This picture is as big as his imagination. And ego.
Calvin
Nothing spoils fun like finding out it builds character.
The star of the strip named after 16th Century theologian Jean Calvin, he's a six year old with an unusually large vocabulary and grown-up sense of humor.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He's unusually cultured in vocabulary, philosophies, very knowledgeable about dinosaurs, and has an advanced sense of irony, but since school often teaches everything he doesn't like to learn, he just doesn't bother.
Calvin's stuffed tiger doll...or maybe his Not So Imaginary Friend. Named after Thomas Hobbes, he's usually seen through Calvin's eyes as an actual tiger while everyone else sees a doll. He's a proud tiger nonetheless and ultimately Calvin's best friend.
Cats are Mean: Inverted. Hobbes has much stronger moral integrity than Calvin, calls him out on various misdeeds, and often tries to convince him to seek happiness from virtue instead of playing pranks. On the other hand, he also likes to pull mean tricks on Calvin.
Knight in Sour Armor: Hobbes is apparently quite cynical, but often does good deeds he doesn't expect to be rewarded for. (Ie. Trying to preach virtue to Calvin. You know, the same guy who tries to pin things on Hobbes when caught.)
Meaningful Name: He's named after Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher who at times had a poor outlook on life and human nature, which explains his cynicism rather well.
The Watson: Although not from ignorance, but out of curiosity.
Secondary Characters
Susie Derkins
I'd ask you to play House, but you'd be a weird example for our kids.
The neighbor girl and one of the few people Calvin actually interacts with his age. She's a constant target of Calvin's pranks but seems to handle her own quite well.
Beware the Nice Ones: She has a sweet demeanor overall, but she can be ruthless if you get on her bad side — which Calvin tends to do more often than not.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Calvin fails to learn that no matter how big a water balloon or snowball he ambushes Susie with, it won't stop here from immediately popping up and kicking the stuffing out of him.
Women Are Wiser: Inverted on a few occasions when dealing with Hobbes. She once confessed some of her fears to him when Calvin wasn't around, and on another occasion she called out for him when she and Dad were in the woods looking for him at night.
Author Avatar: Played with, he's actually based on Watterson's own father, right down to the profession, but Waterson relates more to him than he does with Calvin.
Ink Suit Actor: Basically Bill Watterson without a mustache. Note that Calvin's uncle Max does have a mustache.
Badass Biker: Hilariously subverted. He routinely gets himself seriously injured when he goes cycling, but keeps an absurdly cheerful demeanour.
Born in the Wrong Century: Dislikes modern technology and other recent developments, like the gradual decline of people's mannners.
Bourgeois Bohemian: Dad eventually became a walking Author Tract, making speeches about commercialism and materialism and the horror of our age and the fulfillment that comes only with being miserable in the great outdoors.
Madness Mantra: "Five years until retirement, five years until retirement, five years until retirement..."
Reasonable Authority Figure: She acted like this when Calvin suffered a Freak Out about being trapped inside on a beautiful day, as opposed to simply misbehaving:
Miss Wormwood: Next time, take a drink of water and a few deep breaths.
Sadist Teacher: Again, Calvin views her as this. In truth, she's probably a good teacher, she's just very boring, which makes her classes hard for Calvin to sit through.
Flat Character: Unlike most other characters in the series, who have sympathetic sides and are open to various interpretations, Moe pretty much exists just to be a jerk to Calvin.
Batman Gambit: In her final appearance in the strip, Rosalyn uses this to get Calvin to behave. She makes him want to do his homework and clean his room by offering to play Calvinball with him, and then actually wins the game when they play it.
Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word: As the only babysitter in town who will agree to babysit Calvin, she's in a primo bargaining position. College tuition, y'know.
Although in her final appearance towards the end of the strip she finally figures out how to deal with Calvin in a way no one else does and the two of them reach an understanding.
Phrase Catcher: "If you're Calvin's good side, you should be a lot smaller."
The Reveal: Calvin's mother initially thinks Calvin has turned over a new leaf, but when he leaves for school, Calvin and Hobbes are seen hiding under the bed, commenting on their success.
Shadow Archetype: Contains many qualities Calvin would like to ignore, such as helpfulness, diligence, and a crush on Susie
Uncle Max
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Essentially the reverse Rosalyn; he was intended to be a recurring character, but after the arc Watterson realized he didn't have much personality, didn't bring out anything new in Calvin, and also required some awkward writing to avoid having him call his brother and sister-in-law by their names.
Minimalist Cast: Stupendous Man is the only visible character in these daydreams. Other characters are alluded to (Mom Lady, Babysitter Girl, Crab Teacher), but we only see them when the POV switches back to the real world.
Guns Are Worthless: You could probably count the number of times his gun hasn't backfired on him or proven ineffective against his target on your one hand. Then again, considering Calvin's Weapon of Choice in reality is a suction dart pistol...
Your Princess is in Another Castle: After Calvin escapes from school, Spaceman Spiff escapes from his dungeon, but when Calvin's mother finds out, Spiff's ship comes under attack.
Tracer Bullet
"I got eight slugs in me. One's a lead and the rest are bourbon. The drink packs a wallop and I pack a revolver."
Real Life Writes the Plot: Watterson says that the main reason Tracer made so few appearances was simply because the Noir-ish art took too long to finish. If it hadn't, we might've been given more Tracer Bullet cases to enjoy.
In-universe, Calvin is first seen using the Tracer Bullet fantasy when he is covering up a bad haircut with a fedora.
Hobbes
Susie Derkins
Calvin's Mom
Calvin's Dad
Mrs. Wormwood
MoeThe class bully who often takes Calvin's money. He's the only kid Calvin knows that shaves.
Rosalyn
Calvin's Good Side
Galaxoid and Nebular
Stupendous Man
Spaceman Spiff
Tracer Bullet
