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Calvin and Hobbes Is Great Literature
- davesque 8y agoI still remember this one seemed very intellectual to me when I was 11: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/02/19/ https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/02/19/
- teekert 8y agoI still find it intellectual at 36.
- chrshawkes 8y agoBill Watterson retired at 36
- aidenn0 8y agoDamn, when he was my age he'd already been retired 3 years.
- chrshawkes 8y ago...and worth one hundred million while turning down somewhere in the ballpark of three to five hundred million dollars in potential merchandising deals. Watterson is a class act like no other.
- BearOso 8y agoAnd he did a good thing with that. Calvin and Hobbes never wanted for quality. We wouldn’t still consider it great literature if it had gone the way of Peanuts or, God forbid, Garfield. It shows he was smart on another level than being just a great cartoonist.
- davesque 8y agoI suppose my wording implied otherwise but I do to, at 38.
- icebraining 8y agoSnow was always the canvas for his thoughts on art. My favorite uses that fact for the pun: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1994/12/29 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1994/12/29
- dTal 8y agoI also immediately thought of that one. It has that rare combination of cutting insight and flawless comedic timing.
- qntty 8y agoThe next one is even better: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/02/20 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/02/20
- sammorrowdrums 8y agoBeautiful, and now I will forever refer to Trumps movement and the "alt-right" as neo-regionalism.
- mar77i 8y agoWell, the phrasing sure leans towards the intellectual side, however Calvin adopting the artistic attitude (and lingo) before even making a name for himself or adopting any skill whatsoever is not just funny but in a simple way encouraging. Even an 11-year-old might realize that one doesn't just bullshit one's way through life like that. The joke somewhat even reminds me of Tarantino's "Desperado" joke, because said artistic attitude resembles the guy looking for gratitude in the barman on whose bar he's urinating...
- teekert 8y agoFunny how one can interpret things so differently. I see a lot of art just like this, like the clothes of the emperor: All nice and well until someone says: Wtf you speak a lot of hefty language but in the end my 4 y/o can do the same thing, but for the hefty language. Sure, Art can make you think and the way you interpret it may teach you something about yourself (that is how I find value in art), but so can the painting of a 4 y/o and a nice river flowing in the distance. Call me barbaric but I appreciate art when it took skill to make it. A nicely constructed, elegant, functional Python class with minimal but readable code, that is (also) art to me. The thing is, I'm often getting away with this opinion because I have a PhD so somehow my intellectualism isn't easily dismissed, it's insane.
- milquetoastaf 8y agoFor a PhD you have a pretty philistine stance on art. Seriously, "my 4 y/o can do it" is not "intellectualism," it is the most basic and unimaginative critique of modern and contemporary art
- throwaway-hn123 8y agoDunning-Kruger in effect. Thanks for the demonstration.
- cgriswald 8y agoCriticizing the art because it’s not technically advanced is like criticizing a Python class because it’s just text on a screen and any four-year-old can put text on a screen. What makes the Python class meaningful to you is the context you bring with you. The world of art is a lot bigger than technically proficient realism.
- koolba 8y agoSo many great choices. I think this one is particular apt to anyone who wants create a startup: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2010/02/10 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2010/02/10
- nkrisc 8y agoThis also exemplifies what I love about the strip: for a strip that often centers around imagination, it holds itself to that same standard and leaves much to the imagination of the reader. A worse strip would have started with the last panel.
- billfruit 8y agoI think Peanuts, with its tint of melancholy and disenchantment is the more poignant comic strip.
- icebraining 8y agoYeah, C&H is rarely poignant, which makes sense considering its protagonist is always going at 1000%. Yet, it has its moments, like the raccoon story, which still manages to be funny in its sadness: https://imgur.com/gallery/FATst https://imgur.com/gallery/FATst
- protomyth 8y agoThe racoon story was a bit hard. It reminded me of the death of Farley in For Better Or Worse[1]. Cartoons and animation can do hard death scenes, look at the first segment of Up!. 1) https://web.archive.org/web/20090218213649/http://www.fborfw.com/features/farley/ https://web.archive.org/web/20090218213649/http://www.fborfw...
