By Merrill Fabry. Calvin and Hobbes have been friends for 30 years. Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives.
Please enter a valid email address. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now. According to Calvin, he met Hobbes by setting a tuna fish sandwich "tiger trap. Watterson dabbled in architectural sketches. He accompanied a high school essay on the buildings of downtown Chagrin Falls with meticulous illustrations of the town's bank and other landmarks. The work received a grade of "AAA Excellent.
He contributed cartoons to his high school newspaper, the Valley Lantern. According to Nevin Martell, author of the biography Looking for Calvin and Hobbes , none of these early works resemble Calvin and Hobbes. However, a tiger does make an appearance in Watterson's high school sketches. The creature featured in one vignette of the Valley Lantern is based on the school's mascot — a tiger. Walt Kelly's comic Pogo was another important early influence on Watterson. He first discovered the strip at a library book sale in the fifth grade.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed was an admirer of Watterson's famed duo : "It was our great joy to see the interplay between — as it is with any bit of fiction — between two conflicting characters. Conflict is the essence of humour.
Calvin's parents were never named , known only as "mom and dad. Lee Salem edited Calvin and Hobbes from the first strip until its end.
Editorially, Watterson said he trusted Salem completely and, likewise, the editor said Watterson was a "dream" to work with. In , when the library's curator Jenny Robb interviewed Watterson about his decision to house his work there, he explained, "The library helps counteract the art world's condescension to the 'low art' of cartoons, and it protects work that would otherwise be scattered or lost. Before Calvin and Hobbes , Watterson was a political cartoonist and grocery ad designer.
Realizing that a political cartoonist must have some knowledge of politics, Watterson decided to study the subject. He remembers reading Plato, Machiavelli, Locke — and Hobbes. Watterson filled the strips of Calvin and Hobbes with philosophical concerns.
These include the dispensing of lunch money, the requisition of facilities that Moe wants access to, and joining the baseball team for fear of humiliation and beatings.
Even if Calvin told a trusted parent, he's still not safe from Moe's terror. Moe's speech bubbles also have a different font style. Calvin, being naturally hostile to all babysitters, antagonizes Rosalyn. She is perhaps the only person he genuinely fears. His initiatives to postpone his bedtime under her rule Rosalyn invariably makes Calvin go to bed before are mischievous and unsafe, such as locking Rosalyn out of the house and threatening her by stealing her science notes.
Only once did he manifest the maturity not to oppose her, and this was in Rosalyn's last appearance when Calvin agreed to play Calvinball with her. Named after 16th-century theologian John Calvin, founder of Calvinism and a strong believer in predestination , Calvin is impulsive, insubordinate, egocentric, bratty, overambitious and obnoxious, but also an imaginative, energetic, curious, and intelligent six-year-old who always acts before he thinks.
However, he occasionally does try to show his true, good side in front of Hobbes. Calvin is generally misanthropic, and only feels significant sympathy for wild animals.
He has a significant admiration for tigers, instituted as a result of his friendship with Hobbes. Once, he even unsuccessfully tried to adopt the lifestyle of tigers. Calvin is a poor worker, postponing homework until the last minute and failing to pay attention in class.
Despite his glaring lack of effort, he laments the amount of work he is given and insists that his dubious performance is not his responsibility but rather the systems. Although aware of his bad grades, he tends to concoct outrageous boasts, claiming that he will become very powerful and influential in the future without investing any more than he already does. He says he's going to be the same as Einstein, as he also got bad grades as a kid.
Calvin's spelling is not very good, as he spells 'Australia' as 'Ostryla'. When Calvin does apply himself, it is to fruitless goals; despite not having any ambition to be a paleontologist, he studies dinosaurs extensively, and his knowledge regarding the content of his comic books is impeccable.
This is not to say that Calvin is unintelligent. Despite his low grades, he masters an expansive vocabulary and an advanced sense of irony which even rival those of an adult.
Even so, he does not pass up opportunities to learn swear words, which he estimates to know too few of. He is prone to expressing philosophy when going for a stroll in the woods or using vehicles such as his wagon. His grapples with philosophical quandaries are usually cut short by a banal distraction, mischievous urge or sarcastic retort from either of his parents.
Bill Watterson has described Calvin thus:. Calvin has often been shown to have minor anti-social tendencies. He has wished he were dead, only to then say he really wished that everyone else was dead at least once, and often shows reluctance to join organizations. For example, storylines involving him as a Cub Scout were dropped because Watterson saw them as uncharacteristic, and, while explaining to Susie on a see-saw why he didn't sign up for recess baseball , says he hates organized sports as opposed to when he plays Calvinball with Hobbes.
Calvin occasionally addresses John Calvin's belief in predestination. Being a short-sighted child who dodges work, Calvin considers predestination as a favorable release from his responsibilities, whereas Hobbes sees it as a threat to individual freedom. Calvin hates school, imagining multiple times that he blows it up with missiles. His grades are very low, once saying, "You know how Einstein got bad grades in school?
Well, mine are even worse! On one occasion, he saw snow outside and went parading around the house. His mother tells him it only snowed an inch, and then he says, "getting an inch of snow is like winning ten cents in the lottery. Although a bad student, Calvin expresses his intelligence by having a very expanded vocabulary and contemplating issues. He can also create poetry ad-lib, normally in front of Hobbes. Source: Mental Floss. Source: Boston Globe and Salon.
What's your favorite winter weekend activity? Here's one of ours: pic. He was also worried that he might lose the comic, having originally signed away a majority of his rights to get the comic syndicated.
In a interview with the Los Angeles Times , he said, " But it seems that with a lot of the marketing stuff, the incentive is just to cash in. It's not understanding what makes the strip work. In , " Exploring Calvin and Hobbes, " an extensive interview with Watterson, was published. USPostageStampDay stamp calvinandhobbes lol funny comics pic. Source: The Plain Dealer. Source: Washington Post. Source: Time. For you.
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