Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 18, 2010

Spiff can only do so much for you, Calvin.

Hurling? Is he throwing something or throwing up? Oh. Must mean hurtling.

‘school’ is certainly in the category of horrors of the infinite beyond !

Oh why did you ever quit Mr. Watterson?! The imagination is awesome!

Oh my, I don’t know who is nuttier, Calvin or his Mom.

Mr Watterson, given the current state of cartooning in newspapers (on average below dreck) and the state of affairs with newspaper circulation in general (dropping faster than a ski jumper at the Winter Olympics), it is my belief that you could negotiate full artistic control, panel size, shape, and editorial content.

Please come back, but only on your terms.

If not, thank you and bravo for the your present to the world.

Spaceman Spiff just gets better and better!

Never seen this one before! Fantastic!

Looks like Mum plans to drop him on his head. Will that knock some sense into him?

I second wiseguy411. M.

True, climbing out of his craft in zero gravity with out using a tether is dangerous for Spiff, but climbing out of his craft into an environment with no air and not using a breathing device might be even more dangerous. Somehow Mom is always coming to the rescue with the right plan of action.

I disagree. Of course, it would be fantastic to have another thousand C&H comic strips to read.

But they would be kinda different from what we’re used to now..I think it’s nearly impossible to adjust the strips to our present world.

Suddenly Calvin would play Nintendo Wii or PS3 games, watch Blueray DVDs, posess a MacBook Pro and so on. Ok, maybe I exaggerate, but I’m sure I wouldn’t like any difference in those strips!

Also, Watterson has finished this chapter in his life..any new drawings concerning C&H would mean to make a step backwards. So just enjoy the wonderful world of Calvin and his peers and that’s it.

What an imagination. He’s got a definite future as a cartoonist. He can take up where Mr. Watterson left off.

you’ll probably need to be in a good school - ie: a place you can be free to learn how to think, if you wanna be an astronaut … Do such schools exist? No wonder he refers to them as ‘infinite horrors”

Do you think Calvin would have a Facebook page?

—— I love this one. It’s another classic.

I need more calvin and hobbes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me too!! I miss this strip SO much, but it was great while it was here and at least we still get to enjoy the reruns!

Without doubt Calvin and Hobbes are to the comic world what M* A* S* H was to the world of TV comedies. Both will out live many of us!

Who will win this fight?

What is “upside down” in zero gravity?

Hehehe! Well school isn’t a strange new world Calvin, :)

well.. I used to love my school….

how did the navigatron short out ?

maybe the capasitor relay thingamabob is loose, look under the copilots seat and see cal…..

Dig those goggles.

When I first started reading C&H in the Sunday funnies, I didn’t get it. But I didn’t know I didn’t get it. I thought the premise of a small boy having a tiger for a pet was a little strange, but I went with it because the strip was so entertaining. It wasn’t until the first instance when I saw Calvin and a second “human” in the same panel with a small stuffed tiger leaning against a chair leg that the whole thing exploded for me. It was like fireworks and I thought “what a concept!!” Since then, no one has been a bigger fan than I have. I, too, wish they were back…

MissFit, your bangs do a good job of hiding your lobotomy scar.

All of a sudden there’s heard a sound as though the air was instantly pulled from a giant peanut butter and jelly jar and the lid was sucked closed. All was dark except for a distant light. It was coming rapidly closer, larger and brighter until its energy and heat could be felt like the sun. Finally waking up he realizes he’s knocked over the lava lamp in his struggles. It’s Saturnday - no school.

Whatever happened to the rest of the torn-up living room story? You just know Calvin had to be punished in some form for that, even if it was just being yelled at for playing ball inside the house!

I’m with Madruga, if Waterson came back it would seem like the afterlife comics of Hart or Smythe, okay, but not the same. Love the avatar from my all time favorite strip; “I let my mind wander & it didn’t come back.”

nice try calvin

Reality bites again.

My mum had to do that to me once.

