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Calvin and Hobbes: Share Your Favorite Strips!
- Thread starter Nert
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Youta Mottenai
Member
They are really awesome. I like the lengths he goes instead of just admiting he doesn't know.Nert said:
I also like Stupendous-Man epithets:
"Opponent of Oppression"
"Defender of Free Will"
"Lover of Liberty"
Plumbob said:
I kinda like the picture, but it's stuff like those "final" comics where Hobbes disappears after Calvin takes medicine that bother me. I think the reason for that is that I feel it goes against Watterson's intent with the character. I preferred his explanation of him saying that Calvin sees Hobbes one way and everyone else sees him another way. It just doesn't seem like anything Watterson would ever do with Calvin, so I guess thats why I dislike it (although I guess the same thing can be argued for the daughter picture too...)
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Yup, direct quote from the 10th anniversary anthology, which included such fantastic commentary on a lot of the strips and awesome history. Loved that book as a kid.Maron said:
toxicgonzo
Taxes?! Isn't this the line for Metallica?
Who doesn't feel like screaming this every now and then?
The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, that quote in particular made a lot more sense to me as a kid than diagnosing the character. For the sake of my enjoyment of C&H, I tended to look at Hobbes the way Calvin did and not look at him as some stuffed tiger that only talks when everyone leaves.
Laurentius
Member
I have the complete collection, but I haven't pulled it out for a few years. Pure, unrivalled genius, though. No doubt about it. I love how it can be enjoyed on so many levels. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it as an 8 year and a 21 year old and every age in between. At each point I've loved it, and for various reasons. Just looking through this thread I'm finding additional depth and hilarity that I haven't before in my probably dozen plus readings of them.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
It's not Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin and Hobbes is in Watterson's voice and Watterson's art, especially since no merchandise or non-comic material was ever made with it.Plumbob said:
It's at least a good attempt at it, though. That drug comic everyone posts is awful and I hate seeing it everywhere. It's like you're looking through photos of classic Paris architecture, but some guy keeps putting pictures of his dick in there to ruin it.
harriet the spy
Member
I started reading C&H (in French! very few other people read it there) when I was pretty young, and the question of whether Hobbes was just a stuffed animal or somehow actually came to life when no one else was around was the biggest metaphysical question i had to struggle with as a kid. Even as I was growing up, the thought he was not real felt like a lie that i couldn't not accept!
I shamefully admit never having read far side (we had very different stuff over there, and I don't think far side was known at all - garfield was, though).
I shamefully admit never having read far side (we had very different stuff over there, and I don't think far side was known at all - garfield was, though).
ThLunarian
Member
So what would be the optimal age to start introducing Calvin and Hobbes to a kid? I don't have any kids of my own, but I have a godson who is 8 years old, and this thread inspired me to pick up a collection and let him read it. Do you think that's a decent age, or should I wait a little longer?
Grimm Fandango
Member
ThLunarian said:
I'd say wait a few more years. It can be particularly wordy at times and the philosophical ones when Calvin and Hobbes go sledding/wagoning can be hard to swallow and understand.
Mike Works
Member
always been my favorite:
I once knew a guy who said Calvin and Hobbes was shit. He ended up getting some girl pregnant at 16 and had to marry her when he turned 17(had to go to court or something like that). He hasn't been happy since I hear.
Myself, however, bought all of these over the years when the Book Fair would be held at our school. I still have them boxed up somewhere. Plan to pass them to my children, spread the love.
Myself, however, bought all of these over the years when the Book Fair would be held at our school. I still have them boxed up somewhere. Plan to pass them to my children, spread the love.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
Seriously, Calvin and Hobbes is just so damn wonderful. It might be the most perfect encapsulation of the (mostly) lighter side of childhood ever.
cooljeanius
Member
I started reading them at age 6 or so, but I had to ask to have a lot of words explained to me. I still really liked them though. As I mentioned earlier in the thread though, sometimes I wonder how I even got some of them at that age...ThLunarian said:
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
I remember not understanding half of the comics when I was younger. Then I got the full collection and read through it all and I understood every single one.cooljeanius said:
Kids are dumb.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
platypotamus
Member
It is actually impossible to appreciate Calvin and Hobbes enough. Out of all media, period, Calvin and Hobbes influenced me the most. Even more than the Simpsons.
TekkenMaster
Banned
drohne said:
such a classic. I'd also say C&H and Simpsons were by far the most important influences on my sense of humor.
thelatestmodel
Junior, please.
I love C&H more than just about anything else in the world. I really think it's helped me become who I am today.
