Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 13, 2021

It’s probably his way to slow down Hobbes’s attacks.

Great way to prevent cars from speeding on the yard!

Face palm indeed, Mom.

But the only one racing around the yard is Calvin (Hobbs can jump over those puny little things).

Safety first.

Once upon a time, I lived on a corner lot with a big lawn, and would get automobile ‘lawn jobs’ every couple of months. Made me very angry at first, then learned to accept it. I matured…..

There’s already a speed bump, Calvin. You!

With adequate speed bumps, you can catch some WICKED air in the little red wagon!

Now give Calvin a good swift speed bump.

If you build them along contours, you can save water in dry areas!

I don’t know who will, be in the car, but I do know Calvin will drive Mom crazy!

Reminds me of my brother digging a foxhole in the front yard. He got it deep enough for an 8 yr old boy to stand up in before the parents came home.

It could be worse … if he knew where the power tools are.

Give Calvin some Ritalin, STAT! That’ll calm him down!

At least Calvin’s speed bumps won’t cost the taxpayers millions of dollars!

Mom will whack his little behind with that spade…this was the 90s, after all.

Look on the bright side mom, Calvin will give you the family discount for his hard work.

…or as they are called in some British places, “Sleeping Policemen”. Still, seems like a lot of work.

My boys like to dig holes and trenches. If I let them have their way the lawn would look like a WWl battlefield by the end of the summer. On the plus side, it saves on lawn mowing time.

For who, Hobbes?

For who, Hobbes?

One time in San Francisco, I walked into the house and told the roommate that there were three guys humping in the road. He walked back in ninety seconds later, angry that it was a road crew putting in those wide speed bumps.

I hate speed bumps. What a stupid way to punish the innocent.

I think he made ’em pretty well

During the past couple of weeks, I have made some comments on Bill Watterson’s view of the reality of Hobbes and how they affected my own view.

I began reading Calvin and Hobbes in late 1987 and assumed that the stuffed doll Hobbes was meant to be the real one but started to change my mind in 1988. One reason for this was because Hobbes was shown as living even when Calvin wasn’t present.

In 1989, I read the strip where Hobbes was left behind and Hobbes was shown as a stuffed doll so I went back to assuming that Hobbes really was the stuffed doll after all. In 1992, I read that Watterson had said in an interview that he considered Hobbes “more real than any kid can make up”.

I then started to consider the theory that I outlined last week – that Hobbes may be a stuffed doll but was brought to life through a combination of Calvin’s imagination and a psychic power but was a swifter thinker than Calvin and more knowledgeable than Calvin.

In 1995, I read The Calvin And Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book in which Watterson explains “I don’t see Hobbes as a stuffed doll who magically comes to life when Calvin is alone nor do I see him as a product of Calvin’s imagination.”

This shot down my theory as Hobbes doesn’t seem to be a doll at all and doesn’t seem to owe anything to Calvin’s imagination. It seems that Hobbes as a doll is purely a delusion seen by characters other than Calvin.

As for the matter of Hobbes being shown as a stuffed doll when left alone in 1989, I later decided that this may have been because of the burglars who broke into the house during the story arc. This wasn’t discovered by Calvin and his parents until they returned at the end of the first week. As I mentioned last week, Hobbes being shown as a stuffed doll could be a clue that he wasn’t alone.

As for Hobbes’s later claim that he “scared off the burglars”, there are two ways in which that COULD be true. Either the burglars heard Hobbes moving around or they saw that the stuffed doll had moved and assumed that there must have been someone in the house to move him.

But ask him to dig the dandelions and I bet he’d scream bloody murder.

Yeah, that’s necessary /s

Mom is on a crash course for “the Big One!”

WHY?

I have moles that do this. Grandpups love to ride their Big Wheels across humps. HOA not so pleased.

Not aware of any reason the yard would need speed bumps, but… okay.

“Son, loan me that shovel and I’ll give you some speed bumps on your head!”

Oddly enough in the UK, they are known colloquially as “sleeping policemen”. In Pasadena, some neighbors got the city to put in huge speed bumps in the belief if it would slow down the large vehicles speeding to and from the off-road-vehicle shop on the corner. Instead, I had to slow to a crawl to get into my driveway everyday and the OTR folk would come from miles around to enjoy the bounce. They love bounce.

A few seeds before the patting would yield a beautiful garden in the yard.

Another simple but fun strip from the comic’s infancy…

Wow so many reruns

Mom would be happy, if they slowed Calvin down.

The pot holes he is making are probably more effective than the bumps, after all he needs something to slow down his toy sports car that does 200 mph.

Well, I know I’d certainly slow down if I were driving in his yard…

Funny to read this right after the garden mischief in today’s “Dog Eat Doug.”

Mom had to ask.

He should’ve dug it just INSIDE of the front door, and said it was to keep Hobbes from nailing him when he comes home from school. :)

ah, the snow is gone, so Calvin needs a substitute, I presume.

i know

Good thing Calvin