Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 28, 2012

The cows left when they saw the tiger. Oh, and if you must know, the tiger scared the crap out of them….as Calvin found out.

Certainly you don’t know what future will bring, but to prepare a bath will not be the badest in Calvins situation!

Today’s strip reminds me of Charlie Brown and Patty, a few months after Peanuts began:Click here: Peanuts (1951)Here is Snoopy teaching Woodstock a lesson similar to the one that Calvin has learned these past two weeks:Click here: Peanuts (1978)And here is Linus predicting the future for Snoopy:Click here: Peanuts (1988)

Now compare the heights of the three Peanuts strips with each other, and with today’s Calvin and Hobbes strip, which is taller than any of them:The oldest Peanuts strip has very little height, consisting of four horizontal rectangles. Charles Schulz had to fit his characters into this tiny space for the first 25 years of Peanuts (1950-1975). That’s why he drew them with such large heads compared to their bodies. The heads became smaller with time but were always oversized, as is Calvin’s.Calvin and Hobbes never would have worked in this format with characters as tall as Calvin’s parents and the non-stuffed Hobbes, with Bill Watterson’s more elaborate backgrounds, and with his more extensive use of text.The second Peanuts strip is taller, consisting of four squares rather than rectangles. Schulz had this larger amount of space for 13 years (1975-1988).

The third Peanuts strip is even taller, consisting of three squares. Schulz had this tall format for his final 12 years (1988-2000), which overlapped many of the years of Calvin and Hobbes (1985-1995).Schulz and Watterson were also allowed to vary the number of panels during those years, which allowed both of them a lot of additional creativity:Click here: Peanuts (1996)Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (1991)Click here: Peanuts (April 1989)Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (September 1989)Note that the last two strips, with similar themes, were published only five months apart.

I believe I predicted the bath much earlier in the arc.

Oh, Ok…for a minute there I thought Calvin was just embracing the moment…and the mud. Didn’t realise it wasn’t exactly voluntary.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, Bill Watterson is a character in the current story in Lost Side of Suburbia. The current chapter, “Bill,” began on April 4, Bill himself was first seen on April 18, and Hobbes appeared yesterday.

The future is in God’s hands. No one can change it.

Thank you Hobbes for the analysis.

There is no past or future “time” – only now. But we can remember the past and imagine tomorrow. And we, as humans, tend to see time as a flowing river. “NOW” = NO FATE. We make it up as we go – free will! I’m surprised Calvin didn’t get that :^)

Unfortunately for you, once spoken (or written), unkind remarks never fade into obscurity in people’s minds. For which would you rather be remembered?

..the things you learn from historical documents..

Hi GatoCatMy belief is that if we spend time enriching other people’s lives and bringing pleasure to them, then what we have done never fades into obscurity. The objects that we create in order to do this are a means to that end, but not an end in themselves.

Stub-a-dub-dub!Calvin in a tub!

You go, Hobbes! I always enjoy your posts and really missed you over the holidays.

There are three kinds of people in the world: Those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; and those who wonder what happened.

And so shall your comment.

If Calvin learns from his mistakes; head turned, eyes closed, it’s not a bad thing. I wish the results of my mistakes was a bath.

Hi mkdonly1No, I haven’t published a book, but I do save my major postings on my computer.

Someone once told me that they would like to see the future.I responded, no you don’t.Why, is it going to be that bad?Not necessarily. But don’t you have a mother and a father?Yes.And they each had a mother and a father?Yes.And so on – you are the product of thousands of marriages,Yeah, that makes sense.Now,if only you could see the future, what an advantage!Wow, what an advantage that would be.But, if you could see the future, couldn’t others also.Well, I guess so.And amongst the thousands of marriages that you are a product of, there had to have been at least one (probably many) that would not have happened if either partner could have seen it ending in a bitter divorce.I guess so.And if even one of those thousands had not happened, you would not be here!

Calvin is all in favor of a good future—but not if it involves thinking ahead!

Hobbes, thank you for the nice info on two of my favorite comics!

Calvin – just go indoors and tell your Mom that Hobbes was giving you a facial – she’ll understand…..yeah, right….

