Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ComicStrip / CalvinAndHobbes

Go To

1%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1324216013021176800
2%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
3%%
4[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7f2b002e_94c5_434f_9b8e_fbc643c27bb2.jpeg]]
5[[caption-width-right:350:The essential, authoritative, and indispensable voices of a generation, LadiesAndGerms!]]
6->'''Calvin:''' I don't want to pay any dues in life. I want to be a one-in-a-million, overnight success! I want the world handed to me on a silver platter!\
7'''Hobbes:''' Good luck. ''[walks away while rolling his eyes]''\
8'''Calvin''': ''[yelling after Hobbes]'' SURELY YOU CONCEDE I ''DESERVE'' IT!
9-->-- [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/03/13 March 13, 1992]]
10
11What happens when you take the unpredictable panel layouts and [[MindScrew surreal nature]] of George Herriman's ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'' and Creator/WinsorMcCay's ''ComicStrip/LittleNemo'', add the childhood fantasy elements of Crockett Johnson's ''ComicStrip/{{Barnaby}}'' and Creator/FujikoFujio's ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', throw in the lush art, adventure, [[CastOfSnowflakes distinct characterizations]] and [[{{Satire}} biting satire]] of Walt Kelly's ''ComicStrip/{{Pogo}}'' and the [[SliceOfLife gently comedic]] look at the [[LifeIsntFair hard truths of life]] from Creator/CharlesMSchulz's ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', include a dash of [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation classic cartoon]] [[ZanyCartoon slapstick]], and [[JustForFun/XMeetsY fuse them all together into one comic]]?
12
13You get one of the most (maybe ''the'' most) beloved NewspaperComics of all time, that influenced, changed and thrilled an entire generation, all drawn and written by one man -- Creator/BillWatterson. It came at a time when the comics medium needed it the most; almost everyone before Watterson attempted to [[FollowTheLeader copy the success]] of ''Peanuts'' by imitating the deceptively simple style and focusing on the {{funny animal}}s like Snoopy that would [[CashCowFranchise bring in the money]]. Unfortunately, comic creators [[ShallowParody missed the mark on the aspects of Schulz's strip that actually should have been followed]], mainly the philosophical themes and the down-to-earthiness. As a result, comics once again became gag-a-day strips rather than an artistic medium, and there was a shift from children characters to teenagers and adults.
14
15Watterson reminded us that newspaper comics don't have to be bland, crude drawings, that {{funny animal}}s can have deeper personalities and insights in life, and that it ''was'' still possible for a strip to successfully explore philosophical themes without feeling tacked on. And yes, comics about children can still be great. It was so successful that even Creator/CharlesMSchulz gave his approval in a foreword to one of the book collections.
16
17Calvin is a precocious 6-year-old who lives in a slightly different, more exciting reality than everybody around him, full of alien visitors, dinosaurs, {{a|rsonMurderAndJaywalking}}nd [[StockYuck parental cooking]] so awful that occasionally ''it'' tries to eat ''[[JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites him]]''. Hobbes is his best friend; to Calvin, he's a walking, [[TalkingAnimal talking]] tiger, to everyone else he's only an inanimate plush toy.
18
19As if Calvin's life wasn't exciting enough, he also often [[MrImagination imagines]] himself to be someone more glamorous, like [[SpaceOpera sci-fi adventurer]] Spaceman Spiff, [[FilmNoir world-weary]] [[PrivateDetective private eye]] Tracer Bullet, SuperHero Stupendous Man, or a ''Tyrannosaurus rex''. Calvin's non-dinosaur-and-alien-related moments are often much more philosophical than a six-year-old generally appears, and Watterson directly acknowledges this in several anthologies and interviews. To Watterson, Calvin is a tool to subtly mock the modern age in its myriad forms -- Calvin creates snowmen that resemble pretentious postmodern art sculptures, rails against the modern world's hyper-commercialized state while indulging in it like the worst six-year-old, and occasionally questions the justification for humanity's continuing existence while gazing at a piece of trash carelessly discarded in the woods. At the same time, Calvin perfectly portrays the realistic child genius- one moment [[WiseBeyondTheirYears casually articulating concepts he won't cover in vocabulary tests until high school]], the next [[BrattyHalfPint throwing a temper tantrum because they're out of his favorite cereal]].
20
21One of the most important (or perhaps that should be least important) parts of the strip is that the reality of Hobbes' dual nature and the many adventures and misadventures he and Calvin share is frequently left ambiguous. Watterson has described the matter as [[SchrodingersButterfly being a non-question]]: This is not a strip about a young RealityWarper going on magical adventures with a stuffed animal that comes to life when no one else is looking, nor is it as simple as a boy with a stuffed tiger and an overactive imagination. This is a strip about the world seen through Calvin's eyes. To Calvin, Hobbes is a real tiger, a cardboard box is a cloning device, a wagon driven off a ramp can fly to Mars, and mutant snowmen can [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters stage a rebellion against their creator]]. And that is all that matters.
