Calvin and Hobbs

A classic comic strip, mention Calvin and Hobbs to people of the right age and they just melt with nostalgia. Calvin and Hobbs were a cultural phenomenon that seems to be universally loved by the American audience it reached (in particular). I believe this is because Bill Watterson was able to hit on some pretty common veins in everyone’s childhood. Calvin is more cleaver than most kids, or at least has a larger vocabulary, but Watterson built the strip around such a heartfelt center, a friendship between a boy and his imaginary friend Tiger that it is instantly accessible. Add to that Watterson’s hilarious and refined drawings, that are just so very appealing to look at, and the strip radiated humor and warmth at every turn. Watterson was also very much connected personally with the strip, it was always written, drawn lettered, and colored on Sundays by Watterson himself and his personal connection to the strip helped it stay as authentic as it could possibly be. Calvin was just like any kid, mischievous, brilliant, but only on his terms, and at his core kind. Watterson had an uncanny ability to boil an idea down to its basics and keep it totally recognizable which also abstracting the it completely, there’s one strip in particular that embodies this amazing talent Watterson had for cutting to the core of an idea (I wish I could find it). In this strip we see Calvin as cattle being herded, as a fish out of water, as a robot, on an assembly line having slimy radioactive stuff pored into his head and at the end Calvin comes home from school! It’s brilliant every time I look at it! Every image captures a feeling, and Watterson had a real talent for that.