Those two-seconds-late realizations when Calvin’s mom realized what his last absurdist claim meant. The jarring reminders when Hobbes was drawn as a stuffed tiger. That quaint moment when you first figured out that Suzie would always be his one true love. Trying to figure out which of the Calvins was the one who actually went to school after he created all those cardboard clones. Getting jealous of his tree forts and the friendships contained within them. The lettering that Bill Watterson used for Moe’s threats, and the way Moe’s physical prowess was never bested. Knowing that, since she was a Mrs. Wormwood, that meant there was a Mr. Wormwood hiding somewhere else who only knew about our hellion secondhand. The first time you tried to make snowmen the way Calvin did. When Calvin’s dad broke down and taught you that your dad could be as confused and scared as you always were. The majestic, experimental Sunday strips where you saw all the other styles that Watterson had at his beck and call, and the moment when he brought you home with the one you knew best. Learning what the word sabbatical meant. Learning that artists could stand up for themselves, and that they should stand up for themselves, and always holding up the moment when this one did as the bar that all other artists had to clear. A hippopotamus with wings. Calvin’s face. Calvin’s ambition. Calvin’s imagination. Calvin’s hair. How hard he tried, how often he failed.
The way he loved Hobbes. The way we loved them.
Tucker Stone is an actor who most recently appeared in the film Quiet City and a whole mess of plays in New York City. He writes about comics for comiXology and The Comics Journal, and he blogs about all kinds of trash culture at The Factual Opinion.
NOTES
Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson, received 45 votes.
The poll participants who included it in their top tens are: Michael Arthur, Robert Beerbohm, Piet Beerends, Eric Berlatsky, Corey Blake, Scott O. Brown, Bruce Canwell, Scott Chantler, Brian Codagnone, Roberto Corona, Jamie Cosley, Dave Coverly, Martin de la Iglesia, Randy Duncan, Jason Green, Steve Greenberg, Greg Hatcher, Alex Hoffman, Abhay Khosla, Kinukitty, T. J. Kirsch, Sean Kleefeld, Nicolas Labarre, Sonny Liew, Alec Longstreth, John MacLeod, Vom Marlowe, Gary Spencer Millidge, Pat Moriarity, Eugenio Nittolo, Rick Norwood, José-Luis Olivares, Jim Ottaviani, Michael Pemberton, Andrea Queirolo, Martin Rebas, Giorgio Salati, Val Semeiks, Joe Sharpnack, Kenneth Smith, Tom Stiglich, Tucker Stone, Kelly Thompson, Sean Witzke, and Yidi Yu.
Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes was a newspaper strip published between November 18, 1985 and December 31, 1995.
There have been 18 book collections of Calvin and Hobbes published. The most comprehensive is The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, a three-volume hardcover set that reprints every strip along with all supplementary and promotional art produced for the feature.
Those looking for a single, introductory collection are probably best served by Calvin and Hobbes: The Tenth Anniversary Book, which features a selection of strips chosen by Bill Watterson. The book can be found at most bookstores and online retailers, as well as in many public libraries.
–Robert Stanley Martin
There was a moment there where C&H looked like it was going to win the whole shebang. It still did better than I had expected (I’m actually not a huge fan. I’d prefer Bloom County! (or maybe even Acme Library?))
Wonderful essay, Tucker.
I don’t have the beautiful recollected one volume edition. Instead I rooted through book-cellars for all those old worn-out, dog-eared floppy collections I poured over as a kid. I was a bit too young to read C+H in the funny pages, but “Something Under the Bed is Drooling” is a big, big reason I still care about this stuff in my adult life.
I am charmed and delighted to discover that I’m not alone in loving the boy and his tiger. It warms my heart.
Great essay, Tucker. What a great way to approach Calvin & Hobbes, a strip that–more than any other–is filled with incredible, memorable moments (I tear up a little just thinking about the baby raccoon). In some ways this seems to be the consistent underlying theme of C&H … life is too short to miss all the great moments. Even to the last strip (http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~corti/calvinlast.html) there were echoes of this.
Thanks Tucker.
Oh lord…that last strip…gag…saccharine overdose…cough, choke….
Blank paper, life spreading out before them…so perfectly, hideously hallmark….
It’s beautifully drawn of course…and there are some C&H strips I love, like the deformed snowmen…but Watiterson’s sentimental streak is just precious and aren’t-kids-adorably-adventurous in a way that I find really hard to take.
Bah! Humbug!
No way! I totally buy it. His sentimental streak is so clearly balanced by the fact that Calvin is no Wally Cleaver. Childhood isn’t idealized, per se. But imagination is. Why be so jaded that occasional sentiment can’t effect us? That’s part of the brilliance of Watterson … he earns the sentiment.
Though Noah, I agree with you about Bloom County. That should be up here too. God that was a good time for newspaper strips. Same with Acme Novelty … I included #20 in my top ten (over Jimmy Corrigan). I easily could have included the whole series if #20 weren’t so unbelievably brilliant.
I think childhood is idealized in a way. Calvin’s not a perfect, model child — but the perfect, model child isn’t the perfect, model child these days, you know? Americans love rebellious bad boys…
I like C&H more than Maus or Pogo or Krazy Kat though, I think….
I thought about putting Bloom County on my list…the problem is that the art is just kind of so-so. I don’t hate it or anything and it’s often cute, but it’s hard to get behind it enough to put it in the top 10….I think it would definitely make my top 20 though.
