

HobbesĬalvin’s best friend and ersatz accomplice in the majority of the strip, Hobbes is drawn both as a stuffed, inanimate tiger and as an living, anthropomorphic tiger. Calvin explore deep philosophical questions and moral dilemmas through the eye’s of a child, often with hilarious results that also leave the reader thinking. Watterson wanted a character that had no filter, not because he was crass or vulgar, but because he simply didn’t know any better. Named after the 16th century theologian, John Calvin, the inspiration for Calvin comes from Watterson’s perceived need to have a character that misbehaves, approaches very adult content and issues, but does so in a harmless and innocent way. He is depicted as a typical six-year-old boy, rambunctious, imaginative and mischievous.

His best friend is his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who appears as a normal toy to everyone else in the strip, but to him as a terse and sometimes unwilling participant in some of Calvin’s more zany or far-fetched schemes.

CalvinĪ six-year-old boy that is usually depicted in a red and black striped shirt, black shorts or pants, and with and burgundy sneakers, with a shock of unkempt yellow-orange hair, his agile and sometimes biting intelligence isn’t reflected in his schoolwork, where he does rather poorly. First published in 1985, it rose to become one of the most popular comic features in its medium, and has been reprinted in syndication in hundreds of publications. Rejected numerous times, he was finally picked up by Universal Press Syndicate after modifying the strip he was writing to better reflect the popularity of two minor characters,the titular Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. The inception of the strip came while Watterson was working at an advertising firm, and was cartooning in his spare time. Hailed as being interesting and complex enough for adults, but containing humor and wit that a child could understand, it was a breakthrough cross-generational strip that pleased both demographics without becoming patronizing or pretentious.

Telling the tale of a hyperactive, precocious six year old boy, Calvin, and his laconic, anthropomorphic stuffed tiger, Hobbes. The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary BookĬalvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995Ĭreated by Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes have long been a mainstay in American newspapers, and have been published in syndication since the cancellation of the strip in 1995. Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
