Characters / Calvin and Hobbes

Main Characters

Calvin

First Appearance: November 18th, 1985
Last Appearance: December 31st, 1995

See here for him and his alter egos.

Hobbes

First Appearance: November 18th, 1985
Last Appearance: December 31st, 1995

Live and don't learn, that's us.

Calvin's stuffed tiger doll... Or maybe his Not-So-Imaginary Friend. Watterson said that the question didn't concern him. Named after Thomas Hobbes, he's usually seen through Calvin's eyes as an anthropomorphic tiger while everyone else sees a doll. He's a proud tiger nonetheless and ultimately Calvin's best friend.

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• Ambiguous Situation: One of the big questions about the comic strip is if Hobbes is Real After All and merely chooses to look like a toy to everyone but Calvin, or if he's purely a stuffed toy and Calvin is just talking to himself. There's evidence for both sides, including things that Calvin should logically not have been able to do unless Hobbes were real (such as when Calvin got tied to a chair with intricate knots), and situations where Hobbes should have acted for the sake of self-preservation but didn't (such as Hobbes not defending himself when a neighborhood dog stole him). Every time Bill Watterson has been asked about the subject, he's said that the answer to that question has never concerned him.invoked Some stories also allow the situation to be interpreted either way. When our heroes had a water balloon fight with Susie, did Susie become a Fille Fatale and charm Hobbes into double-crossing Calvin, or was he an inanimate toy that couldn't attack Susie anyway? Ultimately this allows for Hobbes to be written whichever way fits best and for readers to decide for themselves.
• Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: Generally as the strip went on, he became more feline-like in appearance and behaviour, but exactly how much so would vary depending on whether he would be having a philosophical discussion with Calvin or sneaking up to pounce on him.
• Badass Boast:
  • "My snowballs go faster than the speed of sound!"
  • "I'm going so slow, I'm going backwards!"
• Behind a Stick: In one strip, he hides his entire body behind a lamppost while waiting for Calvin to get home.
• Berserk Button: Do not interrupt his naps. He's beaten up Calvin several times for doing so.
  Calvin: [after Hobbes shreds him for waking him up by popping a gum bubble] A little high-strung, are we?
  Hobbes: We tigers call it lightning-quick reflexes.
• Big Eater: He's always hungry and will eat pretty much anything, though salmon and canned tuna are the clear favorites.
• Big Ol' Unibrow: Has a stripe above his eyes that looks like a unibrow.
• Book Dumb: Hobbes isn't much better at math than Calvin is. Not that he'll admit it, though. He's the kind of tiger who thinks "7 + 9 = ?" needs advanced algebra and imaginary numbers to solve.
• Casanova Wannabe: Mostly towards Susie. Hobbes often tells Calvin how cute and pretty he thinks Susie is, but seeing as he's just a stuffed animal as far as Susie can tell, it never goes anywhere.
• Cassandra Truth: Hobbes frequently tries to warn Calvin that whatever he's planning is a bad idea, only for Calvin to blow him off. Hilarity Ensues when things inevitably go haywire the way Hobbes feared.
• Cats Are Lazy: Downplayed. He takes a lot of naps and hates being interrupted from them, but at the same time, he likes to play active games and he's known for his pouncing.
• Cats Are Mean: Played with. Hobbes has much stronger moral integrity than Calvin, calls him out on various misdeeds, and often tries to convince Calvin to seek happiness from simply virtue instead of playing pranks. But Hobbes also greatly enjoys roughhousing at Calvin's expense, getting under his skin, or freaking him out. Also, he only tries to talk Calvin out of pranks half the time, usually when they're obviously going to explode in his face; the other half of the time, he's a willing accomplice.
• Cats Are Snarkers: Always has a witty commentary on Calvin's thoughts or actions, usually after it's all gone bottom-up.
• Cats Are Superior: Frequently invoked when quibbling with Calvin. Hobbes believes that tigers are superior to humans, and regularly lets Calvin know it whenever the two of them get into a philosophical argument.
• Characterization Marches On: In the early years, Hobbes really wasn't all that much of a snarker, and was frequently just as immature as Calvin. In later years, he also became a lot more feline — not only in looks and movement, but in behavior and outlook.
• Closer to Earth: He's generally more mature than Calvin and will sometimes try to give him advice if he's making a poor decision, but even then, he's not that much more mature.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He's the one who imparts rationality and morality into Calvin at least some of the time. Hobbes frequently tries to get Calvin to see pleasure in little things, which is advice that Calvin almost always ignores. Hobbes won't mind Calvin's antics too much, and will frequently join in or let Calvin learn the hard way, but he'll at least voice his concerns if Calvin's latest scheme is obviously going to blow up in his face.
• The Conscience: Although he won't try too hard since Calvin's the one who'll have to suffer the consequences, Hobbes does at least try to talk Calvin out of the worst of his pranks and ideas.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Sometimes. He regularly attacks Calvin, graffitis his comics, and insults him.
• Companion Cube: He's seen as a stuffed toy◊ by everyone except Calvin. The exact nature of how this is done is left intentionally unclear.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially in the later years. The bigger the ideas Calvin would express, the more Hobbes would snark on them.
• Deuteragonist: There are many strips and even story arcs where Hobbes doesn't appear at all or only plays a minor role.
• A Dog Named "Dog": In the strip's Norwegian translation, he's renamed "The Tiger".
• Dub Name Change: To ''Tigern'' ("The Tiger") in Norway, "Stoffer" in Denmark and to "Haroldo" ("Harold") in Brazil.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his initial design, he had pads on his paws and was only about a head taller than Calvin in his "animate" form. As the strip went on, he became taller and the pads disappeared, making his paws look more like gloves.
• Fluffy Dry Cat: Happens to him when he gets out of the laundry machine.
  Calvin: Goodness, you're a fright.
  Hobbes: Tell your mom to put some conditioner in the wash next time.
• Food as Bribe: The only surefire way of getting him to agree on coming along on whatever wacky adventure you've got planned, is to tell him you've brought snacks. Calvin exploits this on occasion.
• Funny Animal: He walks on two legs, speaks, and has hands instead of paws.
• Furry Reminder:
  • We get various reminders that he is a tiger: He sleeps a lot, chases his tail and enjoys pouncing, among other things.
  • He periodically gets washed in the washing machine, which Watterson notes "is one of the stranger blurrings of what Hobbes is".
• The Gadfly: He never passes up a chance to annoy, frustrate or freak out Calvin, purely for his own amusement. Most of the fights or arguments between the two seem to ultimately be started by Hobbes pouncing, teasing or pranking Calvin in some way (though Calvin is by no means innocent and often gives as good as he gets.)
• Game Face: When he gets angry or serious, he lowers his brow until all the white on his forehead disappears, his ears flatten, and he genuinely looks dangerous.
• The Glomp: A Running Gag, where he pounces Calvin at full speed when Calvin comes home from school.
• Handsome Lech: While Calvin believes Girls Have Cooties, Hobbes has a thing for "babes." Although he's a proud member of Get Rid Of Slimy girlS, a lot of G.R.O.S.S.'s plans fail because of Hobbes. One story arc involves Susie kidnapping Hobbes to get revenge on Calvin for taking her doll, although Hobbes doesn't seem to mind so much.
  Hobbes: [smiling] I almost told [Susie] our code when she rubbed my tummy.
  Calvin: GOOD GRAVY, WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!
• The Hedonist: When asked about the purpose of living in face of inevitability of death, he answers "Well, there's seafood..."
• House Husband: When our heroes played "House" with Susie, she made Hobbes the stay-at-home husband to her high-powered businesswoman while Calvin had to be their bratty, brainless son. Hobbes fully embraced the role:
  Calvin: This was your idea, pea brain.
  Hobbes: Don't you talk to your father that way!
• Hypocrite: Hobbes regularly tries to talk sense into Calvin or call him out for doing something wrong (be it stealing Susie's doll or insulting her etc.) but has nothing whatsoever against intentionally bullying his only friend, sometimes without Calvin even starting the fight or doing anything at all to deserve it.
• Imaginary Friend: He probably only exists in Calvin's imagination.
• Implausible Deniability: In an early strip, when Calvin accuses him of jumping on the bed, Hobbes retorts with, "Well, you were the one playing the cymbals!!" while still holding the cymbals in his paws.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Ever notice how he always hits Calvin when he pounces? He's a cat, after all, and cats are known to have good aim. The one time he actually misses, it was "intentional."
• Intellectual Animal: Heavy on the Intellectual. He is repeatedly shown to be smarter than Calvin, and has talked about the subject's he's had to master to be a tiger, including a well-received dissertation on ethics. Math is the apparent exception to his intellectual skills.
• Interspecies Friendship: He is a tiger and his best friend is a human boy (Calvin).
• Interspecies Romance: Downplayed. He sometimes seems to have a crush on Susie, but they never get together.
• Invisible to Normals: Everyone but Calvin sees him as just a stuffed animal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A much better grasp on his "heart of gold" then Calvin, but he still enjoys annoying, angering, scaring, and overall messing with Calvin even when he’s done nothing to deserve it. When Calvin does do something wrong, Hobbes goes a bit far with it, to the point of making Calvin suffer.
• Kidanova: He's (probably) about Calvin's age, but while Calvin thinks Girls Have Cooties, Hobbes has a real soft spot for them. It might be mutual, too - as Calvin notes, whenever they play with a girl, Hobbes seem to get captured an awful lot...
• Knight in Sour Armor: Hobbes is apparently quite cynical, but often does good deeds he doesn't expect to be rewarded for. (i.e. Trying to preach virtue to Calvin. You know, the same guy who tries to pin things on Hobbes when caught.)
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: When it comes to math, at any rate. He's happy to help Calvin out with his homework and explain how to solve problems, but his answers are wrong and his methods are nonsensical. However, Calvin usually believes him.
• The Lancer: To Calvin. His best friend, but often disagrees with him.
• Lazy Bum: He loves to take naps and lounge around in the sun. When Calvin asked him about the latter, he said, "Tigers' tummies are solar cells." Truth in Television, as real tigers sleep for up to 18 hours a day.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The widely popular debate about him being either a figment of Calvin's imagination or a real character who only Calvin can see. Watterson himself believes it's up to the reader's interpretation and refuses to give a straight answer. Then there's the fact that Calvin has no objections to his mom putting Hobbes in the washing machine. Watterson admits this is "one of the stranger blurrings of what Hobbes is."
• 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. Thankfully, he doesn't share his namesake's conclusion that a totalitarian state was the only solution for humanity's flaws.
• Mr. Vice Guy: He is a good-natured and friendly tiger who does really care about Calvin, but he does mess with him a lot.
• Multiple-Choice Past: In the first strip, Calvin catches him in a rope trap and it's implied that's when they met, yet in another strip, Hobbes claims that Calvin spent a lot of his infancy burping and spitting up, hinting that Hobbes was around since Calvin was a baby. Considering he's probably Calvin's imaginary friend though, it's hard to tell whether Calvin is just making that up.
• Mysterious Past: The very first strip has Calvin capturing Hobbes in the woods, and a few other strips imply he was around since Calvin was a baby or had history before Calvin (including one time mentioning his dad), but exactly where or how Hobbes came to be is never explored (probably for the best, considering his Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane nature).
• Not So Above It All: Even though he usually acts as a Straight Man to Calvin, he sometimes takes part in Calvin's mischief.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Or is he? Watterson states that his true nature is left intentionally ambiguous.
• No Sympathy:
  • Quite often to Calvin. In his defense, he's more aware than anyone that Calvin causes a lot of his own problems and will advise him against doing things that will obviously blow up in his face. When he's inevitably ignored, Hobbes will switch toward instigating things and making Calvin suffer, though he does offer affection when Calvin's clearly upset (and again, if it's not something that's his own fault).
  • Played Straight in the story arc where Calvin woke up sick in the middle of the night. Not only does he rudely demand Calvin sleep facing the other direction (though that was because he didn't want to catch what Calvin had) but when the latter fears that he might eventually die from his illness, he merely responds he's hopeful to have Calvin's bed entirely to himself. Especially jarring since Calvin didn't do anything wrong to warrant his reaction that time nor does Hobbes ever take pity on his friend's condition.
• The Obi-Wannabe: While he gives good advice most of the time, some of it doesn't take into account the fact that Calvin is not a tiger.
• Obsessed with Food:
  • He's always thinking about tuna and salmon. One time, some of the monsters under the bed tried to bribe him with salmon to feed Calvin to them, and he asked, "Is it fresh salmon?"
  • When Calvin asks him what he would wish for if he could have anything he wanted, his answer was, “A sandwich.” (Calvin thought that was stupid, and countered that he’d wish for a trillion billion dollars, his own space shuttle and a private continent.)
• Older Sidekick: Some comics hint that he was around before Calvin was born. He remembers what Calvin was like as a baby, and at one point reminisces on advice that his dad gave him on how to avoid being chased by a rhinoceros. There's also this exchange:
  Calvin: You sissy. Mom always takes your side!
  Hobbes: That's because she wanted another tiger, not you!
• One-Track-Minded Artist: The only things he wants to draw are tigers. (He can also draw leopards, pumas, and ocelots.)
• Only Friend: He's the only real friend Calvin has (though the "real" part is up for interpretation). Calvin isn't close to anyone at school, and while he regularly interacts with Susie they tend to have a pretty antagonistic relationship.
• Only Sane Man: When you deal with Calvin as often as Hobbes does, you inevitably fall into this role. He often tells Calvin when something is a bad or crazy idea. (But of course, Calvin never, ever listens to him.)
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: During the arc where Calvin and his family try to save a dying baby raccoon, Hobbes doesn't make a single sarcastic remark and is just as serious as Calvin about wanting the raccoon to live. When Calvin pleads with it not to die, Hobbes can be seen blowing his nose on a handkerchief; later at night, he tells Calvin he can't sleep because he's thinking about the raccoon.
• Panthera Awesome: As a tiger, he's the epitome of grace, power, and beauty—according to himself, at least.
• The Philosopher: Often makes thoughtful statements on the nature of humanity, animals, and happiness, such as when he says it is the impermanence of life that makes it beautiful.
• Predation Is Natural: While the nature of Hobbes' eating habits (alongside his everything) are ambiguous, he and Calvin frequently and frankly discuss a tiger's real life eating habits with nothing less than admiration. One early strip mentions 'Tommy Chestnutt', a bully Hobbes is said to have eaten.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Well, replace "Warrior Race" with "Tiger." He's very proud of being a tiger, and Calvin pokes fun at him when he displays qualities more commonly associated with housecats such as lounging in the sun or being lazy.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Hobbes loves his naps, and has mauled Calvin on more than one occasion for unceremoniously waking him up.
• Riddle for the Ages: Is he actually a Living Toy or is his sapience a product of Calvin's imagination? We’ll probably never get a concrete answer, especially as Bill Watterson did not decide for himself, as it did not matter.
• Running Gag: Pouncing on Calvin as soon as he walks in the door and yells, "I'M HOME!"
• Sanity Ball: When he's not encouraging Calvin to be even worse, he will often be playing the voice of reason.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He's been known to just leave whenever Calvin's antics are going too far.
• Shipper on Deck: He keeps encouraging Calvin to get together (to the extent that little kids can be together) with Susie, much to Calvin's annoyance.
• Stock Animal Diet: He eats fish because he's a cat (albeit a big cat).
• Straight Man: He usually displays more common sense than Calvin, lampshades some of the sillier points of Calvin's schemes, and notes the obvious solution only to be shot down by Calvin's ego.
• Super-Hearing: Being a cat, he has an acute sense of hearing and can hear Calvin opening a can from all the way across the house.
  Calvin: (after Hobbes pounces on him) IT WASN'T TUNA! IT WAS PINEAPPLE! SEE?!
  Hobbes: All cans sound the same.
• A Taste of Defeat: Every now and then, Calvin manages to escape from being pounced on by Hobbes when he comes home.
  • One time, he yells, "I'm home!" before opening the door so that Hobbes smashes head-first into it. Calvin smugly notes (as Hobbes is holding his head in pain), "You'll notice I didn't say I was inside."
  • Once when Calvin comes home, his mom takes his jacket and hands Hobbes to him, noting that Hobbes somehow got put in the back of the closet.
    Calvin: Waiting for me in the closet, eh? Too bad your little plan was thwarted!!
    Hobbes: (sulking) Why don't you hang up your coat yourself?!
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tuna fish. He switched to salmon in later strips, then went back to tuna. Calvin will sometimes bring him fish from dinner as a way of bribing Hobbes to do his homework for him.
• Trickster Mentor: Sometimes he comes across as this, his pranks and snide remarks seeming intended to teach Calvin a lesson. Of course, it never works.
• Vague Age: While Calvin is explicitly 6 years old, Hobbes is very, very difficult to pin down into any specific age range, complicated all the more by his status as a feline and a stuffed animal. His character has aspects that make him seem full-grown, but he's also not much more mature or intelligent than Calvin.
• Victory Is Boring: One strip has Hobbes pounce on Calvin as usual, but then he remarks, "The thrill of the chase is so diminished when one's prey has little legs." Calvin, in response, just says, "OH, I'M REAL SORRY!"
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Calvin, meaning that despite fighting over the silliest of reasons they are the best of friends.
• The Watson: Although not from ignorance, but out of curiosity. He's usually the one to ask questions getting Calvin to explain his strange actions or weird statements.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no compunctions whatsoever about roughing up or generally antagonizing Calvin, although he never seriously injures him.

