…let me introduce to the international dopers, my personal favourite daily comic strip, **Footrot Flats.** [http://www.oneil.com.au/footrot/faq\_about.shtml#howoldisit](http://www.oneil.com.au/footrot/faq_about.shtml#howoldisit) NZ’s best, most long running cartoon strip, it was popular over here and Australia. It never really dipped in quality, they are currently running a “Best Of” series, and the stories are timeless. The comics really capture the heart of Kiwiana and farm living. Assorted collections are available on Amazon, so there is no excuse for not giving it a go! [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br\_ss\_hs/002-7050561-4888854?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&field-keywords=footrot+flats&Go.x=14&Go.y=6&Go=Go](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=br_ss_hs/002-7050561-4888854?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&field-keywords=footrot+flats&Go.x=14&Go.y=6&Go=Go) …also check out the movie, **Footrot Flats: A Dogs Tale** , which coincidently, contains two NZ classic songs **Slice of Heaven** and **You Oughta’ be in Love** , which you can listen to snippets of here: [http://www.oneil.com.au/footrot/dogs\_tale.shtml](http://www.oneil.com.au/footrot/dogs_tale.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/102 "2006-01-07T15:32:58Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, but the name Schulz wanted was “L’il Folks.” The syndicate did him a big favor by making him change it. He may have groused forever, but deep down I think he knew full well that his name was an impossibility. GAck-I had forgotten that. Erp. (but “peanuts” still sucks as a name) > [@](#): > > And the world of the 1950s and 60s just wasn’t the same world as the 1980s. You cannot compare the two. How is this relevant? If anything, Schulz had more power back when newspapers were actually read (and Chicago had three major papers, for example). > [@](#): > > Watterson “insisted on drawing his characters his way”? I don’t know what this means or how this would be different than any other strip. IMS, he got alot of flack about his changing of perspective–editors wanted essentially talking heads for his panels. He refused. He had alot of contention re creative authority, if his comments are anything to go by. > [@](#): > > No question that we’re celebrating Schulz for the first 25 years of Peanuts and that he lasted another full 25 years of sheer coasting. But those 25 years are twice as long as C+H. And in terms of importance, there no comparison at all. Every strip full of adult-thinking children since are indebted to Schultz and are usually bad imitations of him. Take Jump Start, which started out as a fascinating strip about middle-class black adults and has degenerated into babies with magical powers. I completely agree–ALL contemporary strips owe a debt to Schulz. No question. I just think he should have retired a wee bit earlier than he did-his level of quality at the end was nowhere near his first years. > [@](#): > > Calvin was a one-note strip that pounded its note into the ground. I don’t understand the adulation it’s getting here. Watterson created a world that was mostly inside a small boy’s head. Perhaps you either “got it” or you didn’t. It was much more than one note–although I can see why you would say it was. Certainly the scenarios never seemed to change much–but Calvin’s interpretation of his world, and mostly his indomitable spirit, were what made it special to me. I could empathize in some way with every one of his characters, unlike Peanuts. Why the adulation for Schulz? He pushed back some boundaries, for which we should all be grateful, but the last 10 years of his strip were crap. > [@](#): > > Oh, and pet peeve time. “Wherefore” means Why. “Whyfore” is not a word. I did not intend to substitute whyfore for wherefore–I meant whyfore. It’s slang. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/103 "2006-01-07T17:06:41Z")
> [@Danalan](#): > > [Sinfest](http://www.sinfest.net/), and [Girl Genius](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/) all beat Penny Arcade. I can at least read the text. Damn you. I had things I needed to do today! Instead I’ve read all through **Girl Genius 101** from the beginning to Friday’s update, and am now addicted. Still working through **Sinfest…** ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/104 "2006-01-07T18:58:23Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Damn you. I had things I needed to do today! Instead I’ve read all through **Girl Genius 101** from the beginning to Friday’s update, and am now addicted. Still working through **Sinfest…** If you like _Girl Genius_, go to Amazon, & support the artist by getting the TPBs. Then you can read it at your leasure. 🆒 Also, there is an extra story or two, that you can’t get online. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/105 "2006-01-08T00:40:32Z")
