Calvin and Hobbes
Its been no doubt, that we haven’t seen any new Calvin and Hobbes comic strips in the recent “decades”, and as much as they delight us, we miss them too. But the philosophical and the adventurous duo still brighten our lives with their silly questions, moody trips around bizarre places, and funniest adventures, appearing often in newspapers and other forms of media.
Bill Watterson is credited for creating the famous comic strip, a fact that dates back to Nov 18, 1985. The syndicated comic strip introduced its users to a six-year-old Calvin, who excitedly explains to his dad about his tiger trap, and Calvin’s tiger companion, Hobbes, happily munching away on the trap’s tuna fish sandwich bait.
Well, guess why he arrived at these two names? That was done after a 16th-century by protestant reformer and theologian ‘John Calvin’ and a 17th-century English social philosopher ‘Thomas Hobbes’.
Speaking about Bill, he was a cartoonist from a very young age. Often confined alone so he spent most of his time drawing and scribbling. He drew his first cartoon at the age of eight (surprising, eh?)
He often was vocal in stating that his inspirations included Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts”, Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” and George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat”.
He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined. The space they occupied in newspapers gradually decreased, limited by the arbitrary whims of shortsighted publishers and vague artwork.
But how did it all start? Where did the head-start happen?
Watterson was driven by the motto that he would work for personal fulfillment. A student of Kenyon college in 1990, Watterson merged elements of his life, interests, beliefs, and values into his work — for example, his hobby as a cyclist, memories of his own father’s speeches about “building character”, his views on marketing and corporations and Sprite, his very own cat who is accredited to have inspired Hobbes’ personality and physical features.
After completing his artwork, which was initially drawn in black and white, the first strip hit the newspapers and ran from Nov 18, 1985, to Aug 17, 1986. It was simply titled Calvin and Hobbes and featured in the papers published by Press Syndicate.
At the heart of the strip was the relationship between the two characters for whom the strip was named. To Calvin, Hobbes was a life-size, walking, talking friend, sharing in the mischief but often questioning him or commenting wryly on his behavior and attitudes. To other people, however, Hobbes appeared as a stuffed toy, which as stated by Bill, needed to be seen as “ambiguous” (smirks :)
Watterson’s technique began with minimalist pencil sketches drawn with a light pencil (though the larger Sunday strips often required more elaborate work) on a piece of Bristol board, with his brand of choice being Strathmore. He lettered dialogues with a Rapidograph fountain pen, and he used a crow quill pen for odds and ends. Mistakes were covered with various forms of correction fluid, including the type used on typewriters. Watterson was often careful in his use of color, often spending a great deal of time choosing the right colors to employ for the weekly Sunday strip. When Calvin and Hobbes began there were 64 colors available for the Sunday strips. For the later Sunday strips, Watterson had 125 colors as well as the ability to fade the colors into each other. This eased his work and gave more dimensions to his work eventually.
Speaking of the main characters, there were (of course) two — Calvin and Hobbes but occasionally Calvin’s parents would make a feature too, along with Susie Derkins — probably the only character with both first and last names.
Calvin’s parents were typically middle-class parents. Calvin’s father worked as a patent attorney, while his mother was a homemaker. They were down-to-earth, realistic, mindful, and sensible attitudes to real-life situations served a stark contrast to Calvin’s bizarre thoughts and demands. Bill insisted on not naming the parents as “they were important only as Calvin’s mom and dad”.
Susie lived on the same street as Calvin’s and was one of his classmates. She was studious, and polite but aggressive if provoked. She liked to play house or host tea parties with her stuffed animals. Many true fans and regular readers of the comic often felt that Calvin and Susie had many traits in common, for instance, they were both mischievous, and had stuffed animals — Susie had a rabbit, only Calvin’s was anthropomorphic.
Secondary characters appeared too, like Calvin’s school bully Moe, his teacher Miss Wormwood, and many more.
Calvin often liked to dream and transcend to funny situations. He would whisk to faraway planets, the dinosaur era, the cubist world, the ice age and so many bizarre places no one would ever dream of. Yes, he pondered and thought a lot in a way no one would. Nevertheless, Calvin was often complex, thought critical, and pondered sense. They weren’t one-dimensional like the usual other comics of his time — Garfield or Beetle Bailey. His pet to others seemed just a stuffed toy but to Calvin, it was life. Hobbes’ character was often deemed as independent, whose real fiber was never resolved.
Calvin had too many alter ego’s too — Spaceman Spiff, a heroic spacefarer who battles aliens (typically his parents or teacher) with a ray gun called zorcher and travels to distant planets, crashing safe OR Tracer Bullet, a private eye whose strips were drawn mostly in b&w frames that would evoke a sense of film noir. Corrugated cardboard boxes played a big role in many of Calvin’s adventures. They would at times serve as a device called Transmogrifier, that would transform the user into any desired item or creature. On other occasions the box would be used as a sidewalk kiosk to sell things, selling items no one would ever want — “suicide drink” to name one — all for one dollar. Other major adventures like the ones with snow or wagon and sled rides were prominent too and appeared occasionally.
Bill’s work aimed to serve both sides of the comic — criticizing the commercial mainstream as well as the artists who were supposed to be “outside it”. Even after all these years, the adventures of a hyper imaginative kid and his pet tiger, continue to draw the readers. The comics engage and promote thoughts like never before, emotionally hearten but most of all — bring the lively child-like imagination to life — which indeed is rare.
This article was written by Abhishek Dash of The Phonetic house