Secondary Characters

Susie Derkins

First Appearance: December 5th, 1985
Last Appearance: December 16th, 1995

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.

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• Badass Adorable: She can be a badass if Calvin gets her angry enough.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Seemingly with Calvin, though it's a very love-hate relationship. Calvin has a mild crush on her, but his weird behavior puts off Susie, which just encourages Calvin to be even weirder.
• 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.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Being six years old, her retaliatory insults toward Calvin are usually things like "poop head" and "baloney brain".
• Book Smart: Unlike the Book Dumb Calvin, she regularly gets good grades and is much better at keeping up with schoolwork. Calvin constantly tries to hit her up for test answers as a result.
• Boyish Short Hair: She sports a neat bob cut and can easily match Calvin in a fight blow for blow.
• Brainy Brunette: She's not as verbose as Calvin, but she actually focuses on her schoolwork, being on top of most assignments Calvin fails or forgets unless she has the bad luck to be partnered with him. She also outwits Calvin several times when he tries to prank her.
• Butt-Monkey: A frequent target of Calvin's pranks and insults, though she gives as good as she receives. She does have a limit, though. Calvin once called her a "booger-brain", which sent her home crying, and made Calvin feel bad. He actually has to chase her down to apologize.
• Character Catchphrase: Whenever Calvin grosses her out with disgusting descriptions of his lunch, her reaction is always to shoot her hand up in the air and yell, "MISS WORMWOOD!!!"
• Characterization Marches On:
  • One early strip had Susie attempting to cheat off Calvin, with predictably disastrous results. Later on, he would be the one continually hitting her up for test answers, only be rebuffed on the grounds that cheating is wrong.
  • When Susie was first introduced, she often tried to socialize with Calvin (usually by inviting him to tea parties, playing house with him and such) only to be repelled by his antics in some way such that an early arc had Susie tearfully hurt by his insults (for which he later managed to apologize out of guilt), not to mention that in many of the earlier instances in which she was antagonized, she would immediately cry out to an adult for help and rat him out. As time went by, she developed a shorter temper as well as a tendency to snark and would opt to instead beat Calvin to a pulp when hit with water balloons/snowballs and generally harbour disdain towards him for his oddball behaviour.
• Child Prodigy: While not shown as often as Calvin's, her vocabulary is well above that of a real-life first grader. Example: "stupidity produces antibodies."
• Crazy-Prepared: In one strip, she puts on a raincoat and takes out an umbrella before going outside, seemingly for no reason as it's a clear day...until the last panel shows Calvin standing behind a tree with a stockpile of water balloons, shouting, "You think you're so darn smart!"
• Cute Bruiser: Most prominent during the wintertime. Whenever Calvin hits her with a snowball, she basically goes "all-out" on him. Calvin is often seen all beaten afterwards.
• Deadpan Snarker: While she's generally a sweet kid, she can be pretty sassy when Calvin deserves it (which is often).
  "Leave me out of your life's plans, you little weirdo."
• Feminist Fantasy: When she played "House" with our heroes, she made herself a high-powered businesswoman. Hobbes became her unemployed House Husband, and Calvin was their bratty, brainless son.
• Fille Fatale: A G-rated example. She repeatedly "charms" Hobbes into helping her or at least not harming her, despite all of Calvin's urgings.
• Genius Bruiser: She's a good student, but she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty when Calvin deserves it.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She's occasionally seen with a stuffed rabbit named Mr. Bun, and fawns over Hobbes on more than one occasion.
  Susie: Look at your stuffed tiger! He's wearing a tie! That's so cute!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Mostly around Calvin when she's insulted or even gets threatened with one of his snowballs.
• Hero Antagonist: Especially if you look at things from Calvin's perspective, she will be portrayed as a nuisance who gets in his way, however, she never does anything wrong besides insult or roughhouse with him (and Calvin has usually done something to bring that on himself).
• Hypocrite: Despite her anger and disapproval from whenever Calvin does something cruel or annoying to her, Susie has no qualms about stooping to his level (or even lower) when it comes to getting back at him.
  • It's okay if she throws snowballs/water balloons at Calvin. When he does it to her, she goes ballistic and beats him up. And there have even been times where she has thrown snowballs at Calvin even though he did nothing to provoke her, yet she never gets her comeuppance for it like when Calvin does it to her.
  • There was one arc where Calvin decides to steal her doll Binky Betsy and hold it for ransom, and Susie in response steals Hobbes when Calvin wasn't looking. Granted, this was meant to come off as cathartic Laser-Guided Karma, but what Susie did in retaliation was wrong just like what Calvin did to her was wrong, and she could have just told on Calvin to his parents.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: She has little patience for Calvin's antics and acknowledges them as wrongdoings but is not at all above knocking him into next week if Calvin even so much as throws a snowball at her and misses. Then again, she's six years old so it's a logical reaction and Calvin (for all the times it fails to sink in) isn't really inclined to listen to reason otherwise.
• Housewife: Occasionally what she likes to act as when playing house with Calvin (a stay-at-home wife and mother) when she isn't "the high-powered executive wife."
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Despite everything Calvin puts her through, she still tries to be friendly to him. It's implied that being an overachiever means she has trouble relating to other kids.
• Jerkass Ball: She grabs this in the Good Duplicator arc. While she does make an effort to approach Calvin with kindness in other strips, she treats Calvin's good clone coldly when he tries to be nice to her. She immediately assumes that Calvin's good clone will get her books messy and threatens to beat him up for giving her a love letter.
• Little Miss Badass: She can put up a fight pretty good for somebody who's only Calvin's age.
• Little Miss Snarker: She always has a zinger ready when dealing with Calvin's latest antics, often giving as good as she gets. When she walks in on Calvin and Hobbes fighting, she says, "I don't know what's weirder—that you're fighting a stuffed animal, or that you seem to be losing." After Calvin smugly notes how boys are superior to girls, and asks what would make it worth living as one, Susie says they'll be begging her for dates to the prom when they're 17.
• Lost My Appetite: Her usual reaction to Calvin's disgusting descriptions of his lunch is to be put off her own food.
  Susie: And Mom wonders why I'm so hungry after school.
  Calvin: (happily) Yep. We'd probably be dead now if it weren't for Twinkies.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Proves again and again to be stronger and more devious than Calvin every time he targets her. With almost every snowball, water balloon, or other dirty prank Calvin pulls on her, Susie returns the sentiment tenfold (and Calvin never ever learns his lesson).
• Nice Girl: Zig-Zagged. She's always polite to her parents and her teachers, but Calvin tests her patience more often than not.
• Not So Above It All: Susie was genuinely impressed with Calvin's idea to style his hair with Crisco for School Picture Day, even admitting out loud that she wished she had some Crisco. And even though she is shown to be a much more diligent study than Calvin, she is occasionally shown asking him for answers to test questions.
• Odd Name Out: The only character in the series with a full name (as opposed to being having just one name or no name at all).
• Only Friend: Though "friend" is stretching it, it's possible that she doesn't have any except Calvin.
  "I wish I had a hundred friends. Then I wouldn't care. I'd say "who needs you, Calvin? I've got a hundred other friends! Then my hundred friends and I would go do something fun, and leave Calvin all alone! Ha! ...and as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony."
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Calvin fails to learn that no matter how big a water balloon, pine cone, or snowball he ambushes Susie with, it won't stop her from immediately popping up and kicking the stuffing out of him.
• Puppy Love: Susie occasionally reciprocates Hobbes's crush on her (though, as she sees him as a stuffed animal, it's more that she acts as such to get a rise out of Calvin). Besides cuddling him, she's also written him Valentine's Day cards and even invited him to her birthday party (she added a note on the back of his invitation saying that he could bring Calvin along if he had to, almost as an afterthought). When she played "House" with our heroes, she made Hobbes her unemployed house husband while Calvin had to be their bratty, brainless kid.
• Revenge Before Reason: Usually beats the stuffing out of Calvin after he throws snowballs and water balloons at her. She even does this in Christmas strips when she warns Calvin not to get on Santa's bad side. In an arc where Calvin passes her a note in class, her response is to send her a threatening note back to him only for Miss Wormword to catch her in the act. Luckily, the principal bails her out.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Quite capable of being as diabolical as Calvin. Led to more than one Hoist by His Own Petard moment.
• Similar Squad: Herself and Mr. Bun. However, Hobbes comments that Mr. Bun appears "comatose." Whether this is due to Susie not having as vivid an imagination as Calvin, or because Mr. Bun is a Not-So-Imaginary Friend, of course, depends on what Hobbes actually is.
• Straw Feminist: A lot of her "house" fantasies involve her having all the power in the relationship while her "husband" (Calvin) serves the role of the menial house-husband, even when she's making believe she's the President. Calvin, being who he is, never puts up with it and often ruins her fantasies by insulting her.
• Teacher's Pet: She's at least a much more committed student and more respectful to adults and teachers than Calvin is.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Her favorite lunch is a Swiss cheese and ketchup sandwich.
• Tsundere: Watterson says she and Calvin sort of have a love/hate relationship.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Calvin spend an awful lot of time together, even if they can't stand one another. It's also mentioned that she doesn't have many friends outside of Calvin (if any), which is probably why she occasionally ropes him into playing house with her.