Tucker, very nice. I didn’t put C&H on my list, partially because I haven’t revisited it in so long that I was unsure what my current take on it would be. Your piece made me realize that I was avoiding re-visiting it out of fear that my reaction would be closer to Noah’s than yours, and my memories are very much closer to yours. “Learning that artists can stand up for themselves”…I think I had forgotten that Watterson was who taught that to me. This was a very helpful piece of writing. Thank you.
I think Far Side made my list…(if I remember correctly). Same golden era (Bloom County, C & H, and Far Side were the holy trinity of newspaper strips for awhile there). I know people crap all over Far Side because of the art, but I don’t care….they were just brilliantly funny, day after day.
Far Side! I knew I’d forgotten one of the big ones from that era! I can’t imagine crapping all over Far Side because of the art; it may not be super sophisticated or virtuoso (as Calvin & Hobbes is), but it’s totally effective cartooning to go with brilliant humor.
p.s. And while it’s not the same kind of strip, I have to say that era also brought us For Better of for Worse, which is worth paying attention to. I’m sure it’s probably too saccharine for some, but it’s pretty remarkable in how it followed a family more or less in real time.
Unfortunately I suffer from diabetes… True!…
Careful, Domingos! I nearly voted for Lynn Johnston. I’m still wondering if I should have gone with it instead of that French spaghetti western. Ah, well. I’ll revisit the decision in ten years time.
That French spaghetti western (western bouillon?) isn’t that bad, but you should have voted for the original (no spaghetti at all) instead of the copy: _Sgt. Kirk_ by Oesterheld, Pratt (et al).
Does that beat the early ’70s to mid ’80s sequence of western bouillon? Because those books put every western film I’ve seen to shame–in terms of both story and visuals. I think they’re the best adventure comics I’ve ever read. (Watchmen is better, but the adventure-comics aspects of it aren’t what give it its distinction.)
I can’t give a rational opinion on C&H: it really is the comic I fell in love with as a child, so my memories are wrapped up in nostalgia.
Far Side was also pretty cool (but mostly in calendar form).
Bloom County always got a “meh” reaction from me. Maybe I was too young to appreciate it … I dunno, it just didn’t seem very funny.
This and Bloom County are THE comic strips, you don’t need any others in my opinion–well, Far Side, but yeah (I’m just in my 20s though so I can’t comment on older stuff). I don’t count the also great Doonesbury or Boondocks as I think of those as political commentary in comic form.
Robert: if you think that Blueberry (as you say, just an adventure story) is better than _The searchers_ or _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_ the discussion ends here.
I should have done this years and years ago: it’s impossible to discuss anything when the criteria are worlds appart.
Well, come to think of it, I do think McCabe & Mrs. Miller is more accomplished, but that’s not a genre Western.
I didn’t care for Liberty Valance one bit. The Searchers is a good film, but I’d rate it behind The Wild Bunch or even Ford’s Stagecoach.
As I said: the discussion is completely impossible… But it explains that dreadful list at least.
As for Sgt. Kirk: it’s minor Oesterheld, but minor Oesterheld is still a lot better than prime Jean-Michel Charlier. That’s not what I said though: I said that Blueberry is a copy of Sgt. Kirk. Charlier swiped the concept of the renegade American soldier who joins the Indians because he thinks that theirs is a just cause. Oesterheld did this in 1953.
I think one of the very few salves that can assuage being 40 years old this year is the fond remembrance of waking up every morning and charging to the table where the days newspaper was resting. My dad always read the comics before me so the page was open and waiting. Like the sweetest clockwork, starting every day with Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes. we used to talk about the days strips before classes (and, sadly, I was in junior high and high school at this time)and pored over the art and subtext. Just beautiful stuff. Wonderful list, guys and gals.
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Jeff Chapman says:
…What a great way to approach Calvin & Hobbes, a strip that–more than any other–is filled with incredible, memorable moments…
———————-
Which I must’ve missed; I think C&H looked great because of the utter miserableness of the competition at its time.
I feel about Watterson the way I do about another talented but gigantically overrated creator, Chuck Jones…
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Noah Berlatsky says:
Oh lord…that last strip…gag…saccharine overdose…cough, choke….
…Watterson’s sentimental streak is just precious and aren’t-kids-adorably-adventurous in a way that I find really hard to take.
Bah! Humbug!
————————
At last, we agree on something! The scratchy drawing approach just creating a “rough” veneer to cover up the sweet cutesyness.
The last C&H strip: http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~corti/calvinlast.html
The follow-up: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1tHpzYmQe9k/TNRMUEFXXUI/AAAAAAAAAHc/NHjjgSJy8Qk/s640/lio080120ij0.gif
…And a “fake version of the last C&H strip”: http://davidguy.brinkster.net/goaste/stuff/calvin/calvinretouchdistressed.jpg
————————
…I like C&H more than Maus or Pogo or Krazy Kat though, I think….
————————
Ulk! Things’re back to normal again…
Domingos:
“…Blueberry is a copy of Sgt. Kirk. Charlier swiped the concept of the renegade American soldier who joins the Indians because he thinks that theirs is a just cause. Oesterheld did this in 1953.”
Well, I disagree– the European ‘gone native’ is a pretty old theme, going back at least to ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ 200 years ago. It also occurred quite often in real life.
This is not to deny that ‘Sgt Kirk’ is a wonderful series, or that Oesterheld is a better writer than Charlier.
Nevertheless, after long hesitation I put ‘Blueberry’ in my top ten list; this was after taking in the series as it evolved from the start to the present day, notably since Giraud took over the writing. It transcends being a mere Western or adventure strip, describing against an epic background the ethical and spiritual growth of one individual.
First comic I ever saw! It’s good stuff, but I wish somebody had warned me that it’s mostly downhill from here…
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