> [@matt](#): > > Damn you. I had things I needed to do today! Instead I’ve read all through **Girl Genius 101** from the beginning to Friday’s update, and am now addicted. Still working through **Sinfest…** Maybe it’s because I own both cats and dogs, but Pooch & Percy from Sinfest are my favorite part of the strip. I think they’re better than Calvin & Hobbes, actually. Tatsuya could sell a strip that featured just them. Culturally, I suppose Peanuts wins. Charlie Brown’s Christmas special is a cultural icon, whereas Calvin & Hobbes big contribution to culture is decals of Calvin pissing on things. ---
**Author:** ![BoringDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@BoringDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoringDad)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/106 "2006-01-08T04:33:30Z")
**True** on Calvin and Hobbes Another vote for Peanuts was too depressing and portrayed the word as hard and cruel. Pogo just isn’t the kind of giggle out loud funny I get from Calvin. Bloom County was laugh out loud funny, but too topical. Once you start trying to compare back to Krazy Kat you start trying to compare apples to oranges. What do you think that Watterson could have done if he’d had daily strips the size they had back then? With this Calvin love fest, I’m suprised no-one has mentioned [Frazz](http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/index.html) which is in the same spirit. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/107 "2006-01-08T04:52:27Z")
Calvin and Hobbes was the perfect strip comic. Far Side was the perfect single panel comic. Get Fuzzy is the most consistently funny these days, but that’s only because Achewood isn’t in the papers. There’s no comic like [Achewood.](http://achewood.com/) ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/108 "2006-01-08T09:07:39Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > If you like _Girl Genius_, go to Amazon, & support the artist by getting the TPBs. > Then you can read it at your leasure. 🆒 > > Also, there is an extra story or two, that you can’t get online. Already done! Following a story at three pages per week is like licking a bar of chocolate. Instead I merely have the pleasant waiting experience to live through, like Calvin and his propeller beanie. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537/109 "2006-01-08T12:35:01Z")
A great deal depends on what the standard of comparison is. If we consider the best year or two of a comic strip or panel’s life, Bloom County can go head-to-head with anyone, although the competition’s pretty intense. In 1981-82, there was a good argument for Bloom County being the best comic strip ever, but it went downhill from there. The best five years of Bloom/Outland/Opus is behind that of a bunch of other strips, and the best 10 years is way back. Doonesbury can go head-to-head with anyone if we’re looking at the best year, two years, five years of a strip. By the time we get to a decade, Trudeau’s fastball has lost a bit of its zip. He’s still worth reading today, but he ain’t what he used to be. His best years were the early to mid 1970s. Still, he’s had enough intermittent moments of brilliance since his prime that there’s a case for his having the largest quantity of good stuff. The Far Side, likewise. Best years were early to mid 1980s; by about 1987, he’d lost some of his zip. Calvin and Hobbes can go head-to-head with anyone for any period up to a decade. And definitely has the best ratio of brilliant stuff to coasting crap, since Watterson did a Sandy Koufax and quit at the top of his game. I grew up on Peanuts, since I learned to read in 1959. Maybe it’s the early familiarity, but while I enjoyed Peanuts in its prime, I never remember being bowled over by it, the way I was by each of the other strips I’ve just mentioned when they appeared. The WaPo runs “Classic Peanuts” but I stopped reading it because their choice of Schulz’ classics were rarely interesting. I’m gonna go with “good for its time” the way an Apple IIe was good for _its_ time. Al Capp had already become a reactionary by the time I noticed his politics, but L’il Abner was still funny a lot of the time regardless. “Joany Phony” (his take on Joan Baez) was ruthlessly dishonest, but I still get a kick out of his protest organization, “Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything,” or S.W.I.N.E. And even in the mid to late 1960s, most of his strips weren’t political anyway. Haven’t read any L’il Abner since it was in the papers, though, so it’s tough for me to stack it up against the others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/true-or-false-calvin-and-hobbes-was-the-best-daily-comic-strip-ever/338537.md?page=5)