― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 14 April 2003 06:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
Peanuts never seemed to be taking place anywhere in particular; Calvin obviously had the biggest backyard in the country.
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
Of course, that would have totally thrown off the dynamics of the strip.
But so yeah: C&H was more about internal escapism, and Peanuts was about social interaction. The thing is, Peanuts also did a good job with internal escapism (especially with Snoopy); C&H's social dynamics never got nearly as complex as Peanuts'.
― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
"We actually had a dog called Snoopy. A real dog. Fans of the strip are not going to like this, but we got rid of him. He fought with other dogs, so we swapped him for a load of gravel."
― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
Favourite strip? Either the one where Calvin burps outrageously at the dinner table and his whole face contorts astonishingly before he says summat like "Better out than in!" and summat else exquisitely unpolite before his mom says "Three strikes and you're out kiddo"; or else the one that's on my desktop wallpaper;
Calvin & Hobbes listening to the radio; Calvin breaks into lengthy spiel...
Calvin - "The problem with rock n roll is that the generation that created it is now the establishment. Rock pretends it's rebellious with it's video posturing, but who believes it? The stars are 45-year-old zillionaires or they endorse soft drinks! The 'revolution' is a capitalist industry! Give me a break! Fortunately, I've found some protest music for today's youth! This stuff really offends mom and dad!"
Hobbes - "Easy-listening muzak?"
Calvin - "I play it real quiet too."
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 07:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
The only times he seems to want to step outside that reality - the valentine for Suzy scenario - it adds a layer of awkwardness that doesn't really work (tho it's cute, obv), and Watterson says the same.
Totally, unequivocally classic.
― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/images/johnson.books/barnaby_and_mr_omalley.sm.jpeg
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 08:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
mark s - Can you find any pix of Calvin's snowmen when he goes all avante garde and surrealist? They're so cool...
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
When viewed in these terms, the inevitable vistory of C&H is made clear.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 April 2003 09:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
No, hang on, what d'you mean explain? It's Calvin & Hobbes! It's about the inner world, imaginary friends and so on (apart from the bits about the aliens). IT'S TWEE, ALLRIGHT?
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
Also-living in a disatant suburb doesn't necesairly make you interact more w/ ppl in sk00l; I did, too, and my social life wasn't much more active than Calvin's.
CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC of course.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 14 April 2003 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 14 April 2003 16:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 14 April 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 14 April 2003 16:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 14 April 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.whirlybird.org.uk/fgs.jpg
(hobbes = in purple)
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 14 April 2003 16:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
I think Schulz was a writer of astonishing greatness and Waterson learnt a lot from him, but C&H is funnier and better drawn. The only basis on which I'd nonetheless rate Peanuts above C&H is that there is around five times as much Peanuts. There hasn't been a humour artist as good as Waterson come along in newspaper strips since the form's great heyday in the first half of the 20th Century - Herriman, Segar, Sterrett, maybe a few others (McManus, Capp), though they're the only three I'd confidently rate above Waterson. It's even more extraordinary when you look at the much tighter limitations, the smaller space allowed (there is an excellent C&H about this).
And Hobbes is so adorable. I wish there was a cuddly toy.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 14 April 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
As a matter of fact, some independant animator somewhere did do a brief short Calvin & Hobbes film. He sent the film off to Watterson for his approval, and Watterson replied with something along the lines of "I think this is a good film, but I'd rather you not release it or make anymore". So it hasn't been seen by anyone except a chosen few. I think some of the actors who voiced it have the film mentioned on their IMDb entries.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 14 April 2003 19:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
The idea of the possibly brilliant C&H film that no one can see has me ripping my hair out in frustration right now.
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 08:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 08:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
I adored Calvin and Hobbes as a kid and at some point determined it was too sentimental, which it is at times. But I think I'm ready to appreciate it again.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 14:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 17:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 1 December 2003 19:43 (twenty years ago) link
"It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw."
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 1 December 2003 20:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 1 December 2003 22:13 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/opus_returns.html
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 1 December 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 1 December 2003 22:36 (twenty years ago) link
I preferred his daily strips though.
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 1 December 2003 23:07 (twenty years ago) link
this is one from of the funniest strips. i love those ones where watterson does (what he declares to be) lame marvel rip offs, they are so silly. also into the poantheon of greatness- the one where he starts seeling homemade lemonade for $5 a glass, and as Mark S noted, every single one that involved snowmen or sculpture in snow. esp the modern art ones. kinda obvious but they hurt my sides, sort of....
― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 00:29 (twenty years ago) link
Your right, though, Outland kinda petered out.
― Will (will), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 01:26 (twenty years ago) link
Favorite C&H strips? I love the one drawn up in 50s film noir involving Calvin and Susie, when they're playing house, and Calvin's character, puffing a pipe, longs for a divorce and rejects their "baby" (a plush pg, if I remember). I also like the one where Calvin scuplts his parents an ashtray, and Hobbes points out that Calbvin's parents don't smoke, and Calvin shouts "OK, Michaelangelo, YOU sculpt something!!" But of course, it's all in the drawings. I can't do any of them justice.