Calvin's Mom

First Appearance: November 26th, 1985
Last Appearance: December 21st, 1995

I haven't seen Calvin for about 15 minutes now. That probably means he's getting in trouble.

Calvin's mom. She acts as the disciplinarian of her household.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Although Mom usually doesn't appreciate Calvin's antics, they occasionally make her laugh. When Calvin put on his dad's glasses and did a mocking impersonation of him ("Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!"), Mom thought this was so funny that she fell out of her chair laughing.
• Antics-Enabling Wife: She is shown to hate the camping trips the dad takes the family on just as much as Calvin and yet does nothing to stop these apart from complaining and having a sour attitude.
• Arch-Enemy: When he's imagining being Stupendous Man, Calvin imagines his mother as his evil arch-nemesis "Mom-Lady." More generally, she's the one who usually has to deal with Calvin's antics and make him do things he doesn't want to.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In Calvin's Stupendous Man fantasies, she's the evil arch-villain "Mom-Lady." Pretty much every confrontation between Stupendous Man and Mom-Lady ends with Mom-Lady victorious.
• The Bore: She's not quite as bad as Dad, but according to Calvin their idea of a wild night is to put a scoop of regular coffee in with the decaf. When Bill Watterson tried to hint at her interests and other parts of her personality, they seemed pretty dull too.
• A Day in the Limelight: A few strips feature her as the focus character with minimal or no involvement from Calvin, generally centering around her gripes with other people and/or her daily life; such as being held up at checkout by cashier talking on the phone.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.
  Calvin: (pointing happily to three grotesque melted snowmen holding signs that read "Repent Sinners," "The End is Near," and "Spring is Coming") They're snowmen prophets of doom.
  Mom: You certainly take the pleasure out of waiting for daffodils.
• Disproportionate Retribution: She once banned Calvin from watching afternoon movie... when Calvin spit water at her, the point being that Calvin was imitating Godzilla which he had seen in an afternoon movie.
• Fan of the Past: She and Dad were a couple of decades behind even when the strip ran. They didn't own a VCR or a cassette deck in their car, much to Calvin's dismay.
• Former Teen Rebel: Along with her husband. Their yearbooks apparently show them going pretty wild, and Calvin's grandmother has remarked that she was a lot like Calvin as a kid.
• Generation Xerox: According to what her mom (Calvin's maternal grandmother) has told Calvin, it seems that she was a lot like Calvin as a little kid.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Like her husband, she really tends to overreact to Calvin's shenanigans, and has even resorted to making threats whenever Calvin acts up.
• Happily Married: Her relationship with her husband is healthy and loving. Even when Calvin gets into trouble, the two of them have genuine conversations about how to move forward together.
• Hidden Depths: At the end of an arc where Calvin causes trouble during a doctor's appointment, it's implied that she used to have poor behavioral problems much like Calvin according to what his grandma used to tell her as a kid.
  Calvin's Mom: Someday I hope you have a kid that puts you through what I've gone through.
  Calvin: Yeah, Grandma says that's what she used to tell you.
• Housewife: She stays home and takes care of things domestically while Calvin's dad works. Though Calvin doesn't make her job easy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can appear unsympathetic when she is stressed, but she clearly loves Calvin with all her heart. While her relationship with her husband can be somewhat strained when it comes to raising their son, they are Happily Married.
• Lethal Chef: Calvin thinks she is, to the point where he imagines her putting weed killer, gasoline, Shrunken Heads, paint and a live octopus into one meal. This isn't really the case however, since Calvin tends to make up his mind he doesn't like a meal if it sounds bad (or if he doesn't know what it is) but whenever he's tricked into eating it he likes it just fine. Similarly, he acted as though her hamburger casserole was disgusting until she actually told him what it was.
• Mama Bear: When his father's teasing about a Christmas without presents or a tree goes too far and genuinely upsets Calvin, she makes it clear to him that he'll be paying dearly for it.
• No Name Given: Since her purpose in the story is just to be Calvin's mom, Watterson made a point of never naming her.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • One strip implies that she was as bad as Calvin when she was a child.
    Mom: (after a disastrous doctor appointment) Someday I hope you have a kid that puts you what I've gone through.
    Calvin: Yeah, Grandma says that's what she used to tell you.
  • Mom once got rather upset at the fact that the little raccoon was clearly not long for the world when Calvin found it. So she turned to Hobbes for comfort, even lampshading it.
    Mom: (to Hobbes) I don't think this poor little guy is going to make it, Hobbes. (sigh) I hate it when these things happen. ...You can tell I'm upset when I start talking to you...
  • After Calvin abandons Hobbes in the woods and quits the Yukon expedition due to the tiger's rudeness, Mom and Dad go out at night to try and find Hobbes. Mom calls out for Hobbes, forgetting that he's a stuffed tiger who can't respond. (We think.)
    Mom: H-O-O-OBBES! ...Oops. Heh heh.
    Dad: I may be crazy, but I'm not as crazy as you.
• Oh, Crap!: She takes Calvin to the doctor when he has chicken pox, and is horrified when Calvin has to be inside for a week. The doctor then notes she's developed a nasty twitch.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mom is no stranger to yelling at Calvin whenever he causes trouble. But when she stays completely calm while scolding him for locking Rosalyn out of the house, he knows he’s really screwed up.
  Mom: Calvin, listen closely. Locking Rosalyn out of the house wasn’t just mean, it was dangerous. If you’d hurt yourself or if there had been a fire, she wouldn’t have been able to help you. You go apologize to Rosalyn right now.
• Pet the Dog: Many moments. She constantly has to put up with Calvin but ultimately cares for his well being, showing genuine concern for him at times and sometimes just acting nice to him.
  Calvin: Mom is awesome.
• Sick Episode: One arc involved her getting sick and her husband and son trying to nurse her back to health.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: She's often seen stitching up Hobbes when he gets damaged or ripped after fighting with Calvin, and once made an onion costume for Calvin to wear in his School Play.
• Tsundere: Calvin's mom shows a surprising amount of softness and patience given her family situation, but if someone pushes her too hard, she will get stern.
• Tough Love: Calvin once asked his mom if he could smoke cigarettes. She gave him some his grandfather left over, surprisingly enough. He then throws a coughing fit, causing his mom to walk over and say, "Did we learn a little lesson today?"
  Calvin: ...Yes... Trusting parents can be hazardous to your health.
• Unnamed Parent: She is known only as "Mom".
• 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.

Calvin's Dad

First Appearance: November 18th, 1985
Last Appearance: December 3rd, 1995

It's going to be a grim day when the world is run by a generation that doesn't know anything but what it's seen on TV.

Calvin's dad. A patent attorney with a dim view of the modern world and a focus on building character through miserable experiences.

