Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 02, 2021

It means Bill Watterson had no idea what the internet — especially social media — was going to do less than 2 decades later.

This is from the strip’s REALLY early days.

I’m guessing this was rerun back when Bill had the big licensing fight with his publishers, which led to him taking his big sabbatical before he was given freedom to draw Sunday strips in his own custom layout instead of the typical template seen here.

Surely, Calvin could at least have the NES, right?

Hobbes, sit here with me and we’ll watch “Jungle Book”…..

Hobbes is channeling his inner “Calvin’s dad” here.

My own opinion is that Marx was right. And not only about religion.

It’s tripe. But that’s the opiate that the masses want.

Takes me back…the rabbit ears antenna, the knobs, no remote…

Haven’t owned a TV in over 15 years. The internet is bad enough

Panel 4. Must be watching Tucker Carlson.

Write a letter? Since when is that more fun than a lame TV show. Then again, I haven’t written a real letter in about 6 years…

Ha! Watching Warner Bros. cartoons Saturday mornings is one of my best memories! And yes, I STILL watch them and laugh at them and love them as I approach the age of 60.

/Road Runner-Coyote is the GREATEST!

My dad (in his late 60s when this was first published) was just like Calvin. Sit in front of TV and moan about how terrible it was. But if you had a different show you really wanted to watch, “I paid for that set, leave it alone! When you buy your own TV you can watch whatever garbage you want!” and then back to the moaning.

First two panels are gold.

So many cat videos to watch but so little time remaining.

Yay! Today’s my birthday! I’m not rlly doing anything bc of covid, but I am getting Roblox Premium AND a new computer!!!

An excellent reprint of a reprint. This is one of my favourites from the very early Sunday strips.

" Et to ", Hobbes !

I’ll watch anything that David Attenborough narrates.

A classic among classics

Well Hobbes, if you can’t beat him, join him.

Well the first two panels are a bit deep, thought I was reading Doonsebury LOL

Calvin is so much like normal kids nowadays…

“If you can’t beat ’em join ’em.” The power of mass media entertainment is strong on those whose minds are inclined to realize they are doing something without doing anything and tomorrow people will ask them how it was.

Reflection is an amazing device.

Karl Marx could not even conceive of the wicked, EVILgeLICKal televangelist$ selling their dope.

I don’t know. The Popeye and Bugs Bunny cartoons were great! Even Mighty Mouse.

The first two panels made the whole strip.

" … just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people." – Karl Marx, bearded guy buried in London

I know Calvin has a superb vocabulary, but it’s pretty impressive that he’s reading Marx’s “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” as a 6 year-old.

I threw my TV out over a decade ago and I am not on social media.

I have never seen Calvin or Hobbs look like this at any time in their history. It looks like a ‘Guest’ Cartoonist.

The reason why you’re suddenly seeing a Sunday strip from 1986 is because this was when Bill Watterson started his nine-month sabbatical that lasted until winter 1992, to refresh himself and sort things out with the syndicate on his licensing fights and proposing a new format for the Sunday strips. The 1992 strips won’t begin until the end of next January.

lol

Hmmmmm makes a person wonder what they did without cell phones computers,or face book, can’t do anything without a smart phone!!!

Watching TV has made me a more rounded person. Mostly around the middle!

Hey, how come we’ve gone back in time?

Considering this was written before the advent of a plethora of cable/satellite channels scream and for our attention, Watterson was eerily prophetic on this one!

Notice anything about my profile???

This is an old Sunday strip you can tell. What gives?

If you could have back all the time you’ve spent, watching, reading,hearing advertisements….

I know this is a commentary on television, but I’m sorry that Bill Watterson had such a poor opinion on all of the people worldwide who humbled themselves before their God.

Hobbes decided to join Calvin because it was a rerun of a ‘Taxi’ episode that featured The Reverend Jim Ignatowksi.

I have lots of good memories of the TV I watched in the 60’s and 70’s. Green Acres, Get Smart, Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan’s Island were all great shows.

when I was calvins age I’d disappear down the block and play with friends, climb tree, ride bikes. This morning i was watering my lawn and saw three kids ride by, on bikes all with helmets on and thought, were we tougher than them? luckier? or has the world just gotten weirder?

We watch programs for entertainment, though with summer approaching not interested in game shows so evening TV will be off and reading time. I do read little during cold weather.

Calvin READING?? a NON comic book?? With thoughtful content?? This is NOT the Calvin I know.

Some of my best memories are of the tripe. And all the drivel.

For those who keep saying Hobbes must be alive because we see him do things in Calvin’s absence: Do you also insist that the TV is alive for having this thought?

“It means Karl Marx hadn’t seen anything yet.”

Nor had P.T. Barnum.

“All the other shows even are worse!”

“When you’re older, you’ll wish you had more than memories of this tripe to look back on.” Actually, some of my best memories involve TV…

A then, modern day Rod Serling. Predicting the dystopia of the future.

Aww… The last Calvin and Hobbes