Favorite snowman strip is when Calvin gathers a crowd of horrified onlooking snowmen gasping at the sight of a dismembered snowman lying at the foot of his father's parked car. Calvin's dad: "I think we better get that kid to a psychiatrist."
― roger adultery, Tuesday, 2 December 2003 01:54 (twenty years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 01:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 01:32 (twenty years ago) link
The hundred-and-first viewing will change that, I promise.
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 3 December 2003 03:03 (twenty years ago) link
Family Circus is the most accurate representation of childhood evah.
― The Yellow Kid, Wednesday, 3 December 2003 03:40 (twenty years ago) link
I acknowledge the bombardment of AI lately influences me, but that image in particular really brought me there immediately (not just due to "weirdness" factor, either, I consume plenty of objectively weird current outsider comics).
― Evan, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 19:16 (one year ago) link
Can someone make for me a picture of that scared dude pissing on a Tesla logo, thnx.
― pplains, Wednesday, 15 February 2023 19:38 (one year ago) link
this book sounds p bad
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 11:22 (one year ago) link
Oh so you're the guy
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:00 (one year ago) link
literally nothing about it sounds good and the cover is not helping!
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:03 (one year ago) link
I'm definitely curious about the book, but I'm also reminded of what he said in The Calvin & Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book: "Graphic novels are incredibly stupid."
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:07 (one year ago) link
What about it sounds bad? I mean from the description it could also be good.
― omar little, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:08 (one year ago) link
Separately I have a really really distinct memory as a kid of the very first Calvin and Hobbes strip in the newspaper. I would read the comic section every morning religiously, and even as a 10-year-old or maybe even especially as a 10-year-old I recognized immediately that this was a cut above everything else. That and peanuts were my top two for life from then on.
― omar little, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:10 (one year ago) link
bloom county and far side to complete the late 80s set imo
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:42 (one year ago) link
I’ve got the same collection of C&H books I started acquiring with babysitting money as a child and BW is one of those guys where despite my love for C&H I’m just not interested in the new material. I thought about why and I think it’s partly the fear that he turns out to be personally dodgy in a way that ruins his work for me (cf Morrissey) and also, it just doesn’t seem intrinsically that interesting compared to the stuff I know him for.
― better than whoever you are (gyac), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:47 (one year ago) link
Pulled a few boxes of books out of the basement last week and realized I had the first 3 big C&H anthologies down there. When I unpack the boxes again I'm gonna dive into those for sure.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 17:51 (one year ago) link
loved those treasuries back in the day, even though i also had most of the 'regular' books.... having the color Sundays and the bonus stories was great. iirc, Watterson sort of rolls his eyes at those publications in the must-own Tenth Anniversary book, pointing out that he named them The Essential, The Indispensable, and The Authoritative "since the books were obviously none of these things."
i'm periodically tempted by the idea of owning The Complete paperback set. somehow though it feels like something would be lost not having things grouped under "Yukon Ho!" and "Scientific Progress Goes Boink."
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:06 (one year ago) link
― omar little, Wednesday, February 22, 2023 12:10 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
I remember that, too! I was immediately struck by the design of the characters -- Calvin's Pac-Man mouth, mainly -- and how clever it was right out of the gate. I mean, the first week or so of C&H was exponentially more funny and creative than the previous 10-15 years of Beetle Bailey or Garfield or whatever combined. It felt like risks were being taken, and apart from Bloom County and The Far Side (as Tracer Hand pointed out), few other (if any) late '80s strips had that spirit.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:14 (one year ago) link
The only strips that come even close to C&H are Peanuts and Pogo.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 22 February 2023 18:28 (one year ago) link
the artwork and lettering on pogo probably better than those two; C&H owes a big debt to walt kelly for those heavily inked stumps and trees and crags he was so fond ofpogo really so amazing. not sure any other comic has a book of sheet music?
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 February 2023 19:15 (one year ago) link
There are few things in this world I enjoy as much as the small moments in Calvin and Hobbes when Calvin’s parents do something that make it clear that Calvin got his entire personality from them (even the parts that drive them crazy) https://t.co/CPzcXPN69T pic.twitter.com/GBEACE1eOO— Billie Takespeare (@maynardgang) December 16, 2023
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 23:16 (nine months ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBeIDqtXwAAf_3u?format=jpg&name=mediumIn case strip doesn’t show in preview
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 23:17 (nine months ago) link
Calvin’s parents the undeniable heroes of C&H. The strips with Calvin’s dad having a nightmare of a family holiday just ruin me
https://i.postimg.cc/X7GbyvQb/IMG-4358.jpg
― H.P, Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:39 (nine months ago) link
Same
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 20 December 2023 00:40 (nine months ago) link
It’s amazing how invested the strip gets you