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Introduction to Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995 (2001)

putlake
33 replies
1d11h

Since influential people are on this forum, someone should get Bill Watterson nominated for the Nobel prize in literature. His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan.

lostlogin
26 replies
1d11h

His work deserves that honor as much as, if not more than, Bob Dylan.

Could you explain why? I love Calvin and Hobbes. However Dylan played a role in political and human rights movements at a key time. I don’t see this sort of influence in Calvin and Hobbes and Watterson was apparently fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct).

mdp2021
17 replies
1d11h

fired from one job for his lack of political knowledge (assuming the wikipedia entry is correct)

You should also have noticed from that source that Watterson majored in political science (he initially wanted to be a political cartoonist), and also that unfortunate job was related to local politics.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind". This was interpreted into broad qualities (so, including but not reducing to promoting «human rights»). See the list of Nobel Laureates and the formal justifications for the award, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit...

TeMPOraL
16 replies
1d7h

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded for producing "the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" with "the greatest benefit on mankind".

They should award one posthumously to Gene Roddenberry then. After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing, and the show itself is one of few examples of aspirational and inspirational writing in modern sci-fi.

lupire
9 replies
1d7h

What is a utopia that "actually works"?

Star Trek is "What if Communism but it wasn't influenced by human nature?", and totally avoided thinking about how the trillions of humans not in the military lived.

tomrod
4 replies
1d5h

ST:TNG goes into quite a bit of on-the-ground imagining of the lives of Federation individuals and Star Fleet. Colonies, research stations, etc. Though the only earth-side I remember is Jean Luc's winery and estate or when the admiral was mind controlled by some kind of pest.

sircastor
2 replies
18h49m

Part of the challenges of early TNG is that it tries to make the federation perfect. The writing suffers because of it because there appear to be no true internal conflicts. It’s not until Roddenberry takes a back seat in the creative process that the writing starts to get really good. Though that might also in part be the departure of Maurice Hurley as show runner.

bigstrat2003
1 replies
12h52m

When Paramount released the HD remaster of TNG on Blu-ray, I really enjoyed watching the lengthy (like 2 hours per season) documentary they did on the making of the show. And sadly, one thing was abundantly clear watching that documentary: TNG was good despite Roddenberry, not because of him. The writers all talk about how hard it was to write any sort of interesting story when you were forbidden from showing conflict between the main cast of characters.

TeMPOraL
0 replies
11h22m

The writers all talk about how hard it was to write any sort of interesting story when you were forbidden from showing conflict between the main cast of characters.

And the show was all the better for it. Writers are lazy, too, and conflict between main characters is by far the cheapest way of creating drama, and the main way fiction differs from reality. Being strongly discouraged from using this shortcut is what gave TNG-era Star Trek another unique feature, that's almost unseen in shows and movies (sci-fi or otherwise): the main cast, and Starfleet in general, are portrayed as competent professionals who are good at their jobs and work well together. It's kind of what you'd expect from people whose dayjob is flying around on FTL-capable WMD platforms.

But yeah, Roddenberry had various peculiarities that needed pushback on. Constraints breed creativity, I guess?

krapp
0 replies
1d1h

Even TNG didn't always follow through with utopian ideals, because that doesn't make for compelling drama. Tasha Yar came from a failed Federation colony where society had collapsed, and spent her childhood avoiding roving rape gangs.

TeMPOraL
2 replies
1d5h

Star Trek is "What if Communism but it wasn't influenced by human nature

On the contrary, the very premise of Star Trek is "what if humans overcome the bad parts of their nature, and embraced the good ones". The core concept of the entire franchise, coming from Gene himself, is that humanity must be recognizably human to the audience, just better than what it is now. The Federation being fully automated communist space utopia is an extension of that.

AlchemistCamp
1 replies
1d

Yeah, that really is its fatal flaw.

The only really good Star Trek series I saw was DS9. It was darker, had longer story arcs, religion and fully developed characters. There was even a scene that illustrated this, where Captain Sisko was talking with an Earth politician and telling him that the problem was he lived on Earth, a paradise, and couldn't understand the war and problems those near DS9 faced.

