25 years ago today, a brilliant cartoonist named Bill Watterson published his very first “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip and never looked back. The influence and imagination of Watterson helped shape my childhood, as well as millions of others’, so I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done Bill, and for giving me the opportunity to share my childhood with two amazing, magical characters.
Here are just a few of my favorite “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips (of which there are way too many to count).
Never stop exploring!
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C&H added SO MUCH to my vocabulary. It kind of goes to show that you don’t have to be an adult to think about the real issues in life, and I think that’s important.
lmao me too… about the vocabulary thing
Same here! My mother tells me I learned how to read on C&H. I think I even believe her.
Same here! I started reading C&H soon after I learned to read. All of my little sisters did the same. We can quote any of the comics. I also found out a few years ago that my little cousins were also reading them!
Happy birthday, Calvin! These two were always my favorite comic strip when I was growing up, especially Calvin’s eternal battles with Susie and their games of House.
Just thinking about it makes me grin.
Do you realize that Calvin would be 31 today? When the strip started, he was 6, right?
And while we’re at it, this is pretty much a unicorn chaser for everything on this website.
TYRANNOSAURS IN F-14′S! WE’RE ALL DOOMED!
Probably my absolute favorite strip of all time, just because it reminds me of how I used to “mashup” my toys when I was a kid. I never played just Star Wars or just G.I. Joe….I had Wild Bill and Gung Ho piloting the Millenium Falcon to lay the smack down on Cobra! (Hey, Cobra had it coming, after they annexed Castle Grayskull….)
This made me LOL, because I completely relate. Just throw in the Thundercats and Ninja Turtles to the above list, and that was most of my childhood.
I LOL’d too!
My mashup was:
Ninja Turtles
Polly Pocket (when she was 2cm tall)
Rubber dinos (c/o my Gramma who worked at the MoNH)
Transformers (cuz Polly had to get around somehow)
& Green Army Men (who were evil!)
The world is a lesser place without them ! Bill, how about a comeback ?
i thought he died?
Nope, he’s quite alive, and living in Cleveland. He did an interview with the Plain Dealer earlier this year for the 15th anniversary of the end of the strip.
That strip is as win now as it was when I was 8. Actually, now that I’m an adult, I can appreciate it even more….
Easily one of my most favorite comic strips ever (along with Bloom County).
I wish, oh I wish, he would write more…
I second this whole-heartedly. And yes, I agree. Bloom County rocks! I just love Opus n_n
Calvin was brilliant because you enjoy him as a kid and you keep enjoying him as you get older and you understand more and more of his vocabulary and those jokes which make much more sense when you’re an adult.
Run on sentence is running.
VIVA LA G.R.O.S.S!!
Oh man… i love C&H!!!! its been my fav comic strip since i discovered them and i must admit… the snowman ones are my favorite too.
The snowman strips, the ones where Calvin daydreams that he’s a space hero, and the Hobbes centered ones were the best.
Bill lives a quiet life painting landscapes (his first love) in his hometown of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He released the complete works collection a couple of years ago… it’s an epic collection for any Calvin and Hobbes reader. But please… Respect the Tiger…. do not let Bill’s art be debased. Avoid the unlicensed ‘Calvin peeing’ car art and whatnot. He retired to avoid being forced into doing that kind of crap.
Wholeheartedly agree. The Calvin peeing stickers are so out of line with what the comic is actually about. Makes me sad every time I see them.
There is only one unlicensed C&H product I ever considered buying, though I eventually decided against it. It was a t-shirt featuring Calvin running away from the viewer, his little naked backside exposed, waving his arms above his head and likely hooting his lungs out. I considered getting it because the caption was so absolutely in line with the spirit of C&H – “Life is Short: Party Naked” It didn’t seem at all dirty. It seemed like a little kid just enjoying the hell out of what nature gave him and not at all aware of adults’ hang ups about nudity. However, out of respect for the wonderful, wonderful Mr. Watterson and the incredible gift he gave all of us with his hysterical (and touching) comics, I came to my senses and said no. But I’ve still got the memory, and that’s fine by me.
Oh, and if I *ever* find out who the sleazeball is who started the “peeing Calvin” sticker line I will personally make him as afraid of baseballs, footballs, bicycles, and everything else Calvin was afraid of as I can. Only this guy will have *real* reasons to be afraid of them! He deserves to be transmogrified into something really awful. Suggestions, anyone?
You could turn him in a small slug with tetical feet and a bajillion eyeballs! or make him one of Calvins snowmen being tortured!!!
XDDDD
I never buy C&H stuff, though I wish he wasn’t so zealous about anti-merchandising. People would buy it because they love C&H and he doesn’t seem to realize this from a fan’s perspective. I think it’s possible to approve some tasteful merch and still not become George Lucas.
Nothin but WIN!!
I’m not even 25 yet, and those comics are the best I’ve ever read. That’s what makes them great – most of them are applicable to any generation.
Agreed. All you need is a childhood.
I read them in my thirties, but hey– I’m old.
And like so many others have said, they were quite possibly the best things I have ever filled my eyes with.
Best. Comicstrip. EVER.