---

• Abusive Parents: Downplayed; his teasing and sarcasm towards Calvin sometimes trudges into verbal abuse:
  • The best exemplification of this is a strip where he tells Calvin their Christmas tree will go in the garage undecorated, possibly without any presents. His wife is understandably not happy to see Calvin so traumatized. He doesn't learn his lesson in later strips, where his off-handed comments are usually met by a stern "Dear!"
  • He notably smiles and praises Calvin for 'building some character' upon seeing him utterly brutalized from trying to wrangle his bike.
  • In one issue, he reminds Mom that he didn't want a child in the first place - he wanted to buy a dachshund instead.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite himself, Dad will occasionally enjoy Calvin's antics. He grumpily admitted that Calvin doing a mocking impression of him was a little funny (though Mom fell out of her chair, she was laughing so hard).
• Angrish: When he stubbed his toe while putting out Christmas presents one year, Dad said, "Slippin-rippin-dang-fang-rotten-zarg-barg-a-ding-dong!"
• Author Avatar: Played with. He's actually based on Watterson's own father, right down to the profession of patent attorney, but Watterson relates more to him than he does to Calvin. He also resembles Bill Watterson without a mustache. Dad also shares a lot of Watterson's annoyances and criticisms of the modern world, especially about what's on TV and how people seem to disregard simple manners.
• Author Filibuster: Many of the comics centred around him involve him ranting about the evils of new media, consumerism, and modern technology, and how it was better back in the old days, views shared by Watterson himself (although exaggerated to a more comical degree).
• Author Tract: Chances are, if Calvin's Dad is the star of a particular strip, he's spouting off a topic Watterson himself is particularly impassioned by, such as his love of cycling, his hatred of new technology, and railings against commercialism and television. He's usually good at not being too soapbox-y though, since the punchline is at his own expense.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite often clashing over their different ideals, Calvin and his dad do have a few bonding moments. Case in point, Dad taking a break from his work to go out and build a snowman with Calvin after initially saying he was too busy. In another strip, Dad is debating taking a day off, listing spending the day with Calvin as one of the possible options.
• Berserk Button:
  • He hates new technology and conveniences. Dad once got kicked out of a grocery store for ranting at the fact that the store had too many different options for peanut butter, which set him off about how things were no longer "simple".
    Hobbes: Your Dad's going into the future kicking and screaming, isn't he?
    Calvin: What if he's turning into some kind of subversive?
  • Traffic in general seems to annoy Dad, but this annoyance turns pretty intense when he's riding his bike.
    Calvin: Hey Dad, I'm doing a traffic safety poster. Do you have any ideas for a slogan?
    Dad: Sure! "Cyclists have a right to the road too, you noisy, polluting, inconsiderate maniacs! I hope gas goes up to 8 bucks a gallon!"
• The Bore: Calvin outright calls him the most boring Dad in the world, and says that his parents' idea of a wild night is to put a scoop of regular coffee in with the decaf. A Spaceman Spiff fantasy also has Dad as an alien torturing Spiff with a "calm discussion of wholesome principles."
• Born in the Wrong Century:
  • He dislikes modern technology and other recent developments, like what he perceives as the gradual decline of people's manners. In one strip, Hobbes snarks that Calvin's dad wishes technology stopped advancing after the bicycle.
  • The latter years of the strip were also the time when The Internet first started to become a part of human life, and the "information superhighway" is mentioned a couple of times. In a May 1995 strip Calvin asks why they aren't hooked up "to an on-line service, so we can connect to other computers". His father answers "Because it's bad enough we have a telephone." The last panel has Calvin screaming "HELLLPPP!!" at the sky.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: Dad eventually became a walking Author Tract, making speeches about commercialism and materialism and the horror of our age, along with praising the fulfillment that comes only with being miserable in the great outdoors. For all that, though, he still enjoys Boomer pop culture - much to Calvin's chagrin.
• Character Filibuster: Whole strips are given over to his rants against consumerism and modern technology. These most often come up when Dad is riding his bike in traffic.
• Composite Character: Calvin's Dad combines traits of both Bill Watterson's father, and Watterson himself.
• Dads Can't Cook: According to Calvin's mom, in the two years after college when he lived by himself, Calvin's dad ate frozen waffles and canned soup three meals a day. Calvin's dad denies the claim, while pouring out a can of soup and telling Calvin to get out the syrup.
• A Day in the Limelight: His cycling strips usually don't feature Calvin or Hobbes, focusing just on Dad and his annoyance with several aspects of the modern world.
• Deadpan Snarker: Obvious where Calvin got this from. Though Dad complains about having "one sarcastic kid", Dad's constant jokes about Calvin don't do him any favors.
• Death Glare: In one strip, when Calvin tries to go outside without doing his homework, his dad gives him "the evil eye" - which from Calvin's perspective, involved him transforming into a giant glaring eyeball.
• Everyone Has Standards: As much as he tries to see vacations as "building character", even he gets fed up and ends a camping trip early when they're struck with a constant rainstorm. And then the storm just up and goes away in the middle of packing.
• Fan of the Past: He and Mom were a couple of decades behind even when the strip ran. They didn't own a VCR or have a cassette deck in their car, much to Calvin's dismay. Dad also still prefers the older music, manners and even slang from his own youth.
• Former Teen Rebel:
  • While he seems borderline reactionary in the strip's present, he apparently partied quite a bit in his youth, and proves himself to be quite knowledgeable regarding '60s hippie slang in one strip.
    Calvin: (while looking through an old yearbook) Is this you with the keg and the "Party Naked" t-shirt?
    Dad: (snatching the yearbook) Give me that!
  • In a June 1995 strip Calvin asks what "Give it the ol' college try" means. His father answers "It means you join your friends, get some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow."
    Mom: That's not what it means!
    Dad: Where did you go to college?
• The Gadfly: Not generally, but something about Calvin's earnest questions sets off this side of his dad's nature.
  Calvin: Dad, what causes the wind?
  Dad: Trees sneezing.
  • That said, not even he can answer Calvin's query of "How do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?"; all he can do is do an Aside Glance, then stare straight ahead (Calvin draws from this that "Sometimes, I think grown-ups only act like they know what they're doing."; for context, this stirp ran during the first Gulf War).
• Growing Up Sucks: Concludes this after the house was burglarized. He spent his childhood assuming adults knew best, and when he learns that they really don't, he regrets being so eager to grow up.
• Happily Married: He does love his wife, and they go out for evenings alone often.
• Henpecked Husband: Zigzagged.
  • He's sometimes presented with way, with Mom yelling at Dad after some of Calvin's antics get too far out of hand. Just as often, Mom is made miserable by his camping trips.
  • In the arc where Calvin floods the bathroom, Calvin's parents argue over whose turn it is to potentially discipline Calvin. In the following day's strip, he comes out the loser.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: A perfect morning for him is a long hike in the falling snow, followed by a big bowl of oatmeal. And Dad doesn't understand why the rest of his family doesn't share his enthusiasm for Horrible Camping Trips. May cross over to Macho Masochism.
• Indubitably Uninteresting Individual: Calvin considers Dad to be this, since he isn't interested in any of the crazy, destructive things Calvin is eager to do, doesn't watch TV and his ideas of fun are bike riding in winter and camping in the middle of nowhere. Calvin even wonders if it's all a charade and if Dad's really a badass superhero who the mayor calls on whenever Calvin's hometown is in trouble.
• I Resemble That Remark!: During the arc where Mom gets sick, Dad does the cooking and Calvin comments that Mom said he ate canned soup and frozen waffles three meals a day before they were married. Dad (who, if you look closely, is pouring something out of a can) says, "Your mom wasn't there, so she wouldn't know. Get the syrup out, would you?"
• It's All About Me: Has shades of this during the family's annual Horrible Camping Trip. Despite Calvin and his Mom repeatedly telling him how much they hate camping, Calvin's Dad refuses to take them on any other vacation, the implied reason being that as the breadwinner he gets to decide how they have fun and they should enjoy it as well regardless. Then when they complain, he acts as if he's the one being unfairly treated.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be rather unsympathetic to Calvin at times, stating that Misery Builds Character. However, there is no doubt he is a normal, caring father who loves his wife and son deeply. He just gets irritated by Calvin's trouble-making antics. He is the more down-to-earth member of the family who just tries to keep them in tact.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Played for laughs when he locks Calvin out of the house in the middle of winter for complaining about the low thermostat.
    Dad: In a few minutes, you can come in, and then the house will seem nice and warm.
    Calvin: (standing on the doorstep) I'm telling the newspapers about you, Dad!
  • When he tells Calvin about how Christmas will go, with the tree out in the garage, and if Calvin gets a present...even Calvin's Mom is furious with him.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He doesn't know nearly as much as he wants Calvin to think he does. He gave up trying to explain how things work to Calvin, instead coming up with lies. In at least one early strip, however, he gave Calvin the right answer, only to be rebuffed. Perhaps that explains it.
• Lies to Children: Constantly. When Calvin asked about some force of nature (such as the wind), Dad will make up something entirely ridiculous as a response (for instance, wind is caused by sneezing trees). In commentary on one such strip, Watterson simply observed, "I suspect it must be a great temptation to abuse one's parental authority for private jokes."
• Like Father, Like Son: The arc where Calvin's family attends a wedding has a rare example of Calvin and his father sharing sentiments. While Calvin complains to himself that he'd rather be somewhere else and about Hobbes not being with him, his father yawns in one panel and checks his watch in another.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: However, there is evidence that suggests he was well-behaved in his youth. Unlike Calvin, he may have simply took the theory that adults knew best for granted. Generally, Calvin and his father have almost nothing in common, to the point that Dad has mused on taking a paternity test to see if they're actually related.
  Calvin's Mom: Take my word for it.
• Ludd Was Right: Many strips show that Dad looks down on modern technology. He views most television as "preachy" and encouraging consumerism, and when Calvin asked him why they don't have an Internet connection, he replied, "Because it's bad enough that we have a telephone." In one strip, Dad got in trouble when he started complaining loudly about the wide variety of peanut butter at a grocery store, and it's hinted that this has happened before. There's also Dad's yearly camping trips, which imply that he believes "building character" during a vacation is more important than actually enjoying it.
• Macho Masochism: Downplayed. Dad draws the line at actual pain, but he clearly enjoys putting himself in situations that other people (especially his own family) would find annoying or uncomfortable. Some of his favorite hobbies include bike-riding and camping, insisting that such things build character and allow a person to truly be free of the worst parts of the modern world. His wife and son clearly do not share these sentiments.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: "(Doing unpleasant activity X) builds character." While drawing the line at pain, Calvin's dad seems to think that suffering through something deeply unpleasant makes someone a better person. Calvin notes, however, both that his dad doesn't like this having it turned back on him, and also that it's suspicious that things that "build character" for Calvin tend to be chores that save his parents money.
• Men Can't Keep House: One strip has Calvin asking his dad why it takes him less time to vacuum than mom. Calvin's dad says he simply does it more efficiently, but Calvin immediately picking up a dust clump the size of a cantaloupe and his mother screaming in another, already vacuumed, room about how filthy it is clearly tell another story...
• Misery Builds Character: Trope Namer. He'll often give Calvin some menial task to do (such as shoveling snow off the driveway), or force Calvin to go on a camping trip he vocally does not want to go on. Every time, Dad rebuffs Calvin's objections by saying that the activity will "build character." Not helped by the fact that Dad's hobbies — jogging, biking and camping — are miserable for Mom and Calvin. However, Dad doesn't appreciate it when it's turned back around on him or when Calvin mocks him.
• Nature Lover: He likes to go camping and is often the only one to enjoy the family's camping trips. He also owns a pair of binoculars.
• Never My Fault: Since normally his reactions don't get a laugh out of Calvin or his wife, especially around Christmas, he'll normally grouse that nobody has a sense of humor anymore.
• No Name Given: His real name is never stated, since his in-story purpose is just to be Calvin's dad.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Although he usually never humors Calvin's Push Polling schemes, in one strip where Calvin asks if he'll keep Mom as a "running mate" or get a new one for next term, he actually seems to think about it for a moment (before his wife walks in and he states, with a sheepish expression, that he'll stick with Mom).
• One-Note Cook: If you could even call him that. Prior to marrying Calvin's Mom, Dad lived on his own for two years, where according to Mom, he ate nothing but canned soup and frozen waffles three meals a day.
• Only One Finds It Fun: He's the only member of the family who actually likes their annual Horrible Camping Trips, although it's partly because it makes the rest of their normal home life more luxurious by comparison, so it's not as though he's oblivious to how unenjoyable they are.
• Pet the Dog: While Dad seems like a disengaged or sarcastic parent a lot of the time, he does love Calvin and demonstrates it often.
  • Stopped working to play with Calvin until his bedtime, causing Calvin to actually give him a kiss. Then he had to work into the night.
  • He takes the time to read Calvin a bedtime story every night. Even if it's Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie, which he hates. Or at least hates as the same one every single night.
  • When Calvin cries over a baby raccoon that dies despite his efforts to save it, Dad comforts him over it, telling him that at least it died warm and safe. He also digs a grave for the raccoon.
• The Scrooge:
  • When Calvin started his own newspaper, he gave Dad a choice: reimburse him for labor and material costs or be the main character of his "Dopey Dad" comic strip. The next panel shows Calvin and Hobbes working on the comic strip in the dark.
  • He teases Calvin by pretending to be this. Notably, he suggests getting a Christmas Tree sometime after New Year's. They can just grab a tree off the street, possibly with tinsel still on it, to save time and money. If Mom's reaction is anything to go by, he may be paying for it dearly. According to Watterson, this was a joke his own father used to tell him a lot.
  • When Calvin complains about the family's toaster burning his toast, Dad says that "somehow, life goes on." Calvin says that beneath that perspective is just a guy who doesn't want to buy a new toaster. In another strip, Calvin is wondering why his family shovels the driveway by hand. When Dad says it "builds character", Calvin comments that it's pretty convenient how every time he builds character, Dad saves a few hundred bucks. This may also be why he takes the family camping every summer instead of going to a resort or a theme park the way Calvin would.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: It's indicated in numerous strips he really does not enjoy his patent attorney desk job, and has pondering quitting a few times. However, it's usually Played for Laughs because he still considers it the lesser evil to being stuck at home all day with Calvin.
• Standard '50s Father: Well, he tries to fit the archetype, but Calvin, being anything but a sitcom kid, makes it difficult. He's also not afraid to show a mischievous side, and it's implied he wasn't always so straight and narrow. Of course, unlike the original version of this trope, Dad was actually a Boomer, and thus had a somewhat different experience growing up.
• Teasing Parent: He is usually serious, but occasionally he teases Calvin with some absolutely ridiculous story (such as explaining old black and white photographs by telling him that the world used to be black and white) and coming up with convoluted explanations for Calvin's queries such as why old paintings are in color ("because a lot of great artists used to be insane").
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: One time when Rosalyn visits, Dad makes one at Calvin before leaving to warn him that he better behave. (Of course, Calvin doesn't listen.)
• Tranquil Fury: it only happens a few times in the strip, but when Calvin's dad is angry at his son and not yelling at him, even Calvin knows to stop messing around. Probably the best known example is in the snow goon story arc, where Calvin's father is pissed as he drags his son back inside on a late January night, but doesn't say a word to him until Calvin's put down and out of his winter attire:

  Dad: Calvin, it is after midnight. Believe me, we will discuss this very thoroughly tomorrow. You get into bed this instant.
  Calvin: (eyes wide open, frightened in his bed) Like I'm going to get any sleep now.

• Unnamed Parent: He is known only as "Dad" to Calvin.

Miss Wormwood

First Appearance: November 21st, 1985
Last Appearance: October 30th, 1995

It's not enough that we have to be disciplinarians. Now we need to be psychologists.

Calvin's first-grade teacher. Miss Wormwood struggles mightily to be patient with Calvin and yearns for retirement. Watterson named her, somewhat obscurely, after the low-ranking demon The Screwtape Letters are being sent to.

---

• Designated Villain: In-universe, from Calvin's point of view. Calvin hates homework, especially math, so Miss Wormwood being the one to assign it makes her a villain in Calvin's mind.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Non-alcoholic example. If Calvin says something really inane, she'll drink Maalox (a liquid stomach medicine) straight from the bottle, or at least Calvin says.
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: Inverted. Quite a bit of the stuff she teaches to Calvin and his classmates seems rather advanced for first graders. An especially egregious example (besides the insect collection) involves a word problem that requires knowledge of multiplication and algebra!
  • Not to mention, the class projects she gives include having to collect FIFTY different leaves/insects and labeling them with their scientific Latin names over the course of two weeks.
  • She even has her students read about the Byzantine Empire, which is a subject most kids won't be taught about until high school, if even then!
• Must Have Nicotine: In one strip, Calvin notes that she smokes heavily to cope with the stress of teaching him.
  Calvin: Rumor has it she's up to two packs a day, unfiltered.
• Never Mess with Granny: Calvin doesn't consider her one of his sworn archenemies for nothing.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In the arc where Calvin hastily tries to enlist Susie's aid to put together an insect collection, she punishes Susie for trying to shush him and writing a hateful note back to him without so much as asking for an explanation (in fact, she doesn't seem to know Calvin was actually behind it until after Mr. Spittle heard the whole story). This is very odd, considering she almost always comes to Susie's defense during Calvin's bouts of disruptive antics which she also has to deal with regularly.
• 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 isn't one, she's just very boring, which makes her classes hard for Calvin to sit through.
• Shout-Out: Watterson has confirmed that her name is a reference to the apprentice demon in The Screwtape Letters.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Until he learned otherwise, Calvin 'sort of assumed' that his teacher slept in a coffin all summer.
• Stern Teacher: She commonly checks up on Calvin to see if he's paying attention in class. Calvin views school as comparable to forced labor thanks to her.
• So Proud of You: Downplayed, but in one Sunday strip, she seems genuinely impressed for a moment when Calvin gets an A. For that matter, any time (rare as it is) that Calvin appears to put forth some kind of effort in school, she'll make it a point to praise him.
• Survival Mantra: "Five years until retirement, five years until retirement, five years until retirement..."
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Although she's usually shown suffering Calvin's constant outbursts and ridiculous assignment answers, sometimes Calvin will actually do well on an assignment or answer a problem correctly, much to her relief. In the story arc with the good Calvin duplicate, she actually has to tell him he's answered too many questions right and he should give the other classmates a chance.
• Tormented Teacher: Miss Wormwood is so put upon by the daily antics of Calvin (including the Trope Naming Noodle Incident) that she has taken to drinking Maalox straight from the bottle and taking various medications all at once (to Calvin's visible disgust). Calvin also notes, rather pleased with himself, that it's rumored that Miss Wormwood is "up to two packs a day, unfiltered."
• Touché: When she interrupts Calvin's daydreaming during a geography lesson, she asks him what state he's in, to which he responds "denial." She acknowledges she can't argue with that.
• Would Hurt a Child: She has no problem scraping and dragging Calvin after he comes in the classroom as Stupendous Man.

Moe

First Appearance: January 30th, 1986
Last Appearance: November 11th, 1995

Hey Twinky, want to see if there's an afterlife?

The class bully who got held back in school multiple times and often takes Calvin's money. He's the only kid Calvin knows that shaves.

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• Barbaric Bully: He's big, very dumb, and very violent. He beats up Calvin at every opportunity, is regularly dumbfounded by his use of big words, and has said he targets Calvin specifically because he's smaller and can't fight back.
• The Brute: Big, mean, strong, and stupid. Any time he shows up in the comic, he either doles out violence on Calvin or threatens to do so. Also, Moe's text is written in a grimy style compared to everyone else's.
• The Ditz: Gets quite a few moments of this, especially when Calvin says things that go over his head.
• Dumb Muscle: Big and brawny as a first grader can be, but he has serious trouble understanding words with more than two or three syllables.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • Says he doesn't pick on people his own size because they hit back.
    Calvin: I guess that has a certain unethical logic to it...
  • Calvin tells Moe to get his kicks in while he can, because when he's an adult, he can't go beating people up for no reason. Moe agrees, and decides to beat up Calvin more.
• Evil Is Bigger: A brutish, violent bully and is much bigger than Calvin and most of the other kids.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Moe always has his eyes covered by his bangs.
• Fat Bastard: Described as such by Hobbes, and he is noticeably heftier than the other six-year-olds.
• Flat Character: Unlike most other characters in the series, who have sympathetic sides and are open to various interpretations, Moe solely exists just to be a jerk to Calvin. He never got any characterization beyond The Brute for the entire run of the strip.
• Freudian Excuse: Implied in one strip, where Calvin suggests Moe has some "serious personal problems" that make him act this way. Moe angrily clobbers him for saying that, suggesting Calvin might be right... not that it makes him any more sympathetic to Calvin or the audience.
  Calvin: Then again, maybe he's just a world-class poophead.
• Gym Class Hell: He usually sticks to victimizing Calvin during recess or lunch, but if there's a chance for it during gym class, Moe will happily take it.
• Hate Sink: Moe's only characterization is to be as unpleasant as humanly possible. He's nothing but an immature, ignorant bully, and is presented as nothing but that throughout the entire strip, getting no redeeming qualities at all.
• Insufferable Imbecile: He's a dimwitted bully who antagonizes Calvin for no apparent reason. But Calvin can routinely get away with insulting him straight to his face, and using big words that Moe doesn't understand.
• It Amused Me: When Calvin calls him out on what he could possibly gain from pounding on someone who is completely defenseless, he just replies, "it's fun".
• Jerkass to One: He's only a complete and total hoodlum to Calvin; he's never seen bullying any other kids.
• Jerk Jock: The thug never ceases to intimidate Calvin when it comes to sports in gym class.
• Karma Houdini: Torments and beats up Calvin without provocation, and never really receives any punishment or payback. Though Calvin did appear to get the better of him when he introduced him to Hobbes, an act that confused Moe so much that he practically begged that Calvin leave him alone. (Calvin assumed he was scared of Hobbes, but Moe saw only a stuffed toy and assumed Calvin was trying to frame him by inviting him to play with the "teddy" and then claiming he stole it.) A storyline from the early days of the strip has him rob Calvin of his lunch money, Calvin's mother finding out and calling the school, which forces Moe to pay him back. Other than these examples, he never gets punished in the entire 10 year run of the strip.
• The Nicknamer: He calls Calvin "Twinky".
• Painting the Medium: He is the only character who speaks in mixed caps instead of all caps, and his speech appears to have been written with a pencil.
• Satellite Character: He exists solely to be Calvin's bully and is only seen interacting with another character once (a nameless background character at that, who's implied to be a bully like him).
• Super-Strength: Thanks to Toon Physics, he's able to throw dodge-balls hard enough to put craters in the wall, and plows Calvin's head into a metal locker.
• Vocal Dissonance: His dialogue is done via grade-school-style handwriting instead of the neat letters for everyone else. Presumably he sounds like a big, mean bully in Bill Watterson's imagination.
• Younger Than They Look: How Calvin saw him in the first strip that features him. It's more likely that he is much older than Calvin and got held back multiple times.
  Calvin: Never argue with a six-year-old who shaves.