TeMPOraL
0 replies
10h44m

"It's easy to be a saint in paradise."

DS9 was really good. But all the shade it threw at the underlying premise was still to reinforce it, not break it. Where any other show would take e.g. the above case of the Federation governance being out of touch with needs of their constituents near the border, and deconstruct it six ways to Sunday in most cynical of fashions, DS9 made the paradise something good, if fragile, and worth fighting for, worth aiming to have here - whether "here" is out there in lthe frontier colonies, or back today in the 21th century real-world. That's why I still say it was an aspirational show, if much darker, and worked to reinforce TNG instead of deconstructing it.

ryandrake
0 replies
1d

You don’t need to overcome all of human nature, you “just” need to overcome greed and solve scarcity. I put “just” in quotes because I recognize those are a tall order, but I don’t think you really need much else to have a Star Trek collectivist utopia.

rsynnott
2 replies
1d3h

After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing

Eh. I mean, by Voyager/DS9 it has secret police, and _literal mine slaves_ (old-model sentient holographic doctors). And it appears to be _basically_ a military dictatorship; the civil government in practice always seems to be subordinate to Starfleet. It also happily trades away inhabited territory to the Cardassians, who are essentially Space Nazis. And it has a safety culture that would make the Soviet Union blush. Really, the closer you look, the uglier it looks.

We also don’t see that much of how Federation _civilians_ live, and a lot of what we do see frankly isn’t that great.

hnlmorg
1 replies
1d1h

All the negative sides you’ve described is portrayed after Gene Roddenberry died and he was famously against a lot of those concepts while he was alive. DS9 would never have been green-lit during Roddenberry’s lifetime.

We also don’t see that much of how Federation _civilians_ live, and a lot of what we do see frankly isn’t that great.

That’s not true. The worlds that aren’t great are planets outside of federation jurisdiction. Those that are part of it are usually portrayed as utopias.

That all said, you’ve hit on a great premise for a Star Trek spin off.

Edit:

And it appears to be _basically_ a military dictatorship; the civil government in practice always seems to be subordinate to Starfleet.

The partnership is explored in DS9 and was the exact opposite of that you’ve described.

In the DS9 episode I’m thinking of, shapeshifters (“changelings”) had taken over Star Fleet (the military) and were then trying to bypass the Federation to start a war. Basically a military coup lead by a small number of infiltrators. The remainder of the military were against the coup, which is why they were found out and the coup failed.

TeMPOraL
0 replies
11h53m

In the DS9 episode I’m thinking of, shapeshifters (“changelings”) had taken over Star Fleet (the military)

It was even more interesting than that - they didn't take Starfleet over at all! They bombed a conference and sow some fear in the backchannels, and then sat back to watch as Starfleet panicked. A few well-positioned people tried to pull a military coup, for more-less the same reason the US gave up on many of its freedoms after 9/11, but unlike in real world, they were denounced by the rest of the military, the coup was stopped, and the entire two-parter served as a strong message that it's fear, not attacks from outside, that can quickly destroy the utopia.

Basically, a Star Trek take on "people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both" - noticed on time and successfully averted.

DS9 would never have been green-lit during Roddenberry’s lifetime.

Gene would be wrong about this, IMHO. DS9 is the series that makes the utopia seem more real, as it gives it cracks and puts pressure on them, to show how people can overcome them. It makes the Federation seem less like religion, and more like just great future overall.

voisin
0 replies
1d7h

The Nobel is famously not awarded posthumously. There are many examples of two or more cofounders where one is not awarded the Nobel due to having died.

krapp
0 replies
1d1h

After all, the Federation from Star Trek is pretty much the only well-known case of an utopia that actually works in fiction writing, and the show itself is one of few examples of aspirational and inspirational writing in modern sci-fi.

The Federation only works as a utopia because the writers never bother to address any of the complex questions about how such a utopia would actually work, because they don't care. Star Trek's utopian ideal is mostly just window dressing.

