Calvin And Hobbes

[JiMing]

PLEASE tell me that there are people on BZPower who appreciate what a magnificent strip this is. I saw a couple of people who liked it, and I made this topic to reach out to any others who where also fans.So yeah, discuss I guess.

[FrozenFlash]

I actually like the comic strip. It's way better than Garfield in my opinion.

[BenLuke]

PLEASE tell me that there are people on BZPower who appreciate what a magnificent strip this is.

I would thing it would be easier to tell you how many people who don't appreciate it.Basically nil.

[Legolover-361]

Calvin & Hobbes is brilliant. I've loved it since I was a kid. My dad has a few comic strip compilation books that introduced me to the strip. Bill Watterson did such a fantastic job both with art and humor.In short, the strip is awesome.

[Velox]

It is only the greatest comic strip ever. And I have almost all of the books; I just wish I had those three huge collection books, lol.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Velox

[Squishyfrog]

Can you say best comic series ever?and that's likeIn the history of ever.We actually just ordered the three missing books from our collection(besides two of the big collection books) back in March. All awesome.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Squish E. Frog

[GSR]

I grew up on Calvin and Hobbes. Every child should.

[dotcom]

This strip is a classic, and rightly so. It's simply brilliant and the best newspaper comic of all time. (Though sadly, that's not saying much.)

[Takatu]

Practically the symbol of my childhood. It's probably the greatest thing my dad ever recommended to me. Haven't seen any comics with that level of writing, creativity and especially art since.

[CHTrilogy]

Oh yes, it's one of the best there is! It's featured all sorts of philosophies I've bound myself on!

[Alyska]

Love this strip! I think the snowman strips are my favourite.

[Cobui]

That comic was - and is - my childhood.

[Ehlekdude]

Awesome comic, I especially love the snowman strips. Very nice art and good humour.

[Dorek]

Greatest comic strip ever. Calvin doled out a great deal of life philosophies that I can't help but identify with.

[B.M.800]

Good stuff.We have a few books... need more of em...

[Athmos]

Never read 'em.

[JiMing]

Never read 'em.

If you haven't read them, don't post in this topic. This is for fans of the strip.[Nope, not your call. ~Makaru] Edited May 5, 2012 by Makaru

[BenLuke]

This is a free country forum. He can post here if he wants, assuming he stays on topic./offtopicconversationoverAnyway, the art in some of the later Sunday strips is pretty amazing, eh,

[Sybre]

I love it, and I have one of the books to prove it.When I visited my aunt and uncle in Arizona, they had a big collection of Calvin & Hobbes, so you could probably guess what I was doing during the visit!

[Benton Kabrinsky]

The best comic strip ever. Period. It has no equal.My favourite strip, (If I could pick just one) would probably be the one about "Pier Pressure."

[BBBBalta]

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHAs others have said, Calvin and Hobbes is simply the best. I've read every strip of it and EVERY SINGLE ONE IS AWESOME. How many other strips can say that?That's right. None.

[Roablin]

Calvin and Hobbes is beyond compare. It's humor, pacing, and art, is all fantastic. Many of Watterson's comics are splendid just to look at, and that is lacking in most comics these days. Calvin and Hobbes has reached that level that other comic makers should strive for.

[Toa Zaz]

Okay, because some thoughtless member deleted my earlier post, I repeat that in my opinion, The Boondocks, the comic strip (Jesus!), is better than Calvin and Hobbes. I like Calvin and Hobbes (good pacing and creative stories), but occasionally it seems a little too sureal and "out of it," if you get what I mean, and occasionally, particularly with large stoylines, it seems reluctant to take a big step and sort of takes the easy way out to wrap it up. The Boondocks, in my opinion, however, is very good at blending real life with obvious fiction and never hesitates to do anything. I do like Calvin and Hobbes' art better though...

[Krayzikk]

Love Calvin and Hobbes. Grew up with 'em.Between my family and I, we own several collection. Love the Killer Snow Goons arc.

[Ezorov]

Hands down the best comic ever. The end.But, wow--still remember me and my brother playing Calvin Ball in our front yard. xDI think what I'm most impressed about Bill Watterson is the fact that he didn't drive his comic into the ground--like a lot of other comics seem to do--but instead stopped when he knew he had achieved all he could with Calvin and Hobbes.I quote him here:"…If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, ten, or twenty years, the people now 'grieving' for Calvin and Hobbes would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them. I think some of the reason Calvin and Hobbes still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it. I've never regretted stopping when I did."