Rosalyn

First Appearance: May 15th, 1986
Last Appearance: September 16th, 1995

For eight bucks a night, I don't put up with much.

Calvin's babysitter. She's the only one in the neighborhood willing to babysit him, provided she gets paid extra of course.

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• Arch-Enemy: Watterson says that she's the only person Calvin truly fears.
• Ascended Extra: Watterson created her for just one story arc, but quickly realized having a character Calvin was actually intimidated by could provide a lot of material, so she appeared several more times.
• Babysitter from Hell: Played with. She starts out at this by locking him in the garage but has since resorted to simply sending him to bed. While Calvin certainly views her as such, he is the instigator in every one of their encounters after the first. The last of their encounters actually goes relatively well, once Rosalyn agrees to play Calvinball.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Usually is on the receiving end of Calvin's mischief. Some of the time, she brings it on herself. Sometimes not.
• 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 has fun with the game and wins when they play it, having learned about the lack of rules in the course of it and turning it to her advantage with the "babysitter flag".
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: She's able to beat Calvin at Calvinball after figuring out that you make up the rules as you go, and uses this to essentially declare herself the winner and force him to bed. Calvin isn't even mad, since she played by the "rules" and he lost fair and square.
• "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.
• Characterization Marches On: In her first appearances, she was portrayed as much more of an unnecessarily cruel babysitter, threatening Calvin the moment his parents are gone or locking him in the garage. Later appearances generally have her trying to be nice to Calvin... until he gets into his usual antics just to annoy her.
• Child Hater: Subverted. From Calvin's point of view, she violently hates kids. However, she actually seems good with other kids, as seen with her work as a swim teacher — Calvin in particular just grinds her nerves for understandable reasons.
  Calvin: She'll probably stick my head on a stake as a warning to other kids she babysits!!
• Crazy-Prepared: One one occasion Calvin tried to sneak out of the house again. As he's sprinting across the backyard, she jumps out the window behind him, and, well...
  Calvin: Oh geez, RUN!! She's wearing CLEATS!
  Hobbes: Outta my WAY! Outta my WAY!
• Designated Villain: In-universe; from Calvin's perspective. It's clear every single time Calvin is the one who is the aggressor.
  • 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.
  • Rosalyn's first night with Calvin goes relatively smoothly since she locks him in the garage for several hours. It's only after Calvin chafes at the enforced bedtimes and her continued presence that he starts causing trouble.
• The Dreaded: Not a lot of people can strike fear into Calvin's heart quite like Rosalyn. Even Hobbes is terrified of her.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After several increasingly-hostile battles with Calvin, her last appearance in the strip goes much smoother. Rosalyn tells Calvin if he behaves that evening, she'll let him stay up late and even plays Calvinball with him; she ends up being a natural at it, they both have fun, and Calvin does his homework and goes to bed without argument.
• Guile Hero:
  • In her final story arc, Rosalyn figures out how to deal with Calvin. By playing Calvinball with him, she engages with Calvin on his own terms. Not only does she get Calvin to behave, she gets him to do his homework.
    Mom: We're home! Is everything OK?
    Rosalyn: Fine. Calvin did his homework, then we played a game, and Calvin went to bed.
    Dad: It's awfully late for jokes, Rosalyn.
  • She's also able to exploit her position to get copious advances from Calvin's parents. Since she's the only person Calvin fears (and the only one willing to babysit him at all) and they just want some peace and quiet for the night, they usually just grit their teeth and pay.
    Dad: She's got a real racket going, doesn't she?
    Mom: What do you want to do, stay home every night until Calvin's eighteen?
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much for Calvin to annoy her. Once she sent him to bed early because he shot two Nerf darts at her.
• Hero Antagonist: Portrayed as a hero in actuality, but she does occasionally resort to violence to deal with Calvin.
• Hey, You!: When talking to Calvin, she will sometimes derisively refer to him as something along the lines of "you little creep", or simply "you."
• In-Series Nickname: Calvin sometimes calls her "Roz."
• Jerk Jock: Implied, from Calvin's perspective at least. Rosalyn stops Calvin from running away because she's wearing cleats. The sport she uses them for is not mentioned.
• Out of Focus: Disappeared for the second half of the strip, but she came back for one final story arc in September 1995.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the beginning, Rosalyn's answer for Calvin misbehaving was to lock him up in the garage for whatever he did; though she gets better about trying to talk to him, Calvin never trusts her. She's usually pretty fair until Calvin antagonizes her in later appearances, and by her final appearance, Rosalyn gets Calvin to behave by offering him the chance to stay up half an hour past his usual bedtime.
• Serial Escalation: Watterson commented that every Rosalyn arc had to be more extreme than the last one, at one point causing him to resort to involving Stupendous Man.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Calvin. She's described as the only person in the entire world that Calvin is truly afraid of, and the two of them butt heads every time she shows up.
• Teens Are Monsters: Played straight in her earliest appearances, but lessened as the strip went on. Calvin thinks Rosalyn is a bad babysitter, and he's not entirely wrong. Rosalyn would rather talk on the phone with her boyfriend Charlie all day than pay attention to Calvin, and she seems to milk Calvin's parents for more and more money. Rosalyn is capable of being a decent sitter when she does pay attention to Calvin. By her final arc, she's become an aversion. She figures out the trick to getting Calvin to behave-namely, by engaging him on his terms. By agreeing to play Calvinball with him, she not only gets him to willingly go to bed, but do his homework. Hobbes is shocked at this.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In her final appearance, she actually has a relatively peaceful time with Calvin for once, where they play a game of Calvinball and she gets Calvin to behave willingly (including doing all his homework) by using the made-up rules of the game to her advantage.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Rosalyn is considerably less abrasive in her final arc. Instead of threatening Calvin with brute force, she strikes a deal with him after his parents leave. Calvin fulfills his end of the bargain by willingly doing his homework, and the two play Calvinball together.
• Ultimate Job Security: No matter what goes down during her babysitting sessions with Calvin (including one time locking Calvin in the garage, another time getting locked out of the house by Calvin), she'll always return for the next one, often asking for even more money. The implication is that there's literally not a single babysitter in town besides her who'll put up with Calvin, so it doesn't matter if she actually does a good job, as long as the house hasn’t burned down and she and Calvin are still alive at the end of the night.
• Vetinari Job Security: She apparently costs Calvin's parents quite a bit of cash, but it's implied that Rosalyn is their only option since no one else will babysit Calvin. This allows Rosalyn to basically charge Calvin's parents whatever she wants.

Monsters Under the Bed

First Appearance: November 25th, 1985
Last Appearance: April 3rd, 1995

The various monsters that live under Calvin's bed.

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• Bad Liar: In one strip, Calvin asks if there are any monsters under his bed. They deny it, and Calvin asks, "Who am I talking to if there aren't any monsters down there?!"
  Monster #1: Umm...uh...why, we're dust balls!
  Monster #2: Yeah, little dust balls!
  Calvin: They're all teeth and digestive tract. No brains at all.
• Bigger on the Inside: Although we never see any of them clearly, they're implied to be very large and numerous, but apparently manage to all fit in the small gap underneath Calvin's bed without being seen.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: In some strips, we can see their eyes in the darkness.
• Character Catchphrase: "Psst! Hey, kid!"
• Characterization Marches On: The first few times Calvin was afraid of monsters under the bed, it was clearly just in his imagination, but later on it made the monsters more ambiguous.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In some early strips, they have normal speech bubbles instead of dripping ones (see Painting the Medium below).
  • The first few times Calvin thought there were monsters at night it really was just his imagination, but in all later appearances they're "real".
• Epic Fail: Their attempts to convince our heroes that there're only one of them typically end this way.
  • One strip had Calvin ask if there were any monsters under his bed, with Winslow◊ saying "maybe, maybe not", and then "we didn't say that.'' It just went downhill from there.
  • Another strip had a monster successfully convince our heroes they outnumbered him, but then another monster named Maurice told the others to quit shoving him. Our heroes started screaming for Mom as another monster called Maurice out for his screw-up.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: They find stories of a kid being mauled and eaten alive to be hilarious.
• Extreme Omnivore: Although they want nothing more than to devour Calvin, they can be pacified by offerings of garbage.
• Failure Is the Only Option: They always try to eat Calvin, but never succeed (possibly because they only exist in Calvin's imagination).
• Food as Bribe: They try to bribe Hobbes to push Calvin off the bed by promising him some salmon. Hobbes asks if it's fresh salmon, while Calvin begs him not to listen to them.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: We have no idea what they actually look like (aside from some glimpses of tentacles and eyes), and only know they exist because they occasionally talk to Calvin in the middle of the night.
• Laughably Evil: They're very goofy and bumbling for a bunch of child-eating horrors.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: They’re probably just in Calvin's imagination, but it's left somewhat unclear. Notably, the strip never once explains where the monsters come from or where they go during the day. Some strips also show there being nothing under the bed whenever the plot requires it.
• Miles Gloriosus: The A Nauseous Nocturne story features a particularly disturbing monster stalking Calvin, which is then scared off by Hobbes yawning his fang-filled mouth.
• Painting the Medium: Their speech bubbles always have a "dripping slime" visual effect.
• Potty Emergency: In one Sunday strip, they make "splish sploosh splish sploosh" noises to make Calvin have to go to the bathroom, so they can eat him when he gets out of bed. He comes up with a different solution...cut to his parents looking at the plants under his bedroom window and saying, "The plants on this side of the house don't do very well."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The monster on the cover of the anthology book Something Under the Bed is Drooling has menacing red eyes.
• Tentacled Terror: One of the few things we see of a few of them are their slimy tentacles.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: They are children-eating bogeymen that hide under Calvin's bed (and a few in the closet too apparently).
• Tom the Dark Lord: Apparently, two of them are named Maurice and Winslow.
• Unseen Evil: We never see any of them fully, only glimpses of claws, tentacles, teeth, and other partial extremities.
• Weakened by the Light: In one Sunday strip, they scream in pain when Calvin turns on the lights in his bedroom.
• Would Hurt a Child: They spend all their time terrifying a helpless six-year old, just waiting for the opportunity to eat him alive.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: They get scarier the more Calvin thinks about them.
  Calvin: Attention, all monsters! I am now going to stop thinking about you!
  (Calvin closes his eyes, then opens them to see that a giant monster with huge claws is right next to him)
  Calvin: (turns on the light) MOMMMMMMMM!
  Monster under the bed: Admit it, you lied to us!

Minor Characters

Principal Spittle

First Appearance: November 29th, 1985
Last Appearance: September 19th, 1995

The principal of Calvin's school. Calvin is a frequent guest in his office.

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• Dean Bitterman: Downplayed. He's fair with his students, but he's shown to think, at least on one occasion, that he hates his job, and he almost always looks beaten down and annoyed.
• Demoted to Extra: He had more speaking roles earlier in the comic's run, but later on he exists just to react, usually silently, with disapproval to Calvin getting sent to his office again.
• Flat Character: Of the few reoccurring characters he has the least amount of dialogue and character by far, and he exists mostly because Calvin has to go somewhere to be punished when he gets in trouble in school.
• Perpetual Frowner: He is almost always seen with an expression of anger or exasperation at having to deal with Calvin's shenanigans again so soon.
• Putting the "Pal" in Principal: After Susie gets in trouble for something which was mostly Calvin's fault, Spittle hears her out and calms her down.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's (understandably) stern with Calvin, but never seems too harsh, and he hears students out and is calm with them when they're sent to his office.