Also, Star Trek isn't very aspirational. We can't aspire to simply evolve beyond human nature as Trek humanity has, such that every human lacks any form of greed, vice or selfishness and is perfectly happy to participate in a society which still has all of the hierarchies of capitalism, including lifetime careers, but with none of the incentives. Nor can we expect the infinite free energy and physics-defying transporters and replicators that allow Star Trek's writers to just handwave away the hard problems of scarcity and thermodynamics. The Fermi paradox tells us plainly that FTL in any form is almost certainly impossible. The Vulcans aren't going to show up in the ruins of our civilization and potty train us. That isn't something we can aspire to, that's never going to happen.

bazoom42
4 replies
1d10h

Dylan got the nobel price in litterature, which is awarded for a work of litterature, not for political influence. (Infamously Peter Handke won the litterature price despite his support for Milošević.)

You are probably thinking of the peace price, but that is a different thing.

lostlogin
2 replies
1d10h

This is a good point. But his award is most definitely political both in how it was awarded and in the positions Dylan took in various events, songs and lyrics.

joenot443
0 replies
1d5h

Jon Fosse was the 2023 winner and to my knowledge his work isn't considered especially political. I can't say confidently if Bill is a deserving candidate, but as others have suggested, political perspective or activism isn't a requirement.

bazoom42
0 replies
1d7h

Obviously Dylan is political but this does not mean the price was political. The Handke debacle seems a pretty clear indication they evaluate the litterary merit without regard to the politics of the author.

codetrotter
0 replies
1d10h

The Nobel Prize in Literature […] is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature

Interpretations of Nobel's guidelines

Alfred Nobel's guidelines for the prize, stating that the candidate should have bestowed "the greatest benefit on mankind" and written "in an idealistic direction," have sparked much discussion. In the early history of the prize, Nobel's "idealism" was read as "a lofty and sound idealism." The set of criteria, characterised by its conservative idealism, holding church, state, and family sacred, resulted in prizes for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Rudyard Kipling, and Paul Heyse. During World War I, there was a policy of neutrality, which partly explains the number of awards to Scandinavian writers. In the 1920s, "idealistic direction" was interpreted more generously as "wide-hearted humanity," leading to awards for writers like Anatole France, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Mann. In the 1930s, "the greatest benefit on mankind" was interpreted as writers within everybody's reach, with authors like Sinclair Lewis and Pearl Buck receiving recognition. From 1946, a renewed Academy changed focus and began to award literary pioneers like Hermann Hesse, André Gide, T. S. Eliot, and William Faulkner. During this era, "the greatest benefit on mankind" was interpreted in a more exclusive and generous way than before. Since the 1970s, the Academy has often given attention to important but internationally unnoticed writers, awarding writers like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Odysseus Elytis, Elias Canetti, and Jaroslav Seifert.
darby_nine
2 replies
1d6h

Some of the best literature ever written isn't very "important" (although, I think you're greatly underestimating Calvin & Hobbes's influence)

Secondly, I also question the influence of Bob Dylan. There's no indication that he was anything but a reflection of the political turmoil at the time. He was just a poet with some banger turns of phrase. I also found his emotional distance to the actual politics to be rather distasteful (compared to, say, 2pac's first album, Joey Bada$$'s "all amerikkkan badass", and like half of Kendrick Lamar's work, many varied feminist artists now like Mitski & Laufey, the anti-war influence on the then Dixie Chicks, now the Chicks... i'm sure you could come up with thousands of artists with more to say than bob dylan).

C&H's political expression speaks much more to the absurdity of the values and habits that entrench themselves by adulthood, and help us question which of these are meaningful, rational, and necessary. A different sort of politics for sure, but one that is certainly relevant to most households across the country. Most of the political angst that comes through the adults in the form of disgust with cultures of consumption and commodification, the absurdity of a biker pitted against car, the joy of giving an F-15 to a trex rather than a modern state, are no less salient today.

slater-
1 replies
1d2h

incorrect to compare Dylan to 2pac and Mitski (a “varied feminist artist?”)

I understand the impulse of trying to tear down the establishment guy, but your take is absurd.

darby_nine
0 replies
14h50m

How would you characterize his impact? 2pac deserves comparison.

mdp2021
3 replies
1d11h

Berkeley Breathed could feel left out - and one of his collections was named "Classics of Western Literature".

