# What next for Skull (PvP's Troll) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368 "2008-07-31T16:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/1 "2008-07-31T16:06:54Z")
First [Bill Watterson](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/06/27/lets-go-exploring/), then [Bil Keane](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/28/family-troll-part-one/), now [Bill Amend](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/31/family-troll-part-four/). Who’s next? Bill Holbrook? Hmm…Skull bumping into Fastrack’s moat monster could prove interesting. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/2 "2008-07-31T21:40:35Z")
I hope he ends up in _For Better or Worse_, and accidentally torches Milborough, ending the strip. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/3 "2008-07-31T21:57:14Z")
Gets cancer in Funky Winkerbean? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/4 "2008-07-31T23:15:22Z")
Sally Forth’s been looking to add a new family member. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/5 "2008-07-31T23:19:42Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Sally Forth’s been looking to add a new family member. [/QUOTE] I’m trying not to imagine Sally squeezing Skull out of her vagina. Don’t dare him…if Kurtz would ask him, I’m pretty sure Ces will do it… ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/6 "2008-08-01T10:32:23Z")
He’d be a pretty good match for Lio, and Mark Tatulli seems to enjoy doing crossovers of his own. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/7 "2008-08-01T12:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] He’d be a pretty good match for Lio, and Mark Tatulli seems to enjoy doing crossovers of his own. [/QUOTE] You know what seriously blew my mind when I found out about it? That Tatulli also produces _Heart of the City_! That’s even MORE out-there than Ces doing both _Sally Forth_ and _Medium Large_… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/8 "2008-08-02T03:41:10Z")
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher] First [Bill Watterson](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/06/27/lets-go-exploring/), then [Bil Keane](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/28/family-troll-part-one/), now [Bill Amend](http://www.pvponline.com/2008/07/31/family-troll-part-four/). Who’s next? Bill Holbrook? [/QUOTE] I got more of a _Dennis the Menace_ vibe off of Kevin than I did _Calvin and Hobbes_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/9 "2008-08-02T04:14:01Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I got more of a _Dennis the Menace_ vibe off of Kevin than I did _Calvin and Hobbes_. [/QUOTE] The cliffdrop sled ride was a standard Calvin & Hobbes scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/10 "2008-08-02T10:37:28Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] The cliffdrop sled ride was a standard Calvin & Hobbes scenario. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but the characterization in the preceding strips works better as a parody of Dennis than of Calvin. Dennis’s defining characteristic is playing pranks on adults and other kids - being a “menace.” Calvin’s defining characteristic is his over-active imagination. The kid in the PvP comic doesn’t display much of an imagination, unless you count being able to see Skull. He does spend all of his time play incredibly meanspirited, violent pranks. Plus, with that mop of hair getting in his face, he looks more like Dennis, than shorter-haired Calvin. Besides, based on the Foxtrot comic, I suspect that Kurtz is setting it up so that good comics equal good kids, while bad comics equal junior league sociopaths like the Keane children. _Dennis the Menace_ and _Family Circle_ are godawful comics, so they produce godawful children. _Foxtrot_ and _Calvin and Hobbes_ are good comics, so they produce sympathetic kids. I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid Skull’s writing about in the last one is the Calvin parody. Perhaps the help he needs relates to a missing Hobbes? Although what I actually expect is that the parodies were just to set up Skull’s arc, and that the meat of the storyline will involve an original character from Kurtz, and not another parody. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-next-for-skull-pvps-troll/458368/11 "2008-08-02T15:01:19Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Yeah, but the characterization in the preceding strips works better as a parody of Dennis than of Calvin. Dennis’s defining characteristic is playing pranks on adults and other kids - being a “menace.” Calvin’s defining characteristic is his over-active imagination. [/QUOTE] Calvin also had a mischievous streak. For example: wanting a flame thrower, sticking his butt in wet cement, finding creative ways to trick his mom into giving him cookies, building a sand city on the beach and waiting for the tide to come in, snow goons, playing tricks on Rosalyn, asking if the couch is too wide while holding a saw, trying to fix the bathroom faucet, etc. Kevin is Calvin if he never had Hobbes.