Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Tags: Calvin HATES camping, camping, hitch home, whine, Family Vacations, building character, summer, vacation. Add Tags

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cleokaya said, 3 months ago

Sure Calvin we’ll let you out here on the turnpike.
Margueritem said, 3 months ago

Dad, now’s your chance!
DAHamilton said, 3 months ago

Hey, where’s Hobbes?
Ivy0730 said, 3 months ago

I hate annoying bugs, but you have no choice, Calvin!
Try to enjoy it!
Gweedo Murray said, 3 months ago

They must notta had foam under pads in them days.

Marg, you’re looking globular and snowflake patterny tonight.
yyyguy said, 3 months ago

i loved camping. coolers full of beer, lots of great tunes on the stereo, and a trip into town to play baseball on the local diamond on the Saturday afternoon. wonderful! of course, then we started getting married and having families and camping took on a different image. more like the nature hikes we took as little kids. perspective is everything, but it’s funnier using Calvin’s.
rayannina said, 3 months ago

I’m totally with Calvin on this. If the outdoors are so great, why do we live INdoors?
corpuskevin said, 3 months ago

Does Mom have nothing to say? In the fourth panel, she looks like it’s her turn to talk.
Margueritem said, 3 months ago

Gweedo, it’s Acoma designs that do look a bit like flakes.
JFri said, 3 months ago

rayannina, we are 100% polar opposites! If I could live outdoors all the time, I would!
ejcapulet said, 3 months ago

I feel your pain, Calvin, I love being outside, but I HATE having to sleep there - give me proper plumbing any day.
Carmy said, 3 months ago

Misery loves company so Hobbes is in the back with Calvin.
Gweedo Murray said, 3 months ago

@Margueritem.
All the way to Acoma, philatelia, Mylanta, El-ly ♪♪♪♪♪♪♫♪♪♪.
Wildmustang1262 said, 3 months ago

DAHamilton said, about 2 hours ago

Hey, where’s Hobbes?

That is what I try to figure out where is Hobbes? :-/
drwatson said, 3 months ago

Ivy0730Lcsq said, about 2 hours ago
I hate annoying bugs

Well, then - don’t! :D
vibjyor said, 3 months ago

swatting mosquitoes .. canned food is not my idea of good time either. But then grown ups never grow up really. In fact they become more childish than when they started.
ThomasKovacs said, 3 months ago

Does anyone hitch anymore?
grazer said, 3 months ago

City folks are fickle. They spend big bucks trying to turn their back yards into enchanted forests—and when they go camping, they spend big bucks trying to turn the forests into their back yards.
green_engineer said, 3 months ago

Haha @ grazer - it’s funny because it’s true.

If this is Calvins attitude as a 6 year old, what will he be like as a teenager?
unemandarine said, 3 months ago

Oh Grazer you are so right. Still I rather live indoors. Oh Calvin, it’s going to be a long week for you.
carpetinwater9 said, 3 months ago

just like camping in the back yard. plenty of bugs.
legaleagle48 said, 3 months ago

I’m with Calvin on this one. MY idea of “roughing it” is staying at a Motel 6 (or its equivalent when I was in Rome a few years ago!)

If God had intended for us to live out-of-doors, He wouldn’t have invented indoor plumbing, central heating, air conditioning, and room service!
opuscroakus70 said, 3 months ago

So true, Legaleagle. The last time I went camping was when I was 13 and forced to accompany my family under duress. All I can remember was having a cow because I was missing Duran Duran on “Saturday Night Live”.

“That is what I try to figure out where is Hobbes? :-/ ”

Probably at the Four Seasons getting a massage. He’s one smart tiger who knows how to get out of camping.
prasrinivara said, 3 months ago

Dad, I think you’d best get off and let mum drive Calvin & Hobbes back home–and then you hitch a ride to the campsite.
ninmas said, 3 months ago

it’s called a vacation if you go there to relax, it’s called a trip if you just go there.
pibfan868 said, 3 months ago

I think one of their vacations, Calvin forgot Hobbes……this might be the one!
algurka said, 3 months ago

When Calvin grows up, he’s going to take his kids camping and boring them with tales of “the good old days when I was your age.”
As for Hobbes, he’s no fool–he’s at home reading Calvin’s comics and eating tuna.
SQUIDBREAKER said, 3 months ago