JasonFruit
1 replies
19h42m

He should. His work has political and cultural significance, and only that: no literary value. I say that as someone who put too much time into reading Bloom County when I was younger.

mdp2021
0 replies
12h44m

literary value

Not everyone has to be Joyce - there is literary value in more humble works and intentions, and Breathed's Bloom County was sublime in its preposterous ideas. Not perfect, not an Everest - a "local maximum", relatively a peak, if dwarfed by other works in more specialized, high-brow efforts.

bell-cot
0 replies
1d7h

Nobel Prizes leave lots of people feeling left out.

dhosek
0 replies
16h20m

Nominees don’t really mean that much. The list of nominators allows for a lot of people to be put forward. The list of actual laureates is probably better to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Lit...

And given the global nature of the award, it’s not necessarily surprising if many of the names are unfamiliar. I’m pretty familiar with writers in English, but would have a hard time naming more than a dozen German authors and more than three or four Scandinavian authors. Scanning the list for authors who wrote exclusively in English the only unfamiliar names were Wole Soyinka and Abdulrazak Gurnah which is as much an indictment of my unfamiliarity with African writers as anything else.

tomrandle
15 replies
1d12h

I was introduced to Calvin and Hobbes (as well as Sam and Max) as a kid by a taxi driver when on holiday in Florida in the 90s. Loved both. It’s been a delight to re read them with my son recently. I somewhat lament it’s not possible to by any merchandise though! I’d love to have a big print of the pair in their radio flyer crashing down the hill!

bdjsiqoocwk
13 replies
1d11h

Ah!, speaking of merchandise.

I once read an essay about the idea of, if you have a successful artistic creation, should you exploit it financially, for example by selling rights for someone else to find new income streams (Bill Waterson famously never did.) The essay argued that even if you are primarily motivated by art and not money, you should for the reason that money being the motivating factor for so many activities in our society, doing so is the only way to keep your creation relevant in society, which would then mean that your creation would keep being exposed to new people, as opposed to live in the minds of ever older people and die with them. I would like to to find the essay and reread it, but I could never find it. It kind of rang true.

ndsipa_pomu
3 replies
1d9h

I'm not convinced that merchandising would keep an artistic creation relevant in society. It'd be just as likely to reduce the artwork to the lowest common denominator and it'd become just another slogan/logo.

bdjsiqoocwk
2 replies
1d9h

The idea you're conveying is very well known but in my opinion poorly argued for. This essay I mentioned on the other hand had a minority view and well argued for, which is why I was trying to find it in order to reread it.

Anecdotally let's look at one data point. Spider-Man is in comparison garbage, but it's everywhere to this day. Why, because some company calculated they could milk it. C&H in comparison is much better but virtually unknown for anyone under the age of 20. It's dying.

082349872349872
0 replies
1d8h

"You either die a hero or..." —HD
lupire
3 replies
1d7h

Calvin and Hobbes was extremely mainstream. It only stopped being so because the creator stopped creating content for it.

Spider-Man, for all its merchandising and marketing, doesn't have people chasing down old content in dying formats. It is supported by new content in modern formats.

lkdfjlkdfjlg
2 replies
1d5h

Old spider-man content sells for a lot more than old calvin and hobbes content.

Calvin and Hobbes was extremely mainstream. It only stopped being so because the creator stopped creating content for it.

I think that's exactly the point. It stopped being mainstream. Spiderman continues to be mainstream because the original author passed on the rights and now it will live for longer than the original author. Calvin and Hobbes will continue to shrivel in how well known it is.

bdjsiqoocwk
0 replies
19h48m

No, nonsense. What he wanted was to "not sellout". He just didn't understand that meant C&H would slide into obscurity.

lkdfjlkdfjlg
1 replies
1d2h

Hey! Listen, the abstract exactly matches what I described.

However, I believe that the essay I read specifically mentioned C&H as an example, which CTRL-F indicates your pdf doesn't. (On the other hand, it's also possible that I originally did read your pdf and in my mind used C&H as an example, and am now mis-remembering it haven been presented as example).

Regardless, I'll read your pdf, thank you!

vinnyvichy
0 replies
18h8m

Now that I got your attention, let me (briefly) unpack (via cliche) what 082349872349872 might have meant with his HD.

