Recent Comments

1. about 18 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   And – as I have said before – the anti-boy counterpart to GROSS could be called GRUB – Get Rid of Ugly Boys.

2. about 18 hours ago on Red and Rover

   Charles Schulz never showed her. He thought she should be left to the readers to imagine. She did appear in the animated special, “It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown” in which Charlie Brown did get to dance with her and kiss her but was too nervous to enjoy his only kiss with her. Charles Schulz did not like that adaption of his strip as he thought it was a mistake to show the red-haired girl.

3. about 18 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   As I keep reminding you, we have agreed that the washing machine is real. Calvin has sat on the rea washing machine and opened the lid and seen Hobbes inside the tub and they have spoken to one another. This shows that the Hobbes Calvin sees just fits inside the tub of the washing machine. He only just fits inside as we saw that his head was near to the lid. Therefore, the Hobbes whom Calvin sees only just fits within the tub of the washing machine whereas the Hobbes that Mom sees as a doll whom Calvin can carry around would fit in much more easily.

   As I have pointed out many times, I originally assumed that Hobbes being alive was indeed part of Calvin’s marvellous imagination but started to question this when I first saw that the Hobbes we see when he is alone is as Calvin sees him rather than as the other characters see him.

   Calvin and Hobbes certainly imagine wonderful things together such as the time when they imagined going to Mars in their toy wagon and meeting a Martian and learning a lesson about putting their own planet in order before messing up other planets. Watterson feels he was a little “heavy-handed” about his environmental beliefs in that story arc but I enjoyed it. I hope that you enjoyed it too although you seem to see Watterson’s environmental beliefs as part of the misogynism that he has admitted to having.

4. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   As I say, I finally learned that Watterson did not see Hobbes as part of Calvin’s imagination in April 1992 when I read The Encyclopaedia of Cartoon Animals which has an entry on Hobbes. This entry quotes Watterson as saying “I suspect he is more real than any kid would make up”. You tell me that Watterson meant that he did not imagine anyone would imagine an imaginary friend who argues with them and that Calvin sometimes enjoys an argument and fight with Hobbes.

   To a point, I agree with you. I still agree with Watterson that Hobbes is more real than Calvin would imagine as I feel that Calvin would imagine a friend who is far more respectful and admiring to him than Hobbes is. However, you are certainly right that Calvin sometimes enjoys arguing and fighting with Hobbes. Other times, he clearly does not. He is shown as being genuinely angry with Hobbes. Their friendship survives the periods when they are angry with one another. It is more like a real friendship than an imaginary friendship.

5. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Please stop judging me by your own dishonest standards.

   I keep explaining that I am NOT “trying to prove that Hobbes is real” but explaining how I came to stop seeing Hobbes as part of Calvin’s wonderful imagination and see him as a living being who is independent of Calvin. As I have explained many times, I started out thinking that Hobbes was a doll whom Calvin liked to imagine was alive. I began to question this view when I read my first book collection some months later and noticed to strips which – surprisingly to me – showed Hobbes as alive and speaking directly to us after Calvin had left him on his own. I started to look out for strips which show Hobbes on his own and to remember them.

   When I read the recently reprinted strip in which Calvin is going to a wedding and realizes he has gone without Hobbes and we then see Hobbes’s tail sticking out from under the bedclothes, I thought I had finally found a strip which shows Hobbes as a doll when on his own. I know now that I was wrong to assume that. I assumed it because I still largely thought of Hobbes as a doll in 1989 – which is now my favourite Calvin and Hobbes year as it contains six of my personal favourite story arcs. All we see of Hobbes is the tip of his tail so it could be either the doll – as I assumed – or the living tiger.

6. about 19 hours ago on Fred Basset

   As I say, the strip began in 1963 and largely reflects the era that it started in.

7. about 19 hours ago on Fred Basset

   No. As milkenjanet says, they ran from Caesar earlier this week and from Brutus today. I wonder whether Caesar and Brutus have the same owner. Perhaps they came from a litter of puppies named after characters in Roman history.

8. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Another thing that I like about today’s wonderful reprint – from one of my favourite story arcs – is the first panel. You’ll see that Calvin is speaking to Hobbes in small letters which indicate that he is speaking quietly. He is also facing away from Susie. This suggests that Calvin really is speaking to Hobbes rather than pretending to speak to Hobbes when really wanting Susie to hear him.

9. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   According to some fanfiction such as “Hobbes and Bacon” and “The Calvin and Hobbes Deathbed Story” in which Susie is introduced as “Calvin’s wife of fifty-six years”. As I said recently, Calvin dying after fifty-six years of marriage to his childhood sweetheart suggests that he is about eighty when he dies.

   “Hobbes and Bacon” begins with grown-up Calvin and Susie asleep in bed. They are woken by their daughter Frances who is nicknamed Bacon. A frightened Bacon tells Calvin “Donald Trump is in my closet and Mr Bun can’t protect me. I need someone scarier.” Calvin fetches Hobbes to protect Bacon. That introductory strip is very topical again now that the real Donald Trump is getting more publicity than any time since he lost the 2020 Presidential Election. Here in the UK, we are set to have a General Election on 4 July this year so that is in just under five weeks.

10. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

    My above comment was meant as a reply to codycab’s comment below these comments.