The man knew when to quit when he was ahead,,, but dang, I wish that he’d come back.
How you could forget these comic strips:
1. The Transmogrifier
2. Calvin stumbling, coming up and saying “Ta daaaaa!”
3. Any other Calvin and Hobbes comic
Oh yeah! I had the “Ta Daaa” one up next to my desk at a job where I was really worried I’d screw up. I was an assistant to the Registrar at a law school and keeping records properly was vital. Calvin was there everyday to remind me that most of what might go wrong was little stuff that, while embarrassing, really didn’t matter. All I really needed to be concerned with was the really big stuff. Thanks, Calvin!
Oh yeah! I do Calvin’s “Ta daaa!” in the same situation! Calvin taught me a valuable lesson
when i read the sunday paper i always leave the comics till after ive finished the rest and i always ALWAYS leave C&H for last, its my treat for slogging thru the other c-rap – youre never too old for it!!
Bill Watterson went to my alma mater, Kenyon College!! He graduated two years after I was born
Proud of my fellow alum – happy 25th anniversary to Bill, Calvin and Hobbes.
Whooops – two years *before* I was born. Late night and not enough sleep fail.
No matter how hard I look, can I find a copy of “Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie” anywhere? No.. (and no, I DON’T want that cash-in issue either, thank you very much. I want the one by Mabel Syrup..the REAL one.)
To this day the series with the baby raccoon still makes me tear up. Bill, Calvin and Hobbes, happy anniversary! You helped raised a generation on imagination and values.
I love Calvin and Hobbes:)
Attention, all rise! This meeting of G.R.O.S.S.
Is now called to order by the great, grandiose
Dictator for life, the ruler supreme,
The fearless, the brave, the held-high-in-esteem
Calvin the Bold! Yes, stand up and hail
His humbleness now! May his wisdom prevail!
Three cheers for First Tiger and El Presidente
Hobbes, the delight of all cognoscenti
He’s savvy, he has a prodigious IQ
And lots of panache, as all tigers do
In his fancy chapeau, he’s a leader with taste!
May his orders be heeded and his views be embraced!
(Holy cow, I had that *memorized*…)
My brother and I loved the comics growing up, and we amused our parents (who were also fans) and made our neighbors question us (they weren’t fans) when we recreated both the “snowman hit by car with horrified onlooker” piece and an Easter Island Moai in our driveway. Yes, we made them out of snow, and yes, we used one of our parent’s cars for the snowman hit by car one. It was a hoot.
That, my friend, is *win*. I’m thinking of re-creating the Snow Sharks this year – I live in an apartment complex and I think it’d really freak out the kids =3
I used to live in a college town and remember seeing how someone had taken what little snow we’d had one night and created A) a car mohawk, or B) stegosaurus fins on the roof. I’ve always felt there’s a good chance they were inspired by C&H. I chuckled about that for days.
BTW, *love* your screen name, MollyWobbles! Congratz on having the courage to use it publicly.
Best strip ever. I still own the books and at one point could have told you the final line from literally every single comic. I adore C&H and always will. If I see him peeing on something on a car one more time I’m gonna rage.
Calvin and Hobbes is the best cartoon of all time!
OF ALL TIME!!!
My Absolute Favorite Calvin & Hobbes Strip:
Calvin’s at the bus stop, in a foul mood, talking to himself…
With a scowl on his face:
I don’t want to catch the bus. I don’t wat to go to school. I don’t want to be here at all.
I’m sick of everyone telling me what to do all the time! I hate my life! I hate everything! I wish I was dead!”
His face clears, and he looks thoughtful:
“…Well, no, I don’t. Not really.”
Now with an even worse scowl:
“I wish everyone *else* was dead.”
I can’t tell you how many times thinking of that strip helped me through really tough periods in my life.
Thanks again, Bill. Thanks always…
The best ever. I still read the books at least once a year.
I have a tall stack of Calvin and Hobbes books too . . . but I’m at the point where I can quote a lot of strips without even opening the books.
C&H are the best in the World. SPACEMAN SPIFF FOR WORLD LEADER
I will never forget the final strip ever: “Let’s go exploring!”
To paraphrase A. A. Milne, “Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place called childhood, a little boy and his tiger will always be playing.”
My son is 27 and when he was little his pediatrician compared him to Calvin.
Man, I’m old.
OLD!
(Now get off my lawn!)
I used to swear that Bill followed my son around for inspiration. My favorite: When Calvin’s being held aloft several hundred feet in the air by a bunch of balloons and says that nothing’s ever so bad that it can’t get worse. That got me through a lot of years.
I.love.C&H <3
I loved the snow people and my favorite is when Calvin and Hobbes are in a pasture with cows and Calvin looks at an udder and says "I want to meet the guy who said 'I'll drink whatever comes out of those things' "
I meant to say “but my favorite is”
@Emerald 63: You could turn him in a small slug with tetical feet and a bajillion eyeballs! or make him one of Calvins snowmen being tortured!!!
XDDDD
Spend many a winter trying to recreate Calvin’s avande-garde snow sculptures. But I old out to marketability pretty quickly, lol!
Really miss this comic.
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