"Prophets grow stronger when they die." --Villeneuve expressing his headcanon through Irulan, with B Herbert's approval.

My architect friends are not so in love with Jane Jacobs' <<Systems of Survival>> -- no mention of beauty, of quality!

Besides the Calvinist ancestor-worship, we might also consider the option of keeping the conversations flowing through non-survival. Heh. That's a lot of vanity, Bill.. but then, JJ could also have allotted Beauty* to the Guardians, especially since she handed the Merchants Truth. We left Heroism on the table..

*From wikipedia: "Let them eat Ostentation!"

taneq
0 replies
18h10m

I thought he eventually did start producing merch, because there was a growing amount of bootleg merch and he realised that it was better to have official high quality products than let C&H become associated with poor quality (or something like that)? Could be misremembering though.

probably_wrong
0 replies
1d9h

I believe that essay mistakes quantity for quality. I think most authors would prefer a small community that "gets" them than a larger one that doesn't.

I believe most artists care more about the message of their art than about its spread. And if you ask them to choose between "500 people that get it" and "50000 people who don't", the fact that the second number is bigger is not necessarily a better deal.

(Obviously there are considerations for "I need to pay rent", but that's a different issue)

vunderba
0 replies
1d1h

If the distasteful proliferation of the "Calvin peeing" bumpersticker is anything to go by, thank spaceman spiff Watterson sealed the floodgates of merchandising and marketing garbage.

fermigier
14 replies
1d12h

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/30/the-mysteries-...

I've read, many times (it's a very short read), M. Watterson's (and his friend's John Kascht) latest work, "The Mysteries", and I very much like it. It's a multifaceted fable that explores, among other things, the tension between curiosity and control, and the allure and danger of technological progress. "The Mysteries" takes a more somber and philosophical approach, and its graphical style is radically different from C&H's, but I think it still shares with C&H a deep appreciation for the mysteries of life and the power of imagination to enrich our understanding of the world.

acomjean
9 replies
1d7h

I’ve read the “mysteries” book too, and would recommend. I think it’s the first book from Waterson since stopping Calvin and Hobbs.

It’s quite different from Calvin and Hobbs, heavier but really thought provoking. I found myself thinking about the story after the fact.

TheAmazingRace
8 replies
1d1h

To each their own, but the book would never have sold any copies if Bill's name wasn't attached to it. I purchased a copy on Amazon and thought I was hoodwinked. It felt like a pure cash grab.

tracerbulletx
2 replies
21h6m

Imagine accusing a guy who could with a stroke of a pen have earned many millions of dollars in royalties and didn't for purely artistic purity reasons of a cash crab. What a silly thing to say.

TheAmazingRace
1 replies
14h44m

And I admire him for his principles during that time. That said, regarding “The Mysteries”, I just feel that others wax poetic about it because of Bill. If anyone else was attached to this book, nobody would give a damn. I’m sorry I expected more and am hype resistant. And I say this as someone that loved Calvin and Hobbes.

To be fair to Bill… he didn’t hype up anything about it. The media did. It was heralded as the second coming and, much like Duke Nukem Forever, some things are best left in the past. It’s ok.

gandalfgreybeer
0 replies
7h24m

I think what the person who replied to you is primarily reacting to is the term “cash grab”. And that is what I will focus on.

You yourself mentioned that Bill did not hype up anything about it, nor did you really counter with any arguments to prove that it was financially motivated.

I myself have not read it, but just because it was not what you expected or what the media portrayed it to be does not make it a “cash grab”.

barbecue_sauce
2 replies
1d

Did you just, like, purchase it without having any concept of what it was? It's certainly different from Calvin and Hobbes, but there was no indication that it wouldn't be. Making a fairly artistic book with niche appeal is actually the opposite of a cash grab.

TheAmazingRace
1 replies
14h31m

Perhaps. But I get the sense from folks here that anyone who once did massive hits (like Calvin and Hobbes) are simply beyond reproach, which is ridiculous to me. Even as an art book, the art feels weirdly AI-like to me and not particularly special. Again, personal opinion. I thought it was overrated for what it was.