Calvin's Classmates

The other children that go to Calvin's school.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Downplayed. While they occasionally antagonize or bully Calvin, they're generally more weirded out by his behavior than outright hostile towards him (they once voted him "most likely to be seen on the news some day"). According to Calvin, they don't make fun of him for bringing Hobbes to school because the one time Tommy Chesnutt did, Hobbes ate him.
• Audience Surrogate: In some strips, the classmates are meant to represent a typical reader, particularly Calvin's show-and-tell strips, with Calvin facing the unspeaking, unseen classmates as though he were speaking directly to the audience.
• Big Word Shout: When Calvin describes bats as giant bugs in his report, the entire class collectively yells, "BATS AREN'T BUGS!!"
• Bystander Syndrome: In the arc where Calvin brings his Stupendous Man costume to school, none of them stops Miss Wormwood from wrestling Calvin to the principal's office while he's crying for help. Justified, considering they're all the same age as he is.
• The Dividual: They're not really characters, per say, but more act as a general background audience to Calvin's weirdness, with little to no narrative differences.
• Eaten Alive: Apparently, this happened to a kid named Tommy Chesnutt, courtesy of Hobbes, who made fun of Calvin for bringing Hobbes to school.
  Hobbes: Ugh! He needed a bath, too...
• Flat Character: They don't have individual personalities and mostly serve as background characters.
• Insult Backfire: For one show-and-tell, Calvin claims to have an "invisible cretinizer" that can turn anyone stupid.
  Ronald: Oh sure, Calvin! Give us a break!
  Calvin: As Ronald proves, it's quite effective, even at long range.
  Ronald: HEY!
• Kids Are Cruel: In their worst moments, most notably in the Baseball arc. In another Sunday strip, they can be seen arguing which team gets stuck with Calvin during a recess game.
• Tough Room: None of them ever seem to be even remotely amused by Calvin's comical antics, only ever showing either bewilderment, exasperation, and annoyance at best, or treating him like an idiot at worst.

The Duplicates

First Appearance: January 10th, 1990
Last Appearance: January 31st, 1990

Five clones Calvin made of himself with his new Duplicator invention. The first clone was made by Calvin himself, while the other four were made by the first clone.

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• Cassandra Truth: They're completely open about the fact that they're just copies of Calvin, but for obvious reasons, no one believes them, since they only ever interact individually with people other than Calvin and Hobbes.
• Clones Are People, Too: They balk at being told that they have to obey Calvin just because he's the original, and they all go off to do their own thing. However, being clones of Calvin, they don't mind getting turned into worms.
• Copied the Morals, Too: They are exact clones of Calvin, meaning they have his rude, self-centred, and egotistical personality as well. Hobbes catches this right away, but Calvin doesn't make the connection and derides the clones as mischevious jerks.
• Deadpan Snarker: They definitely inherited this trait from Calvin:
  Calvin's mom: (upon finding a duplicate watching TV after she thought she sent him outside) What are you doing in here?!?
  Duplicate: Why? Are you taking a survey?
• Establishing Character Moment: The first clone's very first line is trying to take credit for the invention of the Duplicator, showing that, yep, they're just as narcissistic and greedy as the real thing.
• Forced Transformation: Calvin gets rid of them by turning the Duplicator back into a Transmogrifier, changing them into earthworms and releases them outside. They're perfectly fine with this.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's ambiguous if Calvin really used a duplicator to clone himself or if Calvin merely imagined the clones as part of a prank.
• Me's a Crowd: Calvin duplicates himself several times. They even provide the Trope Image.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Calvin is appalled by the duplicates' behavior:
  Hobbes: He's a duplicate of you, all right.
  Calvin: What do you mean? This guy is a total jerk!
  • And later:
    Calvin: What a bunch of devious little stinkers! Where'd they learn to misbehave like that?
• Turned Against Their Masters: Since they are completely identical to Calvin inside and out, they absolutely refuse to obey him in favour of goofing off or getting into trouble, knowing Calvin will be blamed for it.
• You Are Number 6: They call themselves by the order they were copied, i.e #2, #3, etc.

Calvin's Good Side

First Appearance: March 18th, 1991

Last Appearance: April 2nd, 1991

Hobbes: The ethicator must've done some deep digging to unearth him!

A duplicate Calvin made of himself, who only has Calvin's good qualities and none of his bad ones.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He was created by Calvin to do his chores and schoolwork, but quickly started opposing him in everything, likely due to being the embodiment of essentially everything Calvin rejects about himself.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Calvin's good side duplicate is polite to his mother and Miss Wormwood and very gentlemanly to Susie. However, when he finds out Calvin's usual bad behavior is the reason Susie keeps rebuffing his affections, he launches into a Big Ball of Violence-style fight and ultimately threatens to dismember his original. Too bad he vanished because of it.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The second he thinks a bad thought about wanting to tear Calvin limb from limb, he vanishes in a poof of smoke.
• Clone Angst: He eventually turns on Calvin because he gets sick of the fact everyone judges him based on the selfish, bratty original.
• Differently Dressed Duplicates: Unlike the real Calvin, this version of Calvin actually care about keeping himself well-groomed and has neat, combed-down hair.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Inverted. This is the good version of Calvin, and exhibited all of the kind and polite qualities the original Calvin normally keeps stuffed down.
• Expendable Clone: Calvin is actually happier when the clone is spontaneously erased from existence because, to him, trying to be friends with Susie is an incomprehensible sin, and also found his selflessness and kindness very annoying. He even takes credit for his Puff of Logic despite not even knowing that would happen.
• Gone Horribly Right: It was all working out nicely until the good duplicate decided to apologize to Susie with flowers and write her a love poem.
• Hidden Depths: He literally embodies the "good" characteristics that Calvin possesses but refuses to acknowledge most of the time. This includes his crush on Susie and the fact he could easily do well in school if he applied himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Because he IS Calvin, he'll do something bad eventually.
• Homework Slave: He's perfectly happy to clean Calvin's room and do his homework without complaint.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: He is visually distinguished from Calvin by his neatly combed hair.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: To the point where he will spontaneously cease to exist the instant he gives in to corruption.
• Morally Superior Copy: He was created with a literal Morality Dial on the duplicator to be a virtuous and polite version of Calvin, who is well-behaved and selfless. In fact, he's not even allowed to be bad at all, and when he expresses violent thoughts of tearing his original limb from limb, he vanishes in a Puff of Logic.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Like the previous clones, it's not clear if Calvin's Good Side is a real being or just Calvin playing a prank on everyone else. Notably, one strip shows Calvin and Hobbes hiding under the bed while the clone goes to school, blurring the lines a bit.
• Never Heard That One Before: When he explains to Susie that he is a physical avatar of Calvin's good side, Susie responds that he would be a lot smaller if that were true. Calvin's Good Side observes that he's definitely heard that joke. See Phrase Catcher.
• Nice Guy: It comes with being the entire personification of Calvin's kindness.
• One-Shot Character: He only appeared for one story arc because he vanishes in a Puff of Logic at the end.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Despite Good Calvin being exactly as helpful and subservient as Calvin had hoped, the duplicate's saccharine and moralistic nature quickly gets on his nerves. And then Calvin finds out that the duplicate doesn't find girls gross AND he's got an eye for Susie...
• Phrase Catcher: "If you're Calvin's good side, you should be a lot smaller."
• Puff of Logic: He disappears after he thinks an evil thought.
• Puppy Love: Like Calvin, he has a bit of a crush on Susie. Unlike Calvin, he acknowledges this and expresses it by trying to be nice to her rather than annoying.
• 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.
• Turned Against Their Masters: It takes longer, but like the Duplicates, he turns against Calvin when he realizes he's a huge jerk.

Uncle Max

First Appearance: January 13th, 1988
Last Appearance: January 22nd, 1988

Calvin's uncle on his father's side, who lives far enough away that he hardly ever sees Calvin and his family.

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• Aborted Arc: At the end of his first, and only, appearance, Max tells Calvin to come visit him sometime, and Watterson confirms in commentary he did initially plan this to be a future Story Arc, but after he found Max wasn't as interesting a character as he thought he was, it got scrapped.
• 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.
• Cool Uncle: He's one of the very few adults in the strip whom Calvin consistently gets along with.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, like when Calvin admits to going through his suitcase.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: He was an early attempt to diversify the cast with more family members, but the fact he couldn't actually refer to Calvin's parents by name and that he didn't have as much interesting chemistry with Calvin as Watterson hoped led to him being Put on a Bus after his introduction and no more extended family members appearing.
• Friendless Background: He's of the opinion that all of his friends have been imaginary, and not in the Imaginary Friend way.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He's heavily implied to be the foolish to Calvin's father's responsible. When Calvin asks if he hasn't visited before due to being in jail, his brother concedes that that's not a bad guess. This is presumably why Calvin takes something of a liking to him.
• One-Shot Character: Appeared for a single arc, got Put on a Bus, and was never mentioned ever again.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only adult who gets along with Calvin and wins him over by pretending Hobbes is real and scary. Max figures that, rather than scold Calvin, just try to talk on his wavelength and know when to say no. The end result is that Calvin wants to go with him.
• Porn Stache: It was The '80s, after all. (He also wears a Miami Vice-style dress shirt, as if to date the strip even more.)
• Put on a Bus: Or rather, a plane. After the story arc he debuted in ended, he flew back home, and hasn't come back since.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks exactly like his brother, Calvin's dad, except his hair is swept back rather than to the front he has a moustache, and doesn't wear glasses.
• Totally Radical: He sometimes talks more like a teenager than like a man pushing 30.

Snow Goons

First Appearance: December 31st, 1990
Last Appearance: January 19th, 1991

A mob of living evil, mutant snowmen. Calvin creates one who proceeds to attack him and make more like itself.

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• Attack of the Killer Whatever: Provides part of the trope image; they're evil monster snowmen.
• Gone Horribly Right: Calvin wished for a living snowman using "the power invested in me by the mighty and awful snow demons" and he got it. Should he really have been shocked that the snowman turned out to be hostile?
• Fantastic Aesop: "Snow goons are bad news."
  Hobbes: That lesson certainly ought to be inapplicable elsewhere in life.
  Calvin: I like maxims that don't encourage behavior modification.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: They have no apparent motivations beyond wanting to kill Calvin and growing their numbers.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Calvin and Hobbes try to kill the first Snow Goon by pelting him with snowballs. Not only does this not work, it also gives it the idea to add more snow to itself to increase its mass.
• It Can Think: When hit with snowballs, the first Snow Goon gets the idea to make himself bigger using more snow. Then, he gets to work building another Snow Goon, and then they both start making more Snow Goons...
• Kill It with Ice: Calvin finishes off all the Snow Goons by spraying them with a hose to freeze them where they stand, either outright killing them, or trapping them until the weather got warm enough to melt them.
• Logical Weakness: No matter how dangerous they are, the Snow Goons are still made of snow, and can be beaten either by melting them (which is impractical during the winter), or by soaking them with water, freezing them solid.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Like many other seemingly magical oddities Calvin encounters, it's never made clear if the snow goons are real, or just part of an extremely imaginative adventure Calvin invented in his head. Other characters also encounter the snow goons, but to them they just appear as normal, if ugly, inanimate snowmen.
• Monster Progenitor: The first original Snow Goon quickly gets the idea to start building its own army, which in turn start making their own Snow Goons...
• No-Sell: Throwing snowballs at the first one doesn't work, and only gives him the idea to cover himself in more snow and make himself bigger.
• One-Shot Character: Only appeared for a single story-line, but they did lend their name to one of the comic collections (Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons).
• Snowlem: Yep, they're living, evil snowmen.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The moment the first Snow Goon comes to life, it immediately attacks its creator, Calvin.
• Two Beings, One Body: The original Snow Goon gave itself a second head and a third arm while making itself stronger by adding more snow to itself.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While most of Calvin's enemies like the monsters under the bed and the killer bicycle are played for laughs, the Snow Goons are among the least humorous characters in the strip. The first Snow Goon tries to murder Calvin as soon as it comes to life, and then proceeds to create an army of demonic snowmen who are just as evil as he is. It's a sign of how dangerous they are that they are the only characters Watterson has ever created that have been outright killed by the titular protagonists.