Mom is silent because she is planning her escape strategy.
Richard said, 3 months ago

Like you Legaleagle, my idea of roughing it is sleeping without an electric blanket.
Hobbes is quietly (?) at home trying to figure out the can opener and reading Calvin’s comic books, aaah the life.
Macushlalondra said, 3 months ago

I don’t think I’ve ever been camping and that’s fine because I know I’d hate it. I don’t think Dad was fair to drag Calvin (and probably Mom) along on something he knows they hate. If he wants to go camping let him go with friends. I’m with Calvin this time.
Josh said, 3 months ago

He revealed years later that he does it so the remaining 51 weeks of the year will seem like a vacation.
absitinvidia said, 3 months ago

I think, Mom loves the outdoors as much as Calvin.
KarenChristenson said, 3 months ago

I love camping, the real camping not the kind where u stay in a motor home! or at a cabin but the pitch your tent and pee in the woods, andlive out of a cooler gets me back to nature=)
BC13 said, 3 months ago

Maybe Calvin was told to leave Hobbes at home. I can’t see Calvin forgetting him. Likely though that Hobbes was the only one who could bow out - and took advantage of it.

Like algurka said, he’s back home pigging out on canned tuna and reading Calvin’s comics.
Lewreader said, 3 months ago

I agree with YYYGUY. Camping was fun before marriage, and it was free.
NoBrandName said, 3 months ago

Mom’s kinda in the middle on this topic. You can tell because her top is a mix of dad’s vertical striped shirt and Calvin’s horizontally striped shirt. ^_O
kab2rb said, 3 months ago

I drive around the lake everyday going to a part-time position. And see where campers are constantly there. I am always glad to leave go home for comfort.
Comic-Nut said, 3 months ago

It would be nice to live off the grid and in the outdoors on a permanent basis. Wonder if this the strip where Calvin loses Hobbes when they are camping.
marvee said, 3 months ago

Hobbes would not appear large in the parent’s presence.
I guess this strip pre-dates seat belt laws.
sjoujke said, 3 months ago

Lived in a tent for 6 months touring New Zealand - loved every minute of it. Would do it again in a heartbeat
and I’m WAY OLDER than Calvin. To repeat DA’s question - where the heck IS Hobbes???
bmonk said, 3 months ago

ThomasKovacs said, about 8 hours ago

“Does anyone hitch anymore?”

You see people hitchhiking once in a while. In the winter, you stop for them, because it’s dangerous out there after a little while.
Stede_Bonnet said, 3 months ago

Geez! When did Calvin become such a woman?

Buck up lil’ camper!
BC13 said, 3 months ago

I’m with Calvin on this one. I don’t want to be “one” with the bugs.
ratlum said, 3 months ago

I hope Dad did not by accident put Hobbes in with the luggage ?
Joe Allen Doty said, 3 months ago

When the adults talked (it is a repeat) in this comic strip, Hobbes was merely a stuffed inanimate toy tiger.

And since Hobbes is not large in “real” life, he could be in the back seat with Calvin in this vacation trip story.
Coffee-Turtle said, 3 months ago

I also agree with Calvin. I remember their last trip… rain, rain and more rain. What a disaster! :-D Gotta love Dad’s optimism though! (mom is very quiet) :-D
treBsdrawkcaB said, 3 months ago

Calvin would not leave Hobbes at home - he’s his best friend. You don’t see Hobbes because he’s gotten into the wicker basket and is eating all the tuna sandwiches! Mom is not saying anything because she’s just glad that she doesn’t have to be yelling at Calvin right now. I’ve always wondered why Bill Waterson never sent Calvin to Summer Camp. Loads of possibilities…
NyukNyuk2000 said, 3 months ago

Bill Watterson originally had Calvin in the Cub Scouts until he realized that Calvin wasn’t the type of kid who would join the Cub Scouts. He figured that Calvin and his family (and Hobbes) going camping was funnier and more natural. I think he was right. Still, Calvin and Hobbes going to Summer Camp could have have been really hilarious.
Larry said, 3 months ago

or at least during summer send him to a summer day camp. like they did in the strip BETTY. The camp counselor look like a marine drill instructor. I can see calvin running amock in that situation.
NoaTall said, 3 months ago

Calvin leaves Hobbes at home when he went to a wedding, not when going to camp.