Calvin & Hobbes: An Exhaustively Researched Website by Calvinator

The strip Calvin & Hobbes is considered by many comic strip fans to be one of the finest ever in the field. It ran from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995, strictly behind the authorship of comic genius Bill Watterson and by the license of the Universal Press Syndicate. Watterson received high praise from such comic strip legends as Gary Trudeau and the late Charles Schultz for his rich, humorous, deep comic work over his ten-year run, and was the youngest artist to date to receive the Reuben Award for excellence in a comic strip. Mr. Watterson credited a lot of his work to Mr. Schultz’s Peanuts and other vintage comic strips like Krazy Kat and Pogo, but the amazing thing about him was how he produced so much original work in a time where comic strips were on a decline as a form of entertainment, giving way more and more to television, movies, radio, and the Internet, and most newspaper readers, at least still being tired in the morning, could more and more be appeased by the lowest-common-denominator approach of putting together a couple panels worth of simple jokes. Even more amazing was how Watterson refused to allow the licensing his work and the making of video games, shirts, stuffed tigers, cartoons, etc. of what looked like the heir apparent to classic kids’ strips like Peanuts. At first I’d have loved to see those kinds of things, but when I got the Tenth Anniversary Book, Watterson’s passages about the licensing fight had me “sold” on his opinions, pun not really intended. He refused to allow the almighty dollar to engulf his work, something that seems to happen more and more these days. Plus, he’s a local guy, which makes his work mean even more.

In my book, Watterson’s strip itself stands as a masterpiece because of how I grew up with it, and how it made me feel and think. It ran from when I was two years old to when I was twelve, so in many ways I grew up with Calvin. The dark New Year’s Eve in which Calvin and Hobbes rode the toboggan into the open white scenery marked a time in which I was growing rapidly physically, mentally, and emotionally. As dark as that day was, I became a lot more mature, capable of understanding what was and wasn’t worth fretting about, and similar to how at age six Calvin was at an age where he was starting to grow up and go to school, at age 12 I had been going to school, but was starting to grow in similar ways. For years before that, I had gotten many book collections, and had the luxury of being old enough to see the strips in their first newspaper printings, which a lot of younger fans of the strip don’t have. As a young kid, I didn’t quite understand some of the jokes the way I do looking back later, but the way they made and still make me laugh and think was heartwarming. There was a bit of Calvin in me and a bit of me in Calvin; it seemed like some of the good and bad things we did behavior-wise and school-wise were both based on each other. Susie, Miss Wormwood, the parents, etc. all seemed based on people I knew from school; Rosalyn was one of the few characters I couldn’t relate to as directly, mostly because I had an older brother around when my parents weren’t, but her stories were a blast, too. Growing up near Watterson, the strip’s local flavor touched people I knew as much as I did, as I’ll explain more when I update this site, and we all couldn’t believe the strip’s tragic demise. But, Watterson went out on top, and experienced virtually no decline in the strip’s quality, nor lack of fresh ideas after ten years…

…Which is one of the major things this site will devoted to. I’m starting to assemble summaries, reviews, and other thoughts about as many strips as possible and filed them here. I base it a lot on the Simpsons Nuclear Power Plant site I’ve enjoyed ( http://www.snpp.com )

This is yet another FAQ about various characters, along with running gags like the Noodle Incident, Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie and Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Basically, everything that doesn’t belong with the other links and that I’m not going to waste your reading time on this front page will be linked up.

This is the one unofficial Calvin&Hobbes link I would pick if I could only link one. It has tons of discussion, essays, forums, and other great links.

Note to Calvin’s Dad: I was not involved in the evil patent infringement!!!

Calvin and Hobbes and all related figures are exclusive trademarks of Bill Watterson and the Universal Press Syndicate. I will not put copyrighted pictures on this site due to potential legal issues, and because I don’t feel that they’re necessary to put on my site for people to appreciate the strip. As I understand, I should include this link to the official website here:

http://www.calvinandhobbes.com

Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Pogo, etc. are copyrighted by their respected owners.

Calvin has had his dad read him Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie times since December 3, 2003, which also happens to be the last day the page was updated at the moment.