No gravity hurling, though space and it dont look like any time is left for safety procedures as to re entry or hard landings

I know the feeling Calvin, I know the feeling…

Susan001, I like the idea of Calvin being their own, out-of-control, undisciplined, dwelling-in-his-own-Shadow ENFP the best. That’s what Mr. Watterson made him. No wonder his parents can’t handle him. No one could, least of all two strong Judging types like his parents are.

And I speak as a fellow ENFP, so I have no dog in this particular fight. I know the strengths and weaknesses of Calvin’s kind. I share them. They don’t excuse his near total lack of right character.

The problem is partly that Calvin’s parents are trying to impose that character from outside instead of doing what he really needs, inspiring him to reach for something greater than himself. It’s not a lack of love or compassion so much as a lack of understanding. Their tactics would work well enough on someone cut from their own cloth.

A good session in the woodshed wouldn’t do Calvin any harm.

Classic

In continuation of the past 2 days: Marvee & anyone else…. I don’t take it too seriously. I feel the same way about it now as I did in its original run. I’m seeing too many off base commenters here, who can’t even comprehend a 25 year old comic strip about a little kid. I think it’s sad. Funny how I get picked out and slammed by those with poor comprehension skills, for participating in a conversation, out of all the others who also stated that they see the premise of the strip the way I do. This wasn’t our first time around in this convo with newbies.

Thanks Susan and SassyLuckyChance! : )

My best friend when I was small WAS Calvin, to a T. The escapades and imagination rival Calvin’s. He even looked just like him, and let me assure you, he served this country as a Marine, he is a long time Police Officer, he runs his own Judo school and his children are high up in Boy Scouts. I have no problem sticking up for Calvin, because I saw him grow up into an outstanding citizen, father and husband. His wife is a lucky woman. And that’s how most children like Calvin tend to turn out. They are not stupid and undisciplined. They are the exact opposite of it.

Calvin however remains 6, and in order to understand this strip, you need to think like a 6 year old. Period.

Susan, re: your post today. I agree. Poor Calvin probably had to teach himself to eat and read the way either of these parents can’t see fit to find 2 minutes to spend with him!

Look at how cute he is upside down!

I thought Calvin and Hobbes was brief glimpses into the life of an imaginitive boy from his point of view, therefore the view of the parents would be biased and incomplete.

I think the strip is hilarious, therefore I refuse to ruin it by analyzing it too much.

Did the therefores make me sound pretentious? I used the second one for just that purpose.

You were, therefore, successful at the task heretofore stated. PRETENTIONS ANONYMOUS meets weekly on Mondays a 8PM in the penthouse office upstairs in the Beverly Hills Breast Augmentation Clinic.

OK, reality check: Calvin is a comic strip–a fantasy–it’s not a documentary! It’s not real! People are analyzing fictional parents here. What are you going to do, call the Comic Strip Division of Child Services? As someone else pointed out, this is done from the point of view of a made-up, six year old kid with an overactive imagination. Everything in it is exaggerated for effect. Next thing, you’ll be crying because Calvin thinks his stuffed tiger is real. If you can’t enjoy farce and satire without all this angst, please, stop hurting yourself and go read Ziggy.

For heaven’s sake, Calvin is a little snot who doesn’t like school and doesn’t want to go. What kid does want to go to school? I hated it. It was BORING!!! And if Calvin wasn’t such a little rotter, the cartoon wouldn’t be as much fun.

So far as his parents being impatient, unsympathetic, not spending time with him, or just being too mean for words–well, he’s lucky they don’t sell him to the lowest bidder. They can’t be his buddies, they have other obligations. Not the least of which is, in this case, the almost impossible task of keeping him alive until adulthood. If ever there were a child so bent on unwitting self-destruction….

I agree with Calvin.

I miss having a current day Calvin & Hobbs so much. There are 50 comments ahead of me. Everyone misses them.

MyWord, that was great, especially the stop hurting yourself and go read Ziggy part. I applaud you. Except it might not be any safer, what with the whole pants thing.

fredbuhl, thank you for the information, it might be entertaining to make the acquaintenance of others who share the same delusions of superiority as myself.

i seen this 1 already, it never gets old!

I’m glad Calvin’s mom isn’t my mom