Calvin's Doctor

First Appearance: March 31st, 1986

Last Appearance: June 13th, 1990

A pediatrician whom Calvin visits for check-ups.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: He's one of the more patient adults around Calvin, but he still isn't afraid to lay down the law.
  Doctor: Kid, don't make me recant the hippocratic oath, ok?
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He disappears after the 1990 arc where Calvin catches the chicken pox.
• Deadpan Snarker: The third time Calvin asks what one of his instruments is and if it will hurt, he says he's holding a cattle prod and that it will hurt a little less than a branding iron.
• Never My Fault: He remarks that little kids have no sense of humor after seeing Calvin faint.
• No Name Given: Despite being one of the few reoccurring characters, he's never referred to by name.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He genuinely cares for Calvin's well-being and advises his mother on what to do when he's sick.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Calvin usually throws a huge tantrum when he's forced to go to the doctor, but in one story arc he's too sick to put up a fuss and behaves himself for once.

  Doctor: Nothing like a little virus to take the edge off a kid.
  Calvin's Mom: I'd still rather let his teacher deal with him.

Galaxoid and Nebular

First Appearance: October 11th, 1995

Last Appearance: December 23rd, 1995

A couple of aliens who think they bought the world from Calvin.

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• Back for the Finale: They're set up as oneshot characters like Calvin's good side or the Snow Goons, but they reappear one more time pretty close to the end of the strip's run, in the last story arc.
• Ditzy Genius: They are more intelligent than most humans, but think that Calvin is ruler of the Earth and were unaware the planet has seasons.
• The Dividual: The only thing that physically distinguish them are the symbols on their clothes (a star for Galaxoid and a crescent moon for Nebular).
• Genre Refugee: While Calvin often imagines himself fighting aliens as Spaceman Spiff, he rarely meets aliens that he treats as "real" (at least, as real as Hobbes is, since he reacts to them too.) Galaxoid and Nebular are the exception.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Though it's not known if they're related, they look almost identical, save for Galaxoid having a star on his hat and chest where Nebular has a crescent moon.
• Last Episode, New Character: They were introduced near the very end of the comic strip's run (their first appearance was about two months before the last strip, and their second, and last, appearance was about one week before the end).
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Like Hobbes, they may or may not be part of Calvin's imagination. Calvin claims that Galaxoid and Nebular gave him fifty extraterrestrial leaves, but to everyone else, the leaves themselves look like maple leaves cut into weird shapes.
• Painting the Medium: Similar to Moe, the font in their speech bubbles was unique. In this case, they had rectangular speech bubbles with blocky letters.
• Those Two Guys: They are never seen apart.
• Starfish Aliens: They can barely pass for humanoid squids.
• You Get What You Pay For: They bought the Earth for 50 alien leaves, which were worthless to them. They got a planet that annually tilts away from the sun and gets cold during the winter. ("Let the buyer beware," Calvin snaps at them.)

The Bicycle

First Appearance: September 1st, 1986

Last Appearance: June 25th, 1995

Calvin's bicycle. Most attempts by him to ride it end up with it trying to kill him.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: It sometimes growls at Calvin before mauling him like a rabid dog.
• Animate Inanimate Object: It's a seemingly-living bicycle.
• Arch-Enemy: Calvin views it this way, and all signs indicate that the Bicycle feels the same way about him.
• Attack of the Killer Whatever: It's a vicious bicycle that's out to get Calvin.
• Ax-Crazy: The bicycle is utterly obsessed with trying to maim and kill Calvin, to the point that he calls it his "killer bicycle".
• The Bad Guy Wins: Most conflicts between Calvin and the bicycle ended with Calvin lying in a heap covered in tire tracks. One noticeable Sunday strip also had Calvin escape the bicycle chasing him through the house, but the bicycle did so much damage that it framed Calvin for that if it didn't kill him, his parents would.
• Characterization Marches On: Originally it was just an ordinary bicycle that Calvin had trouble riding. Later on, the implication was that it was deliberately sabotaging Calvin's efforts, and soon it was a savage monster that would chase him and try to kill him.
• The Determinator: It will stop at nothing to get Calvin, even up to chasing him literally all over his house and lying in wait in his room.
• Irrational Hatred: We never find out just why the bicycle wants to kill Calvin in the first place.
• Jerkass to One: Unlike most of the other more ambiguously supernatural threats, the bicycle targeted Calvin alone and never went after Hobbes, even when both of them were present.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As is often the case with Calvin, it's never confirmed if the bicycle is really monstrous or just an ordinary bicycle that he's irrationally afraid of learning to ride. Notably, its last appearance in the strip is when Calvin's father makes an effort to teach him how to ride it; the bicycle never attacks him, and Calvin seems to be in less danger from it afterwards.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In one strip, the bicycle somehow got into Calvin's bedroom closet and hid in there all day without Calvin noticing. After he finally does, his mother lamsphades this.
  Mom: It was just a dream, honey. But why on earth did you bring your bike upstairs to your closet?
• Poke the Poodle: The bicycle is able to scare Calvin with a tactic as simple as Blowing a Raspberry.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The bicycle will go to ridiculous lengths to pursue Calvin, ranging from hiding in the bushes and catching him by surprise to sneaking into his closet to try and murder him in his sleep.
• A Taste of Defeat: On one occasion, Calvin managed to wrangle it into submission and tie it to a tree. Another occasion, he managed to wrestle it into submission and let the air out of its tires (offscreen). The last panel show Calvin's Dad inflating the bicycle's tires and adding on training wheels.

Little Raccoon

First Appearance: March 9, 1987

Last Appearance: March 18, 1987

A wounded baby raccoon that Calvin finds in the woods and tries to save.

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• Allegorical Character: The raccoon can be said to represent the natural and random cruelty of life and nature. It is only an innocent baby animal that never harmed anyone, but is wounded due to unknown circumstances and unfortunately dies despite Calvin's and his parents' efforts to save it.
  Calvin: He was just little! What's the point of putting him here and taking him back so soon?
• Appetite Equals Health: When Calvin and his parents try to nurse it back to health, they put it in a box in the garage, and give it some food and water. However, it doesn't eat anything, and dies the next day.
• Ambiguous Gender: Calvin, his mother, and Hobbes refer to it as male, although its actual gender is unknown.
• Death by Newbery Medal: Calvin finds it wounded in the forest. His parents put it in a box with a blanket and food in hopes of helping it, but it dies by the next morning, and Calvin is left to come to terms with its death. According to Watterson, this storyline was based on his wife finding a dead kitten. He also said that this story was the moment where he felt his strip was ready to handle more emotionally heavy topics.
• Death Is a Sad Thing: Calvin tries to nurse the raccoon back to health with his mother's help, cries after its death, and becomes indignant about why it had to die when it didn't do anything wrong. Even his father breaks out of his sardonic routine to comfort Calvin over this.
• Dub Species Change: In at least two foreign translations of the comic, it is referred to as a different animal, without the art being changed because the raccoon itself is never directly shown.
  • In the Danish translation, it is changed to a squirrel because raccoons are not native to Denmark.
  • In the Dutch translation, it is changed to a bunny.
• Due to the Dead: After its death, Calvin's father buries it beside a tree.
• The Faceless: Despite an entire arc revolving around it, the raccoon itself is never directly shown to the readers. The only detail of its appearance shown is part of a vague, fuzzy outline inside the box that Calvin's parents use as a shelter for it.
• Noodle Incident: How it got hurt and separated from its mother is a mystery.
• One-Shot Character: It only appears in one arc, with Calvin's reaction to its death being an important part of the story.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Not the raccoon itself, but it provokes this reaction from everyone in Calvin's family as they try to save it, and fail.
  • Calvin shows absolutely none of his usual selfishness or silliness and is completely serious when trying to save the raccoon. He is absolutely devastated when it dies, and later, sadly asks Hobbes why the raccoon had to die even though it didn’t do anything wrong.
  • Hobbes doesn't make a single sarcastic remark during the arc, and tells Calvin he can't sleep because he's thinking about the raccoon. When Calvin begs the raccoon not to die, Hobbes can be seen blowing his nose on a handkerchief.
  • Calvin's parents almost never have any patience for his antics, but when he tells them about the raccoon, they immediately listen to him and try to help him save it. When the raccoon dies, Mom and Dad both do their best to comfort a very sad Calvin over it, and Dad digs a small grave for it.
• Passed in Their Sleep: Despite the efforts of Calvin and his parents to save the raccoon's life, the next morning they find out that it has died in its sleep. Calvin is very saddened by this, and his dad tries to comfort him by saying that at least the raccoon was in a warm and safe place when it died, and they did everything they could for it.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: Calvin finds it in the wild and brings it home. It is already injured when he finds it, and dies overnight. He is saddened, but his parents explain that death is sometimes inevitable, and when someone is dying, the best one can do is make their final moments comfortable.

Mr. Lockjaw

First Appearance: April 27th, 1990

Last Appearance: May 3rd, 1990

A coach who appears in the arc where Calvin plays baseball.

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• Adults Are Useless: He's absent when Calvin's teammates eviscerate him for a simple misunderstanding. When Calvin decides not to play anymore because of it, he calls Calvin a "quitter".
• Apathetic Teacher: Coach example. He does nothing to correct one of his students for catching a flyball for his own team. He also doesn't put his foot down when the same student gets bullied for it, not even when he gets threatened with a bat.
• Fat Bastard: For a coach, he's overweight and not particularly pleasant.
• Hate Sink: While Calvin's parents, Miss Wormwood and Rosalyn have moments where they genuinely care for Calvin's well-being, Mr. Lockjaw never shows such feelings. He assumes that Calvin already knows how to play baseball which leads to him not being aware that he's defending against his own team. When Calvin gets an earful from his teammates over it, his solution is to accept Calvin's decision to quit rather than correct him or stop the bullying all together.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: With a name like "Lockjaw", no wonder Calvin felt pressured to quit playing baseball.
• No Sympathy: His response when Calvin gets bullied off the team: "OK, quitter! Goodbye."
• Perpetual Frowner: Present in only three panels, and he doesn't smile in any of them.
• School Clubs Are Serious Business: Enforced; Calvin's teammates have competitiveness instilled in themselves at an early age. Mr. Lockjaw doesn't have any tolerance for quitters because of it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Although he appears for only one arc, he's indirectly responsible in getting Calvin to set up his own sport.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: His presence ends after the baseball arc, so it's not mentioned if he kept his job after his treatment of Calvin.

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