- glitcher 8y agoI grew up on Peanuts and am a prime candidate to be a lifelong fan. However, later in life I realized that much of it just isn't very funny to me anymore. I think C&H played a big part in adding to my disappointment in Peanuts, as C&H was for me consistently, brilliantly funny. YMMV.
- taneq 8y agoCalvin and Hobbes is brilliant. Absolutely my favourite comic, and well ahead of its time in tackling serious topics as well as just funnies.
- saagarjha 8y agoCalvin and Hobbes is great: it scales well with the reader's age, progressively disclosing more and more thematic elements with each rereading. While it contains a couple of era-specific elements, the majority of the topics discussed are still relevant today (and still will be–they're timeless). And of course, they're funny in their own right, so you can read them for enjoyment without dwelling on the underlying message; you can appreciate the little watercolor or pen drawing that each panel is, how Watterson suggests ambiance with a monochrome palette or captures an alien landscape just as well as Calvin's backyard in the Sunday strips. Truly my favorite comics.
- muzani 8y agoI think the saddest thing with the decline of newspapers is that great comics are harder to discover now. It would be nice if there was something like blogs linking a favorite comic strip somewhere.
- magpi3 8y agoThere are subreddits. I am in China now so reddit is blocked for me, but try /r/webcomics
- dractori 8y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/comics/ https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/
- Qwertystop 8y agoHiveworks!
- jason_slack 8y agoGrowing up, Calvin and Hobbes was my way of escaping and day-dreaming. I had every book. As a young adult I bought the complete collection. It became so popular among my children and their friends that I actually had to buy a second copy so everyone could read at the same time. An awesome Friday evening: myself, kids, friends, all comfy in the living room with Calvin and Hobbes, snacks and laughter. How did it get to be 11pm and the kids are still up?
- dustfinger 8y agoI own every copy plus the collectors editions. They have been an inspiration for both my children. An inspiration that has resulted in me being the target of well aimed dart guns while delivering glasses of water. I can't tell you how many times our upstairs bathroom has been flooded. It has been a pleasure to see how much joy those books have brought to my kids. We are a book loving family. Our basement is wall to wall bookshelves. I am sure that Calvin and Hobbes have been read more times then any other book.
- 4thaccount 8y agoI had all the books growing up and it was one of a few comics I really loved. I still do, and honestly just relate to it and Dilbert now.
- noonespecial 8y agoWhen I began reading C&H, I fully identified with Calvin. Now I fully identify with his parents and it has become an entirely different body of work. Hat's off to Bill. That was really something.
- statictype 8y agoAbsolutely this. I never fully realized it until you said it just now but as a father of a two year old I often find myself thinking back to Calvin's parents, after spending my childhood identifying with Calvin.
- NikolaNovak 8y agoNote, I had the same experience with "That 70's show" I watched it when it came out, and Red seemed like needlessly cranky, always angry single-dimensional antagonist. I rewatched first few seasons on Netflix and... man, he's just always right, and those kids need to get into shape and SMARTEN UP... (not claiming "That 70's show" is great literature, note; but the perspective shift is stunning, given our internal narrative tends to be that we are not changing radically as human beings most of the time)
- hylaride 8y agoThat 70's show isn't great literature, it's great satire. I agree 100% on how watchable it (still) is, especially how well they did with the timeless aspects of it. When the show first came out, I watched it with my mother (who would have been their age when the show was set) and she couldn't believe how spot on they were the feel of the era. The music and drug use (and the older generation not really understanding it all), traditional jobs starting to disappear, the coming of age, women's lib, etc. Teenage me could still identify with the kids, and now I feel for the parents. It also really helps that all the actors were obviously having a blast making the show.
- acomjean 8y agoRed (the angry/ grumpy father character) is the reason that show resonated with me. I'm not much of a TV watcher but the "wise/understanding/caring adults" on TV were not my experience growing up in the 70s and early 80s. We feared the adults, and we knew they didn't get us but also they weren't completely stupid.
- lostjohnny 8y agoYes. It is. It always will.
- tehsauce 8y agoThanks for sharing!
