Calvin & Hobbes

[Australis]

Christopher: yeah, those comments are pretty fair, I sure wouldn't disagree with them. I must be having trouble articulating what I'm trying to say. Watterson was such a huge talent that maybe I was hoping for a little more, without being to sure what it was that I wanted. You're spot on about the POV of a 6 year old re time. I was thinking back to when I was that age, and how those days went on forever.

The word that sometimes comes to mind when I think of C&H is 'elegiac'. Maybe he was harking back to his more innocent days as he remembered them. And don't we all sometimes? Mind you, there were times when Calvin was an out and out terror... we were never like that!

 

[Christopher]

Hell, the praying one is even worse because it's totally out of character. My friend's sister has one of those. It pisses me off but I just don't know how to bring it up.

Is it possible that that's the point? Showing an infamously misbehaving character humbled in prayer may be meant to suggest that anyone can be redeemed by embracing religion. So maybe it was meant to be out of character as a statement about the power of religion to change someone's character.

Not that I'm endorsing the image, of course, since it's hypocritical to engage in an act of intellectual property theft as a symbol of morality.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Yes, Peanuts and C&H are by far and away my favorite strips. Doonesbury a close third.
--Ted

Add Pearls Before Swine to that list, and we are in complete agreement!

 

[Mike Farley]

True. Maybe I just didn't want the strip to be as static as it was. Some sort of arc, maybe.

There were occasional short arcs. There was one where Calvin lost Hobbes and another where he found an orphaned--I think it was a baby raccoon.

 

[TGTheodore]

Yes, Peanuts and C&H are by far and away my favorite strips. Doonesbury a close third.
--Ted

Add Pearls Before Swine to that list, and we are in complete agreement!

Excellent addition!

--Ted

 

[DarkHelmet]

True. Maybe I just didn't want the strip to be as static as it was. Some sort of arc, maybe.

There were occasional short arcs. There was one where Calvin lost Hobbes and another where he found an orphaned--I think it was a baby raccoon.

Definitely there were mini-arcs, including when Calvin duplicated himself, and when he went back in time to take pictures of dinosaurs in an scheme to get rich.

Yes, Peanuts and C&H are by far and away my favorite strips. Doonesbury a close third.
--Ted

Add Pearls Before Swine to that list, and we are in complete agreement!

Excellent addition!

--Ted

Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes are my top two.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Add Pearls Before Swine to that list, and we are in complete agreement!

Excellent addition!

--Ted

Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes are my top two.

Holy shit, how could I have forgotten Bloom County? Hell, until less than a week ago, I had an avatar with Bill the Cat in it!

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

Every time I see the image of Calvin peeing on a Chevy/Ford/GMC/whatever symbol, I die a little inside.

In reading this thread, I was glad to learn I wasn't the only person who felt that way. I worry that people who are only vaguely aware of the strip will think those images are representative of its contents.

 

[Dude]

His hero was Charles Schulz, who personally drew every one of his Peanuts strips for 50 years instead of using a team of artists as a lot of cartoonists did later in their careers.

A fact made very clear by the later years of Peanuts when Schultz's sense of humor seemed lost in some alzheimers fog.

Sadly, this is made worse by Schultz's deeply-held belief that those last years were actually his best work.

 

[Finn]

I loved Calvin & Hobbes too.

 

[TGTheodore]

Peanuts[/I] when Schultz's sense of humor seemed lost in some alzheimers fog.

Sadly, this is made worse by Schultz's deeply-held belief that those last years were actually his best work.

Actually, some of it was. And some it ... wasn't. Sometimes I'd read the strip and cock my head like the RCA dog.

Other times, he still had it.

Really hit and miss the last five years.

--Ted

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I still maintain the first twenty years of Peanuts were the golden years, but then I never liked Peppermint Patty and the heavier focus on Snoopy.

As for comic strips in general, Calvin & Hobbes will always remain my favorite followed by Bloom County, Doonesbury, Pogo, The Far Side, Non-Sequitur, and Pearls Before Swine.

 

[sojourner]

C&H was great. Bloom County was always a favorite - in the 80's. Outside the 80's there was just too much penguin and not enough of anyone else.

 

[TGTheodore]

Loved the Star Trek stuff in Bloom County.

--Ted

 

[JuanBolio]

Yes, Peanuts and C&H are by far and away my favorite strips. Doonesbury a close third.

--Ted

The Far Side and Foxtrot come in second and third for me.

 

[TGTheodore]

^^^^ Also excellent choices!

--Ted

 

[sojourner]

And for something a little more contemporary and topical to the crowd here, I give you: PennyArcade!

(some racy language, definitly pg rating)

 

[T'Baio]

Finally someone mentioned FoxTrot. My 2nd fave.

 

[TGTheodore]

Apparently, Bill Amend who does Foxtrot actually knows the reclusive Bill Watterson of C&H fame.

--Ted

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

I was a big fan of Liberty Meadows as well. I own several of the Calvin and Hobbes collection books. Need to look into getting that box set though.