History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / CalvinAndHobbes

* Stupendous Man's first appearance had a different costume than later appearances, having a domino mask rather than a full cowl. He was also responding to a "cry of distress"; nothing like this ever happened again.

* Rosalyn's first appearances (the Sunday strip and the first story arc) also had her act more as a BabysitterFromHell, acting mean towards Calvin for no real reason. Subsequent appearances made her into more of a BadlyBatteredBabysitter that Calvin would actively provoke first.

* The early FantasySequence segments also had the same cartoony art-style as the "real" portions, but Watterson realized they didn't ''need'' to adhere to a uniform art-style and found it funnier the imaginary parts looked more "real" than the actual real parts (compare the octopus in [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/01/29 this early strip]] with the one in [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/12/31 this strip]], only a few years later). This is evident with the Spaceman Spiff strips, which had flat, cartoony backgrounds at first, but swapped to much more realistic desert landscapes later on.

* A 1986 story arc had Hobbes stolen by a big dog (off-panel). Not only does this rely on Hobbes being just a toy, ''Calvin'' would have to see him as one. Obviously, nothing like this happened again. [[TropesAreTools However, it marked the start of the dramatic StoryArcs with Bill Watterson saying that he got letters from fans who were worried about Hobbes]].

* The [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/02/02 first time]] the was an expanded Sunday strip, the panels were numbered, likely because Watterson was afraid the viewers wouldn't be able to follow the new unconventional panel layout. Every other Sunday strip following it did not have numbers, possibly because Watterson became more confident in making comprehensible arrangements.

* A 1986 story arc had Hobbes stolen by a big dog (off-panel). Not only does this rely on Hobbes being just a toy, ''Calvin'' would have to see him as one. Obviously, nothing like this happened again. [[TropesAreTools However, it marked the start of the dramatic StoryArc{{s}} with Bill Watterson saying that he got letters from fans who were worried about Hobbes]].

* One early strip had Calvin attempt to turn into a hero called "Captain Napalm", while a few other strips had Calvin pretending to be Franchise/{{Superman}}, before Stupendous Man was established as Calvin's only superhero persona. Captain Napalm was still occasionally referenced later on as a superhero whose comic books Calvin enjoyed reading, and was generally implied to be a parody of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.

* The first camping trip had the family going to a cabin instead of sleeping in tents as was the norm for every camping trip afterwards. It also had NoEnding and just stopped abruptly with no explanation, unlike later story arcs which always had a definitive conclusion.

* A 1986 story arc had Hobbes stolen by a big dog (off-panel). Not only does this rely on Hobbes being just a toy, ''Calvin'' would have to see him as one. Obviously, nothing like this happened again.

* The earlier dinosaur-related fantasies were much looser on accuracy, depicting the tyrannosaurs as tail-dragging, upright kangaroo-stanced, three-fingered, and coexisting with cavemen in a HollywoodPrehistory setting, but this was abandoned fairly quickly; all the dinosaurs became more realistic and they were never shown alongside cavemen or sabre-tooth tigers again.

* One-off ImagineSpot strips where some random supernatural event would happen to Calvin or Calvin would imagine himself as something random (a bat, a dragon, an octopus, or a jungle explorer) became rarer later in the comic's run as Calvin himself solidified as a character and strips became more frequently dialogue-heavy, and long-form story arcs became more common (with the exception of the dinosaur-focused ones).

* In an early Sunday strip, Calvin, who's trying to get some money, asks his mom when his birthday is, to which she responds "Not for a long time." This is the only time in the strip's run that Calvin's birthday was ever mentioned.

* The earlier dinosaur-related fantasies were much looser on accuracy, depicting the tyrannosaurs as tail-dragging, upright kangaroo-stanced, three-fingered, and coexisting with cavemen in a OneMillionBC setting, but this was abandoned fairly quickly; all the dinosaurs became more realistic and they were never shown alongside cavemen or sabre-tooth tigers again.

* In [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/01/19 one very early strip]], Calvin asks a question and in the next panel ''his television'' is shown answering the question with a thought bubble. Inanimate objects snarking never appeared again outside of the very early strips.

* In [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/01/19 one very early strip]], Calvin asks a question and in the next panel ''his television'' is shown answering the question with a thought bubble, in [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/12/17 one other early strip]], an Ouija board insults Calvin, and in [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/05/31 another early strip]] a plumbing instruction booklet Calvin's dad is reading has a joke in it. Inanimate objects snarking never appeared again outside of the very early strips.

* In a [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/03/06 March 1986 story arc]], Calvin's parents go out on a date and leave Calvin home alone for the night because they couldn't find a babysitter. This arc predates Rosalyn's first appearance [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/05/15 by a few months]], after which it was characterized that Calvin's parents would never, ever, under any sane mind leave Calvin alone for that long, and Rosalyn would always babysit him on his parents' dates.

* Earlier comics had more appearances by one-off side characters, such as a florist when Calvin tries to get dead flowers for Susie, a barber in a story arc where Calvin gets his hair cut, a photographer for the school picture day story arc, a substitute teacher in a story arc where Mrs. Wormwood was away, and a ticket booth employee in a strip where Calvin and Hobbes [[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge try to sneak into an R-rated movie]]. Later on, these characters appeared far more rarely as the cast was stripped down to the bare minimum; aside from his parents, the only adults to appear more than once are his teacher, the principal, and his doctor (and even then, the doctor [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome stopped appearing]] halfway through the comic's run). Notably, [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/11/18 a much later strip]] where Calvin has his hair cut keeps the barber completely offscreen and voiceless, as did a later story arc with another substitute teacher.