- ergothus 8y agoFor all that it is traditional to bemoan the state of "kids these days" or how the world has gotten worse, there are only two things I truly miss being added to my existence: C&H and The Far Side. I revisit both every few years to revel in what we do have, and feel lucky to have been in the lifetime when both were at least weekly gifts. I sometimes wonder where the equivalent items for other generations are, and if I'm simply unable to grok them (I've never understood tintin nor askterix, for example)
- Cerium 8y agoIt is not to the level of c&h, but the only comic I regularly check is questionable content. I have loved seeing the authors style develop over the years and enjoy the story.
- noonespecial 8y agoBetween Failures is my modern holdout. Its where I went in life just after I was Calvin. Its not high art by any stretch but Wohlenhaus' genuineness just bleeds off every page. http://betweenfailures.com/ http://betweenfailures.com/
- cmpb 8y agoOne comic that I'm quite pleased is still being produced is XKCD[1], though it's hard to say how long it'll last. [1] https://xkcd.com https://xkcd.com
- coldtea 8y ago>I revisit both every few years to revel in what we do have, and feel lucky to have been in the lifetime when both were at least weekly gifts. Compared to the lifetime where kids didn't yet have C&H and The Far Side, but could play outside for hours, unsupervised, and even go around town etc?
- ergothus 8y ago...and lived in a society with far more racism and sexism. The world had high odds of being more violent, health was probably worse. (even recent downturns for some groups are small compared to the improvements over generations). We complain about anti-vaxxers today, but we're talking about the struggle to eradicate diseases that were just a fact of life in the past - and a BAD fact. Wealth inequality and climate change are definitely growing issues, but have not yet overwhelmed the rest. It's easy to glorify the past if you only look at the healthy and successful people.
- JeffRosenberg 8y agoI've always loved C&H. I bet Bill Watterson would have loved the freedom of webcomics.
- unavoidable 8y agoOn the other hand he would have hated the economics of webcomics... shameless promotion, social media, merchandising, patreoning, ads, etc...
- danaris 8y agoI dunno; he might have liked Patreon, with its much more direct connection with the fans, and funding directly from the fans. The ancillary stuff—at least some of which is probably still necessary to make a living off a webcomic—yeah, he would've hated.
- akulkarni7 8y agoInteresting relevant quote: Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. Obviously the role of comics is changing very fast. On the one hand, I don't think comics have ever been more widely accepted or taken as seriously as they are now. On the other hand, the mass media is disintegrating, and audiences are atomizing. I suspect comics will have less widespread cultural impact and make a lot less money. I'm old enough to find all this unsettling, but the world moves on. All the new media will inevitably change the look, function, and maybe even the purpose of comics, but comics are vibrant and versatile, so I think they'll continue to find relevance one way or another. But they definitely won't be the same as what I grew up with.
- samirillian 8y agoHe's still alive...
- frosted-flakes 8y agoBut he stopped producing C&H decades ago.
- idoubtit 8y agoNo, Calvin and Hobbes is not Great Literature. After reading the other comments, I know how out of tone I am, but I do want to respect the meanings of the words. Over the past centuries, "Literature" evolved from "written words" to "artistic written text". Most of C&H strips would be complete failures if we removed the drawings. I love C&H, and I think it's great comics, cartoons, art, à la rigueur bande dessinée… but not literature.
- slantyyz 8y agoThe interpretation and application of the word varies. Growing up in Canada in the 80s, all of Margaret Atwood's books were always considered Canadian Literature (aka CanLit). Since the Handmaid's Tale TV series thrust her into the pop culture consciousness, I always find it interesting when someone in the American media refers to her work as science fiction.
- msla 8y agoAnd science fiction can be great literature, just as romance can be, and drama can be, and any other genre can be. Ultimately, all fiction exists in a genre. Whether it's literature is something else entirely.
- slantyyz 8y ago>> Whether it's literature is something else entirely. And the bar for whether something is literature is subjective, and can change with the passing of time.