There’s a hotel in Iceland? that gets its water from a volcanic spring. There is ample hot water, but the expense is in cooling it down for the cold water faucets!

Maybe they have a recycle tank!

Hobbes (the poster):

Thanks for the nice words yesterday regarding the subjects you mentioned from some of my previous posts (while you were gone). I try to keep anything I say light and on-topic because this is a comic strip forum, but people can just really get on my last nerve sometimes — especially when it’s so painfully obvious that they have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about — and since I can’t reach through my computer and smack them upside the head . . . that’s when I feel like I have to speak up and “educate” them a little bit instead. I try not to “feed the trolls” who are obviously looking to start trouble where there isn’t any but sometimes that’s NOT always an easy thing for me to do!

Regarding the beer quotes . . . none of those were mine. While I admit that I really enjoy a nice, frosty mug of Budweiser with my pizza on a hot summers’ day sometimes . . . all those funny quotes were just things I found online that other people said. And it’s absolutely AMAZING all the quotes there are out there on the topic of beer!!!!!

;-)

@GretchensMom: I think that many Internet “trolls” are highly immature people with underdeveloped senses of ethics and morality, who don’t understand true friendship or true pleasure. But, ironically, they are also unaware that they don’t understand these things. So they mistakenly think that they are finding pleasure at the expense of others. Of course, this type of person was with us long before computers existed. But the Internet gives them a new tool to be anonymous with their cowardly attacks on others.They are totally baffled by a genuine person like you, because being truly genuine is outside the realm of their personal life experience. Similarly, you are baffled by their behavior, because, being genuine, you can’t fully imagine what it is like to live such a tragic life.

@Number Six: Your hilariously random comment with video accompaniment cracked me up.

Not to mention, his attempts at self aggrandizing is pathetic, and takes away from the humor of the simple strip. This is his, to quote, “back on a very limited basis”. Blah, blah, blah.

ROGUE53 IF YOU ARE SUCH A “HAPPY PERSON” as your comment on here, suggested a few days ago, WHY are your comments SO NEGATIVE ABOUT EVERYTHING?

@Dry: For someone who dislikes everything that I write, Rogue53 seems to be my most avid reader.

So in the 3rd panel, did Calvin trip or did Hobbes push him with his left front paw?

@Jaddis: It does sort of look like Hobbes pushed him, but Hobbes is just reacting as Calvin trips and falls. Hobbes may even be reaching out to try to catch him too late. The 4th panel makes this clear, because Hobbes says that Calvin wasn’t thinking about what he was doing — i.e., he wasn’t watching where he was going.

@rogue53: Sameness is boring; it stifles creativity. My comments on the strips are written for others; they are not written for you. If you want to read them anyway, that’s up to you. My observation is that your ongoing quest to try to get me to conform to a particular mold has been taking up a lot of your energy, thereby stifling your own creativity. Your comments have lost much of the cleverness and humor that they once had.

We have no control over the future. We can only plan for the future. Whether we live to see our plans materialize is completely out of our control.

Live, and let live everyone. Don’t feed the devil’s advocate. He only shows up when he is mentioned.

Thanks again Hobbes and friends for enhancing the enjoyment of Watterson’s genius!

Thanks, Shikamoo. I enjoy your thoughtful comments. I also enjoy the way that the posters on this site find such a large variety of ways to express themselves and reach out to others, over large geographic distances and regardless of cultural differences.

You know rogue, HOBBES is never insulting or mean, unlike you. This is a free forum, and he is always nothing but nice. As it IS A FREE FORUM, YOU ARE FREE NOT TO READ THE COMMENTS!

…just walk away…don’t feed the troll.

Mom: “AAAAAH, LOOK AT YOU, CALVIN!!! WHAT A MESS!!! INTO THE TUB THIS VERY INSTANT!!!”Calvin (kneeling in prayer position, getting more mud on the floor): “O God, Hear my plea! Make Mom go away, MAKE MOM GO AWAY!”(Calvin in the tub, his bottom smarting): “HMPF! See if I ever go to one of those church things!”