Calvin & Hobbes C or D

there isn't much calvin and hobbes merchandise, either.

Watterson has always made it clear that Calvin and Hobbes would not be licensed and essentially took his syndicate to the mat to get that to be the case -- it almost went to court. There is no official C/H merchandise.

:' (

Bill Watterson had some interesting things to say about Peanuts in the C & H 10th anniversary book. I'll try to dig it out later.

as well,
i dont like it.

Fave C&H, when they're on the long car journey and Calvin wants to "visit the bathroom", says so and his mother tells him to think of other things. Calvin loudly announces that all he can think of is Niagara Falls and the Hoover Dam, his mother says that now *she* wants to go and the father mutters something abt going on vacation on his own next time!

Peanuts never seemed to be taking place anywhere in particular; Calvin obviously had the biggest backyard in the country.

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'.

"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."

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."

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.

http://www.ksu.edu/english/nelp/images/johnson.books/barnaby_and_mr_omalley.sm.jpeg

mark s - Can you find any pix of Calvin's snowmen when he goes all avante garde and surrealist? They're so cool...

When viewed in these terms, the inevitable vistory of C&H is made clear.

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?

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.

http://www.whirlybird.org.uk/fgs.jpg

(hobbes = in purple)

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.

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.

The idea of the possibly brilliant C&H film that no one can see has me ripping my hair out in frustration right now.

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.

"It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw."

holy shit

O_O

OH DARN

Ok!

this was not the reason I feared the thread got bumped, thank God.

This is great. What a legend

lol yeah him dying seemed way more likely than him releasing something

Hmm:

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

Wow, this is cool!

I finally got the collected C+H for xmas after hinting about it for like a decade. I kinda wanted the hardcovers buuuut the softcover box set somehow weighs like 413 lbs so I'm ultimately glad that I received a version I will hopefully be able to physically wield in my dotage

man, this looks and sounds very odd!

TBH the cover image looks a lot like an AI with a medieval prompt, just saying, but I am super intrigued by the concept.

We need more oddness out there, and sort of a bummer that the first thing that might come to mind is “AI prompt” when talking about that art but I understand that this is where we’re at these days.

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).

Can someone make for me a picture of that scared dude pissing on a Tesla logo, thnx.

this book sounds p bad

Oh so you're the guy

literally nothing about it sounds good and the cover is not helping!

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."

What about it sounds bad? I mean from the description it could also be good.

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.

bloom county and far side to complete the late 80s set imo

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.

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.

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."

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, 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.

The only strips that come even close to C&H are Peanuts and Pogo.

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 of

pogo really so amazing. not sure any other comic has a book of sheet music?

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

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBeIDqtXwAAf_3u?format=jpg&name=medium

In case strip doesn’t show in preview

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

Same

It’s amazing how invested the strip gets you