- gooseus 8y agoIt would be both... I've read Atwood's claims to be "speculative fiction" rather than "science fiction" because - "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen." I read the Maddadam Trilogy (the books that quote was specifically about) and the fact that she can claim it's not sci-fi because it "could really happen" is ridiculous and insulting to actual "hard sci-fi" which do a better job of working out new science could impact the real world. Also, the books literally have monsters in the form of human-intelligent, genetically-mutated pigs.
- tombert 8y agoSomething I like about Calvin and Hobbes was how I was able to change from "reading it because its funny" to "reading it to make me think" without really noticing it. My favorite "arc" is when Calvin finds the dying raccoon, takes him in to try and save him, the raccoon dying, and realizing that even though he's sad that the he died, he's still glad to have met him while he had the chance. Calvin coming to terms with death, and realizing that even though fatalism is basically the only inevitable outcome in the long-term, it's important to enjoy life now and enjoy the current relationships we have is enough to get me teary-eyed (even to this day), and has greatly shaped my outlook on life, since I read it when I was really young. It's a great comic, and despite centering on a child, it does a really good job at using that kind of innocence as a means to make a commentary. Watterson resisted the urge to talk about politics or pop-culture, and instead focus on people, and as a result the comic will always be timeless to me
- babblingdweeb 8y agoThank you for sharing! I know this exact arc very well and have referenced it a few times in my life (sent to friends, talked about it, etc). Death is not usually an easy topic, so when this arc is relevant, but maybe not to death, I use it to discuss what is finite. Personally, I found the the more I looked at concept of most/all things being finite, the more appreciation for those things, people, moments, food, jobs, projects, etc I have. I haven't become a mindful monk by any stretch, but it has both shaped and improved my outlook in many ways.
- andy_wrote 8y agoWatterson highlighted that arc in his 10th anniversary collection (which is a really wonderful collection of essays and explanations side by side with strips). It happened relatively early into the comic strip's life and IIRC he regarded it as a turning point in Calvin & Hobbes's ability to move beyond gags and handle weightier topics.
- scott_s 8y ago"Still.. in a sad, awful, terrible way, I'm happy I met him. What a stupid world": https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/03/16 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/03/16 I think that one spoke to a lot of people - it certainly speaks to me. I agree with your reading, but the last line also always said to me: it's okay to look at something awful and call it as such. We can acknowledge it and move on.
- cartercole 8y agothis is truth
- fhood 8y agoI love this article, but it fails to highlight one of the most important things about Calvin and Hobbes. The art is brilliant, and I'm pretty sure there is no explanation or description that I can give that will do it justice. I don't think any other comic has ever come close to the level of dynamism, variety, expressiveness, and quality that C&H achieved.
- chrshawkes 8y agoIt's surprising like so many of us developers, his original ideas, even for Calvin and Hobbes we're rejected by numerous publications. He even got fired from his first job as a cartoonist.
- bungie4 8y agoCalvin and Hobbes has been the standard by which other comics are judged by me. That being said Hobbes: Look at the stars! Its as if the universe goes on forever and ever! Calvin: Thats why we stay inside with our appliances.
- buildbot 8y agoI grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes nearly everyday from when I first was able to read to now. It was amazing how it scaled with my age, and each re-reading brought something different to me. Also, in my opinion it’s actually fairly complex writing as well, with lots of excellent vocabulary - really benificial for young readers!
- snowwrestler 8y agoI've been reading Calvin and Hobbes to my 6 year old, which has made it very clear how "adult" Calvin sounds sometimes. Like, my 6 year old never harasses me about how my polls are down as dad, or expounds at length about philosophical issues (even while riding a wagon). So, while I think Watterson did frequently capture the manic spirit of childhood sometimes, he also did his fair share of speaking through his characters with an adult voice. When we first started, I thought, "wait, maybe this was a bad idea." Calvin is not exactly a good role model and kids love to imitate things they think are funny. But it turns out my kid is pretty good at separating entertainment from reality. So, there haven't been any real buckets balanced on doors, or trying to sell the car, or emptying the entire bathtub in one huge splash--at least not yet.
- antcas 8y agoCalvin and Hobbes made meta-commentary on this as well, "High" art vs "Low" art: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/07/23 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2013/07/23