Everyone is free to buy it to support him though if they feel differently about it.

gandalfgreybeer
0 replies
7h21m

I’ve replied to your other comment and I am replying again only after reading the other comments here, but I just realized here that I don’t think anyone is invalidating your experience of not liking it, but specifically reacting to the term cash grab.

savanaly
1 replies
1d1h

Can't believe someone would look at the art in The Mysteries and call it a cash grab. It oozes personality and thoughtfulness. It's true it wouldn't have sold any copies if his name weren't attached though.

TheAmazingRace
0 replies
14h48m

The art certainly was sorta-interesting (if not weirdly AI-gen looking), but somehow I expected more for his out of the blue return after decades being off the radar.

mysterydip
2 replies
1d6h

I was excited for the chance to finally see Watterson's face, as the only picture of him I've seen is from the 80s, but the interview only shows the hands of both of them.

gammarator
0 replies
1d4h

It cracks me up how much he looks like “Dad” in the strip in those 80s photos.

fragmede
0 replies
1d1h

That is the only photo of him!

tomrod
5 replies
1d5h

Calvin and Hobbes was a source of happiness during a mostly miserable adolescence. My world is better for Bill Watterson having been in it, even if he'll never know that himself.

froggertoaster
0 replies
1d

Your words were so simple, but hit me in a place I did not expect. I also had a miserable childhood/adolescence, and I could not help but cry a little reading your words. I feel exactly the same way.

adolph
0 replies
1d

To paraphrase:

  <X> is better for <Y> having been in it, even if <Y> never know that.
Seems like a definition of virtue or at least beneficence.

TecoAndJix
0 replies
1d5h

Calvin and Hobbes was also a major source of happiness during my youth. At one point I think I could have quoted you every strip.

I fancied myself an artist when I was a kid and had a regular comic called "Teco And Jix". It was an obvious ripoff of both Calvin and Hobbes but had very violent storylines. When it came time to create my first "internet name" (for AOL AIM), I went with TecoAndJix and it has remained my digital pseudonym to this day! I even got it tattooed one not-sober evening in the Navy...

Thank you Bill Watterson.

SoftTalker
0 replies
1d

Yes, I was a little older but Calvin and Hobbes is my all time favorite comic. I don't even read the comics anymore, since I haven't subscribed to a printed newspaper in a long time. The whole ritual of sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading through the Sunday paper is something I still miss from time to time.

7thaccount
0 replies
1d2h

Same. Calvin and Hobbes were always out having fun and I used to dream about having some kind of friend to hang out with where we could go on those kinds of adventures. I spent a lot of my time being lonely and bored and these comics were a great escape.

Having a daughter many years later in my adulthood has been awesome though and we go on all kinds of adventures and read stories together and play games and all kinds of stuff. In a way, it is kind of like getting a second crack at childhood and I want to make sure she isn't as lonely as I was. Of course you can't stifle your kids or live vicariously through them (I definitely draw some lines and give her as much freedom as you can in the modern day).

irrational
3 replies
1d3h

I was a teenager in the 80s. I can remember going outside in the dark before school to get the paper so I could read C&H during breakfast. I didn’t know at the time that they would someday be reprinted in books, so I would cut each one out and tape it into a notebook.

The other main comic strip I enjoyed at that time was The Far Side. Recently I reread both Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side. Calvin and Hobbes is still just as good as a 50s year old adult (though I find I now identify a lot more with the parents). But, I didn’t find the same thing to be true of The Far Side. Some of the Far Side strips are wonderful - like The School of the Gifted - but most just fell flat for me.

bombcar
1 replies
1d2h

Far Side really works well on a “one a day” timeline - binging it doesn’t work as well as it does with C&H.

dhosek
0 replies
16h19m

Binging C&H can be dangerous as so much laughter in a short timespan can make you pass out.

Loughla
0 replies
1d

The Far Side scratches a weird kid itch really really well. I bought the entire collection for my kid. Their okay, but not as good as I remember. He was dying laughing as he read them.

po
2 replies
1d4h

My sister just came to visit me in Tokyo and asked what to bring as a gift... I said, "If you can, please bring my Calvin and Hobbes collection for my kids to read." My 10 and 6 year olds have been devouring them ever since.