22
23The strip was known for being fun to look at, due to Watterson's sheer artistic skill; for its ability to tell stories [[NoDialogueEpisode without dialogue]]; and for its varied and creative SundayStrip layout. This in itself was a major controversy, as Watterson requested a fixed amount of square footage for his Sundays (as opposed to funny-page standards, which requires the cartoonist to fit the story into six or eight pre-sized panels that can be [[EditedForSyndication cut apart, reassembled or discarded]] as each individual newspaper sees fit.) Watterson argued that, since comic strips are a visual medium, it would be in everyone's best interests for him to have complete visual control over his work, regardless of resulting upheavals in comics-page layouts. He won, and similar fixed-layout concessions have gone out to comics such as ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' and ''ComicStrip/OverTheHedge'' in following years.
24
25Watterson consistently refused to license his characters for products or media other than the various compilations of the strip and even had a brutal fight with his syndicate over it. Though he won, this led to a booming market in unofficial merchandise, one of the more ubiquitous being window stickers of Calvin urinating on the logos of various American car manufacturers. At one point in time he considered an [[AnimatedAdaptation animated TV series]] featuring the characters, expressing a fondness for the medium, though this never came to fruition.[[note]]One of the main reasons being that by giving the characters voices, Watterson felt he would be robbing long-time readers of what the characters sounded like to them. Moreover, Watterson felt that by animating the series, he would have to sacrifice the satisfaction of the cartoon being created solely by him. This was part of the reason for his obstinate refusal to license; to him, approving someone else's work is not the same as doing it yourself.[[/note]]
26
27''Calvin and Hobbes'' ran from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995, at which point Watterson retired for fear of the [[JumpingTheShark strip going stale]]. No new material has been released since then and Watterson, who changed careers from cartooning to oil painting, has become a notorious media recluse in the intervening years. In early 2011, he mailed an oil painting of a character from ''ComicStrip/CulDeSac'' to his syndicate as a donation for the Team Cul de Sac Parkinson's Research charity. This was the first piece of new art his syndicate had received from him in 16 years. Two years later, he produced a poster for the film ''Stripped'', a documentary on the history of newspaper comics. A year after that, he collaborated with Stephan Pastis for three ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' strips (Pastis called this the cartoonist equivalent of getting "a glimpse of Bigfoot", and would later [[AffectionateParody pay tribute]] to the iconic [[AndTheAdventureContinues final strip]] of ''Calvin and Hobbes'' in the strip the day after Watterson's contributions). In a 2015 interview, he pointed out that he's not really "reclusive", but when you're trying to keep [[LoonyFan complete strangers]] from digging up your phone number and calling you, you have to build walls and maintain them.
28
29A documentary on the comic, called ''[[http://tinyurl.com/m4qnlzu Dear Mr. Watterson]]'', was released on Nov 13, 2013. It features interviews with cartoonists such as [[ComicStrip/FoxTrot Bill Amend]], [[ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine Stephan Pastis]], and [[ComicStrip/BloomCounty Berkeley Breathed]]. It explores the impact of ''Calvin and Hobbes''. The normally reclusive Watterson does a lengthy interview in the 2015 book ''Exploring Calvin and Hobbes''. He also did an audio interview for the comic strip documentary ''[[http://www.strippedfilm.com/ Stripped]]''.
30
31In a surprising 2021 crossover, Hobbes has appeared canonically in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', [[https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/pc4xsw/figured_id_compile_the_recent_17_part_calvin_and/ as Opus and Oliver help him find a now-adult Calvin]], [[https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed/posts/376113240542868 who fully embraced his Spaceman Spiff fantasy and made it a reality]].
32
33----
34!!Provides examples of:
35[[index]]
36* CalvinAndHobbes/TropesAToC
37* CalvinAndHobbes/TropesDToI
38** [[DidntThinkThisThrough/CalvinAndHobbes Didn't Think This Through]]
39** [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/CalvinAndHobbes Early Installment Weirdness]]
40** [[HypocriticalHumor/CalvinAndHobbes Hypocritical Humor]]
41* CalvinAndHobbes/TropesJToP
42** [[NoodleIncident/CalvinAndHobbes Noodle Incident]]
43** [[NothingIsFunnier/CalvinAndHobbes Nothing Is Funnier]]
44** [[ParentalBonus/CalvinAndHobbes Parental Bonus]]
45* CalvinAndHobbes/TropesQToZ
46** [[RunningGag/CalvinAndHobbes Running Gag]]
47** [[ShoutOut/CalvinAndHobbes Shout Out]]
48[[/index]]
49----

Top