As for favourites, most of mine have been named - Spaceman Spiff, the snowmen, the transmogrifier, and so on. There are just too many to name and to be honest every strip is my favourite.
However, one that stood out for me was the short series with "Chewing" magazine, which Calvin subscribes to thanks to his Dad's credit card.
The crazy thing is, there are so many bizarre special interest publications that a title like that could just about exist. The features were exactly the sort of thing that you find in real magazines - for example, an article mentioning that the '92 spearmints are out, and the questionnaire entitled "Does your gum deliver?"
Just a wonderful commentary on how kids are so easily manipulated by media and advertising. It's the most meaningless thing in the world, but to Calvin, these things really matter!
As for favourites, most of mine have been named - Spaceman Spiff, the snowmen, the transmogrifier, and so on. There are just too many to name and to be honest every strip is my favourite.
However, one that stood out for me was the short series with "Chewing" magazine, which Calvin subscribes to thanks to his Dad's credit card.
The crazy thing is, there are so many bizarre special interest publications that a title like that could just about exist. The features were exactly the sort of thing that you find in real magazines - for example, an article mentioning that the '92 spearmints are out, and the questionnaire entitled "Does your gum deliver?"
Just a wonderful commentary on how kids are so easily manipulated by media and advertising. It's the most meaningless thing in the world, but to Calvin, these things really matter!
To anyone asking about an appropriate age to read C&H:
I started reading them at age 7 and I ended up especially enjoying the wagon and sled strips due to their philosophical and metaphysical nature. It's put in a tone and style that can be easily understood by children, even at a young age. The vocabulary was a bit extravagant for me when I started reading it, but contextually it was absorbed into my kid brain. Calvin waxes poetic while moving through the world at breakneck speed, what a great metaphor for childhood. Watterson linked the visual to writing so well that even a child can understand metaphor and allegory. I also especially enjoyed spaceman Spiff since everything was cool and I could relate his imaginative powers to my own. Every kid, at one point in his life, imagines himself the hero and his surroundings as some strange construct of another world they have to explore.
I started reading them at age 7 and I ended up especially enjoying the wagon and sled strips due to their philosophical and metaphysical nature. It's put in a tone and style that can be easily understood by children, even at a young age. The vocabulary was a bit extravagant for me when I started reading it, but contextually it was absorbed into my kid brain. Calvin waxes poetic while moving through the world at breakneck speed, what a great metaphor for childhood. Watterson linked the visual to writing so well that even a child can understand metaphor and allegory. I also especially enjoyed spaceman Spiff since everything was cool and I could relate his imaginative powers to my own. Every kid, at one point in his life, imagines himself the hero and his surroundings as some strange construct of another world they have to explore.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Love the stories about people trying to find Watterson.
from wiki:
from wiki:
weekend_warrior
Banned
DrForester said:
Oh.My.GOD.
Laurentius
Member
I loved the beginning of one of the collections, can't remember which, that has a long poem about the monsters under Calvin's bed.
Oh, blood red eyes and tentacles!
Throbbing, pulsing ventricles!
Mucus oozing pores and frightful claws!
Worse in terms of outright scariness,
Are the suckers, multifarious,
That grab and force you in its mighty jaws.
Also, anybody remember the one where Calvin writes that story where he locks his dad in the basement, who subsequently has to live off mice and gruel for the rest of his life? So good.
Oh, blood red eyes and tentacles!
Throbbing, pulsing ventricles!
Mucus oozing pores and frightful claws!
Worse in terms of outright scariness,
Are the suckers, multifarious,
That grab and force you in its mighty jaws.
Also, anybody remember the one where Calvin writes that story where he locks his dad in the basement, who subsequently has to live off mice and gruel for the rest of his life? So good.
ChackanKun
Member
Oh man, I gotta read every book from the first to the last as soon as I get home.
I totally understand that feeling!
nny said:
I totally understand that feeling!
platypotamus
Member
Saw this in the funny pics thread, and it seemed appropriate to bring over here, as I'm guessing someone was inspired by Calvin:
Laurentius
Member
Yep, here's part of it. The whole thing is priceless, though, I'm going to have to dig up my collection just to go read that.
I love the look of pure fear on Calvin's face.
EDIT: Oh, and I just remembered one of my favorites! Does anybody else remember the one where Calvin sells the earth to a couple of aliens for a leaf collection?
I love the look of pure fear on Calvin's face.
EDIT: Oh, and I just remembered one of my favorites! Does anybody else remember the one where Calvin sells the earth to a couple of aliens for a leaf collection?
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