There is something electric and timeless about these strips. I am certain they don't understand all of the vocabulary but still they read it. It is a format that lures kids in and then uses that attention it has earned to stretch minds. Re-reading it as an adult also rings true in a totally different way. Calvin's parents become sympathetic compatriots.

It's smarter than most adults but captivates kids. It is a decade of work that deserves all the awards that could possibly be given.

carbonguy
1 replies
22h30m

I have a nephew turning six this year and have been considering getting him some of the collections as well, wondering if it would have the same formative impact on him as on me. I remember reading the strip in the paper as a six-year-old blonde kid and coming away with the impression that there was nothing weird about daydreaming all the time, or being articulate, or having an aversion to team sports, etc. all of which traits I carry with me to this day, 30-ish years later. Of course, now I find myself identifying more with Calvin's dad - that's life, I guess!

po
0 replies
14h43m

My 6 year old loves the colorful Sunday ones... but he has me read them to him and I don't think for many of them he doesn't 'get it' yet. My guess is that the truly ideal age is around 9 or 10. That being said, I think there's no wrong time to introduce them.

munchler
2 replies
1d12h

Fishing the comics section out of the Sunday paper to read a big Calvin and Hobbes strip was a joy. At the peak of the era, our paper (The Washington Post) actually had two separate comics sections, one with C&H on the front and the other with Peanuts. There was also Doonesbury and Bloom County, many other lesser strips, and even magazines like Parade and Potomac, all of which together provided a full morning’s entertainment.

c5karl
1 replies
23h7m

The genesis of the Post's gigantic comics section (three full pages on weekdays, if I remember correctly) was that they picked up all of the comics that had been run by the Washington Star when the Star (along with all the other evening papers) finally ran out of steam and closed up shop.

dhosek
0 replies
16h30m

I think the L.A. Times might have had three pages of comics in the dailies back in the 80s as well. It’s been a long time though.

kragen
2 replies
16h53m

even more than movies and rock-and-roll, comic strips were the primary art form of the 20th century, making charles schulz the most influential artist in history (on the public, not on art). watterson was the greatest of the greats. i wonder if he published any later work under a traveling-wilburys-style pseudonym to avoid it being overshadowed by calvin & hobbes, the way outland was engulfed by breathed's history, or the way nobody knows what songs the rolling stones wrote last year

dhosek
1 replies
16h32m

He did some guest strips on Pearls Before Swine a few years back, but I think he’s been largely enjoying just making the art he wants to make which isn’t comic strips.

I’ve often said that Charles Schulz was the Beatles of comic strips. The cartoonists who came after fell into categories: those who said they were influenced by him and those who lied about it. But given your evaluation, perhaps it’s more relevant to say that the Beatles were the Charles Schulz of rock music.

block_dagger
2 replies
1d13h

It's admirable that he traded his core competence for new subjects later in life.

ekianjo
1 replies
1d12h

isnt it what everyone does when they retire though?

Kodiologist
0 replies
1d6h

No, actually, although you could argue that the word "retire" isn't applied quite correctly in such cases. It's common for academics, for example, to continue doing much of the same work once they're nominally retired, just at a different pace with different priorities.

KingOfCoders
2 replies
1d9h

I've used Calvin and Hobbes to learn English.

kibwen
0 replies
1d5h

As a native English speaker, Calvin and Hobbes taught me to swear. I remember waiting until my mom was outside watering the flowers, then locking myself in the bathroom and whispering "darn" into the mirror. I was not a very bold child.

RhysU
0 replies
1d7h

My children each started reading in earnest after memorizing the several pages beginning "So long, Pop! I'm off to check my tiger trap!"

u235bomb
1 replies
1d11h

I can't really remember how or by whom I was introduced to Calvin and Hobbes. There was for years a peripheral awareness of it existing and eventually - reasons unknown - I purchased one of the books collecting strips. Properly reading Calvin and Hobbes for the first time is one of those experiences that leave a lasting imprint. The only other comic strip that had this lasting effect on me was Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson.

https://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/2007/11/11

ghaff
0 replies
1d5h

For whatever reason, it's a strip I was aware of but didn't really appreciate until later in life.

