Calvin and Hobbes, the best comic strip ever?
The boy and the tiger who taught life lessons better than a school ever will.
Calvin & Hobbes has to be one of the greatest masterpieces in comic strip history, without question. Even though the title of this post is a question, from 1985 till 1995, writer Bill Watterson created one of the most heartwarming duo’s to make their way into newspaper printing. Since it’s departure in 1995 there have been a myriad of tributes, impersonators and even internet meme’s and parodies. Why, I hear you ask. Let me explain…
History
When I first read Calvin & Hobbes, it was in the form of a massive book my Dad gave me, as he tried to encourage to get me into reading more. As a child, I had never been able to pen down “which type” of books I liked. This was a problem, because this is what EVERYONE asked when they tried to get you into books. But one day, my Dad handed me his own copy of “Something Under the Bed Is Drooling” that he had dug out from the pits of some cupboard no doubt.
Immediately, I was transported into a world where slapstick humour, alien fantasies and terribly good advice were melted together into one big pot, and before I knew it, I had fell in love with the story of a boy and his toy tiger.
Quotability
I never realised how quotable Calvin & Hobbes was (despite knowing it had some really good advice snuffled in there) until I searched for the comic on Tumblr. Next thing I knew was I had stumbled upon a plethora of quotes, philosophical advice and probably my favourite Photoshop and art projects I have seen for a long time!
It was apparent that Calvin had a thing for quotes, and here are a few things that he and his little tiger taught us better than anyone else ever could.
Dark Comedy
Politics
Avoiding Bullies
How to Boss Exams
Feel free to hit us up in the comments with any of your favourite strips, the possibilities are endless! But seriously, Calvin and Hobbes is certainly the craft of a man who loved his job, and Bill always said he made the comic for personal pleasure and happiness. Imagine your job was capturing the hearts of millions and telling the stories of a mischievous kid who knew better than most? How could that not be for personal happiness? I can say for sure that this comic strip has made me a better person.
But what about the Tumblr stuff I mentioned earlier? Watterson developed a recurring visual motif in which Calvin and Hobbes are crossing a body of water over a makeshift bridge. This image originally shows up in 1988 Sunday comic collection: The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book and a very similar version of this image is found in a comic strip published in 1992, and it was the comic strip below that inspired the internet sensation.
On April 1st, 2008, Three Men in a Tub, a sketch blog run by artists Ted Dawson and Wes Hargis, published a post titled “Calvin and Hobbes Goes Manga” with an illustration of the pair on the log reimagined as Japanese manga characters. This drew quite a bit of attention, and before you knew it, people were recreating this picture at a surprising rate. On January 6th, 2014, Dorkly published a post titled “30 Incredible Calvin and Hobbes Mashups” which included illustrations that replaced Calvin and Hobbes with characters from Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. Since then, it’s all been about the mashups. Due to the storming success of these pictures, searching through the internet you will find an extensive beautiful collection of parodies and amazing tributes. Whether it’s the Calvin & Hobbes Snowmen stories in real life or this gritty movie trailer for the comics, there’s a plethora of cool stuff out there, and we’ve got the best of it down below.
This post was taken from The Retro Blog, ran by students in Scotland. We’ve also got a store, where we sell tons of retro and vintage goods, it’s a good one for the nostalgia.