[Dorek]

Okay, because some thoughtless member deleted my earlier post, I repeat that in my opinion, The Boondocks, the comic strip (Jesus!), is better than Calvin and Hobbes. I like Calvin and Hobbes (good pacing and creative stories), but occasionally it seems a little too sureal and "out of it," if you get what I mean, and occasionally, particularly with large stoylines, it seems reluctant to take a big step and sort of takes the easy way out to wrap it up. The Boondocks, in my opinion, however, is very good at blending real life with obvious fiction and never hesitates to do anything. I do like Calvin and Hobbes' art better though...

That would be a staff member, just for the record.And honestly, I would say that the Boondocks was way too different to compare (and I never really thought the Boondocks were really intended to be funny anyway, unless constant socio-political irony is what tickles your funny bone; I feel the same way about Doonesbury). Different audiences, different styles of "humor", etc. Boondocks grounded itself in a very specific target audience, but Calvin and Hobbes was a lot more universal in terms of morals and whatnot. Edited May 8, 2012 by Dorek

[Nuile the Paracosmic Tulpa]

Calvin is myself exaggerated. The overactive imagination, the philophical mind, the love of nature, the amplitudinous lexis, the mischief. He lived in that world that every kid lived in or wanted to live in, but at the same time he lived in the real world and he contemplated it and strove to understand it. I imagine Calvin probably grew up to be a writer. Probably hard-boiled mysteries, thrillers, and horrors.So yes, I love Calvin and Hobbes. As is evinced by my (current) signature.

From the desk of Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith

Edited May 8, 2012 by Nuile: The Daft Wordbender

[Jean Valjean]

I have a bunch of the books. I love how it progresses through the year, although interestingly he never grows old in spite of all his Christmases. That's the way comic strips go, though. I love his art style and his sense of capturing the vivid reality of childhood imagination. I was essentially like Calvin, boyish and dreaming of adventures out in space, always imagining my suroundings turning into something far more fascinating. I would imagine cities of bug people filled with grapping hooks hidden in every sidewalk crack, just waiting to tie me down like Gulliver. I would imagine that people passing by were really aliens in disguise, or that I was adopted and that my real parents had superpowers.When I was little, I was also a big thinker, and I completely relate to Calvin's philosophic ramblings. Believe it or not, that was something I did back then, even at the age of five, and it was so cool to read about a child character targeted toward children without the author insulting my intelligence. By the way, here's another review I found that I think sums up the comic strip well:

Named after philosophers John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, this pairing of a little boy and his plush tiger is a celebration of imagination, friendship, and innocence. The comic strip ran from 1985 through 1995 but remains one of the most popular series of all time.

Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[Dorek]

I love how people always say they identify with the philosophical side of Calvin. If anything, I'm definitely more in tune with his wise-cracking cynicism. The kid who was just as happy conjuring worlds of his own making because the current one was too boring... also put snow in a thermos to start a lunch hall riot. That's the kind of life I love. It's almost tautological in that regard; he loves doing what he does because he's doing the things he loves to do. That single-minded determination to find happiness in what he has (and make it where he doesn't have it) is much more what I admired about his outlook.

[Nuile the Paracosmic Tulpa]

By the way, here's another review I found that I think sums up the comic strip well:

Named after philosophers John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, this pairing of a little boy and his plush tiger is a celebration of imagination, friendship, and innocence. The comic strip ran from 1985 through 1995 but remains one of the most popular series of all time.

With the exception of the part about innocence, that's a fitting description. Interesting, too; I had never known that they were named after philosophers.What do you guys think about a film based on the comic strip? How would you feel if one was made? Do you consider it possible?Personally I think it's unlikely. There are a lot of films based on old television shows, movies, and books, but not so much comics. I think it would be great, though, as long as it was done right, which is improbable anyway--unless Disney were the ones to do it. They, I think, would be fully capable of making a great Calvin and Hobbes film, preferably live-action. But I don't see that happening.

From the desk of Nuile: Lunatic Wordsmith

[Sybre]

Is anyone still continuing this strip?

[Bfahome]

What do you guys think about a film based on the comic strip? How would you feel if one was made? Do you consider it possible?Personally I think it's unlikely. There are a lot of films based on old television shows, movies, and books, but not so much comics. I think it would be great, though, as long as it was done right, which is improbable anyway--unless Disney were the ones to do it. They, I think, would be fully capable of making a great Calvin and Hobbes film, preferably live-action. But I don't see that happening.