I confess to also being much more into Hanna-Barbera than Warner Brothers/Loony Toons until college or so.

max_
1 replies
1d12h

On a long enough time line all games become Calvin Ball

Loughla
0 replies
23h59m

I cannot play croquet without thinking about mashing someone with a mallet because of this comic.

idrathernotsay
1 replies
1d13h

Tim needs to fix his expired security certificate, at least according to Bitdefender

https://i.imgur.com/wZCSESE.png

diggan
0 replies
1d6h

Time to get rid of Bitdefender I guess? The site is http, so no certificate needed (or even served, for that matter). For the https version, it serves a certificate for the wrong domain (`*.brinkster.com` rather than for `timhulsizer.com`), so not even the error message is correct.

froggertoaster
1 replies
1d

Anyone else struck by how captivating Bill Watterson is as a writer, both in C&H and out?

elendee
0 replies
15h55m

yes I was not expecting to read the whole thing. But it was so pleasant. He uses paragraphs as the Spirit in the Sky intended: each one opens an idea and then closes it. Compare his opening sentences to his closing sentences; they almost always relate directly to each other. I'm guessing this guy double knots his shoelaces.

dtgriscom
0 replies
15h51m

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

alsetmusic
1 replies
1d4h

Stupendous Man is one of my tattoos. Seeing it always makes me happy. What a uniquely great comic. It has been an incredible influence in my life.

The first time I was reading “Something Under the Bed is Drooling,” when I got to the Mr Bun strip, my brain broke from the art change. I was extremely confused until I got to the end. To be a kid again…

Watterson has a new book: The Mysteries.

the_doctah
0 replies
1d1h

The art style usually changed when he became Spaceman Spiff and Tracer Bullet as well. Loved those alter egos.

Scubabear68
1 replies
16h39m

Calvin and Hobbes was the XKCD of the 80s. Absolutely brilliant.

elendee
0 replies
16h6m

except I think most XKCD readers are probably C&H readers too. Not sure what the 10 year olds are reading these days

wombatpm
0 replies
1d2h

In college I had Calvin and Hobbes in German. It was the best way to learn vocabulary

tracerbulletx
0 replies
21h2m

Really glad there is still a solid group of people who recognize the significance of his work. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't resonate with it, but it's the most important fiction of my childhood and still to this day.

spacecadet
0 replies
1d5h

I still have all of the Calvin and Hobbes books in storage. Some of the black and white pages were carefully watercolored by me as a teen.

ryukoposting
0 replies
1d6h

I'm not sure how many times I've read this before - at least twice, I think. Much like Calvin and Hobbes, it never gets old.

I'm too young to remember Calvin and Hobbes as a new comic. But, my parents had a complete anthology and I must have read the entire thing half a dozen times, cover to cover. I think Calvin and Hobbes informed the way I try to look at life. Embrace spontaneity and use your imagination. It's easy to forget that stuff.

optimalsolver
0 replies
1d4h

For fans of both Calvin and Frank Herbert's Dune, I give you Calvin & Muad'Dib:

https://calvinanddune.tumblr.com/

kejaed
0 replies
1d4h

I grew up with Calvin and Hobbes collections in the back seat of the car on family vacations. I was 14 when the strip ended so I had lots of historical material to go through at the book stores (!).

We have the anthology at home, I think it’s time to introduce the kids (6 & 9) to Watterson, although my son is already an expert at Calvinball without even knowing it.

What struck me reading this piece was thinking about how all the constraints that Watterson faced just don’t exist today, as he pointed out with his “click of the mouse” comment. Constraints can often lead to creative solutions, I wonder where Calvin and Hobbes would go in today’s landscape.

jf
0 replies
11h24m

This is the essay that introduced me to Krazy Kat and the main motivation for my project to find Krazy Kat Sunday comics in the public domain: https://joel.franusic.com/krazy_kat/

atum47
0 replies
17h51m

Everytime a girlfriend broke up with me the first thing I always did was to throw away the gifts from the relationship.

The only one exception was the box set of Calvin and Hobbes, the complete edition.

I don't care she left me, the box stays.