No. No matter who they got to play the characters, they'd sound wrong. There hasn't ever been any official "voice" for them, and you know most people probably just read the characters in their own voices.Plus the fact that none of it would be able to capture the mood in the comics. No matter what, a film adaptation is going to seem different, simply because of what people expect from movies these days. And I don't trust anyone to keep the characters faithful to their original selves, they'd probably try to stick some ill-fitting moral into the end or stuff it full of pop-culture references.Besides, Watterson wouldn't ever agree to do it. It goes against pretty much everything in his philosophy.

Is anyone still continuing this strip?

There are a few fan-made comics and pictures, but nothing major that I've seen.The biggest one I've found is four Sunday-strip-sized panels about Calvin's daughter, named "Bacon". The art is pretty darn accurate, but it's still not the same. The person who made it said themselves that they weren't going to do many of them because they couldn't match the charm of the original.And like the movie idea, I can't see any "official" continuations being made, also due to Watterson's policy.also p.s. Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip ever, it is my childhood, and it will be forever cherished by everyone Edited May 13, 2012 by Bfahome

[Dorek]

No. No matter who they got to play the characters, they'd sound wrong. There hasn't ever been any official "voice" for them, and you know most people probably just read the characters in their own voices.

For some weird, twisted reason, I kinda thought that the Robot Chicken sketch of them was pretty darn close to what their voices should be =P.But yeah, anything about Calvin and Hobbes now wouldn't really be relevant or appropriate. It's fantastic for what it was.

[Cobui]

Anyone remember the strip with the inadvertent (especially since the show it referenced came out over a decade later) reference to Gurren Lagann? For those who don't remember:Pretty interesting.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Than the Moa
Spoiler tags are only for spoilers

[dotcom]

Okay, instead of Kamina/Gurren Lagann, let's say Calvin is "referencing" Dirk Strider. Because Kamina wasn't blonde....I really need to get around to buying some C&H books...I own zero, and that is not a good thing.

[BenLuke]

^^ Holy crude, that wasn't edited? I've seen a part of that image before, but assumed it was photoshopped.Cool.

[Jean Valjean]

On the prospects of a film:First, I concur to everything my pal Bfahome said. My additional thoughts are that no one single narrative could capture the whole point of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Part of its charm was that it didn't have a narrative throughout, and that it was just excerpts from the life of a child. With a movie, there must be a distinct beginning and a distinct end, and Calvin and Hobbes doesn't translate to that storytelling method. The comic strip payed little attention to time, other than its seasonal flow and repetition, but even though time changed it never advanced. The problem is that there's no possible way to cover all of life's childhood innocence all in a couple of hours of film.Another problem is, as Bfahome stated, it would be ridiculous to attach a moral to the Calvin and Hobbes strip, because no one moral can sum up childhood. The strip was about capturing the feel, but it offered no commentary on the matter, rather letting readers find their own meaning in it as they found themselves relating to Calvin and his sense of imagination. A movie about Calvin and Hobbes would look something like Winnie the Poo. Winnie's movies aren't about being good movies so much as showcasing lovable characters. Calvin and Hobbes have already been introduced to society and don't need any further media to give them a face.Another problem is that Calvin and Hobbes captures a very specific feel. Adaptations of books, plays, and television series into movies often requires that the original feel is altered as necessary, but the feel for Calvin and Hobbes is so specific that it cannot be altered, and so fundamental to the comic strip's identity and appeal that it cannot be replaced. Otherwise it would not be a Calvin and Hobbes movie.Finally, while Calvin is impish and a devious little devil, I still classify him as innocent. What boy wasn't a little troublemaker when he was young? And who on Earth doesn't root for him when he pulls his brilliant pranks? When we look at childhood as a whole, who could blame them for the crazy little things they do? Ultimately, there's nothing to judge about Calvin, and therefore there's no guilt.Your Honor,Emperor Kraggh

[T-Dawg]

What is there to not like about the strip it's marvelous, as of now I own nearly all of the books excluding one or two, i'm in awe at the ones without dialogue and after reading the last one I just simply loved it. It reminds me of a different world we all have in our mind where your free to do what ever you wish with the people you love friends and family, I doubt that another comic strip will ever make me think that way again.