15 years ago...



Yes, it really is that simple.

[Edited on February 3, 2009 at 3:06 PM. Reason : -]

2/3/2009 3:04:29 PM

lol

2/3/2009 3:24:44 PM

<3 calvin and hobbes

2/3/2009 3:28:33 PM

you wouldn't see this published in any mainstream comic today.....

2/3/2009 3:52:03 PM

2/3/2009 4:09:09 PM

I miss Calvin n Hobbes. That truly was a priceless comic. Watterson is a genius. Its funny how as a kid you enjoy the comic on one level, but as you age you can continue to enjoy it on a completely different intellectual level, pure genius

2/3/2009 4:14:56 PM

^^ Perhaps a better comparison would have Thomas Hobbes + John Calvin.

2/3/2009 4:22:48 PM

^^ yeah. i've heard a few current comic artists say that C&H was truely the last comic that will ever be a household name. There are no current comic strips today, or since C&H stopped, that are anywhere close to as widely known or read.

Maybe The Far Side could be argued because it ran for a few years past than C&H, but even it's reach and influence was no match for C&H.

[Edited on February 3, 2009 at 4:24 PM. Reason : .]

2/3/2009 4:24:22 PM

i have every calvin and hobbes collection book and i love them.

Quote :

"I miss Calvin n Hobbes. That truly was a priceless comic. Watterson is a genius. Its funny how as a kid you enjoy the comic on one level, but as you age you can continue to enjoy it on a completely different intellectual level, pure genius "

absolutely

2/3/2009 4:26:07 PM

Quote :

"you wouldn't see this published in any mainstream comic today..... "

why not?

2/3/2009 4:41:28 PM

Calvin and Hobbes rule! It was truly a sad day when it ended

I believe the strip Stimwalt posted is in my Auto Bailout thread too...

2/3/2009 4:46:43 PM

Frazz comes across to me as a continuation of Calvin & Hobbes.

Pearls Before Swine is great and has dark, sardonic humor. Dilbert is hilarious as well...

2/3/2009 4:55:56 PM

^^^ show me another comic on the scale of C&H, read by everyone from children to seniors and lauded by everyone that saw it, that questions the existance of God by comparing him to Santa Claus.

That was originally published probably 1985. A similar comic published today would face being banned from newspapers and religious groups organizing to protest it.

and I'm not talking about comics in alt-weeklies. I mean, comics that are in small-town and and mainstream newspapers.

[Edited on February 3, 2009 at 4:58 PM. Reason : .]

2/3/2009 4:57:31 PM

There was one specific C&H comic I remember where Calvin was having daydreams about blowing up his school with an F-15. You know that wouldn't be allowed today...

2/3/2009 5:01:26 PM

yeah fair enough but

Quote :

"show me another comic on the scale of C&H, read by everyone from children to seniors and lauded by everyone that saw it at all nowadays"

There's not really much to choose from to start with. Although I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, I think it might be possible to see it in a comic, if awesome comics like C&H were still being made. I mean, we did just have a president refer to "non-believers" for the first time ever in an inauguration. So while you're probably right, I don't think it's that unbelievable.

2/3/2009 5:18:05 PM

Quote :

"Frazz comes across to me as a continuation of Calvin & Hobbes."

I think Red and Rover before Frazz, if we're talking about C&H's heir.

2/3/2009 5:22:11 PM

Quote :

"There's not really much to choose from to start with."

i know, I made that point earlier too:
"i've heard a few current comic artists say that C&H was truely the last comic that will ever be a household name. There are no current comic strips today, or since C&H stopped, that are anywhere close to as widely known or read."

2/3/2009 5:49:25 PM

Quote :

"that questions the existance of God by comparing him to Santa Claus. "

I'm not sure why you think that is some sort of brilliant abstraction... Santa is a father figure that knows everything you do, judges your good/bad deeds and rewards/punishes, has magical abilities, and is focused on bringing gifts to every man. He just happens to be the "mascot" for the holiday that represents the birth of God's son, God's gift for man. Santa is about as directly derived from the concept of God and as explicitly tied to God as you can get.

Quote :

"That was originally published probably 1985. A similar comic published today would face being banned from newspapers and religious groups organizing to protest it."

I disagree. If anything people can get away with that today than ever before. Comics just aren't that relevant anymore because newspapers are dead. However, there is not a chance in hell that Southpark could get away with its social commentary in 1985.

2/4/2009 12:15:18 AM

Quote :

"However, there is not a chance in hell that Southpark could get away with its social commentary vulgarity in 1985."

2/4/2009 12:36:37 AM

ehe, Pascal's Wager



btw, you can subscribe to C&H on uComics where they republish old ones every day, in the same order they were originally published
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2009/02/04/

2/4/2009 9:11:41 AM

because of this thread, I brought in The Revenge of the Baby-Sat to read during lunch

2/4/2009 9:35:24 AM

he always gets the best hateful/resentful expressions.... (frame 10)

2/4/2009 9:58:10 AM

My fiancee was nice enough to buy me the 'complete works' set for Christmas last year.

2/4/2009 10:05:40 AM

I'm a huge fan of this strip...I own every book...But I don't remember ever seeing this one. Which treasury is it from?

2/4/2009 12:56:16 PM

Quote :

"because of this thread, I brought in The Revenge of the Baby-Sat to read during lunch"

This made me smile. When I was 8 I asked my mom if I could legally change my middle name to Calvin. She said no, because I would lose my real middle name. I then decided to return to my room to build a cardboard time machine to travel back in time to write-in Calvin on my birth certificate. Later that week, my mom gave me custom dog tags that had Calvin as my middle name. I was convinced my time machine had worked.

2/4/2009 1:49:04 PM

^^According to this website: http://jillandhal.home.att.net/halqn/wattrson.htm it's from Yukon Ho!

2/4/2009 1:59:10 PM

Quote :

"This made me smile. When I was 8 I asked my mom if I could legally change my middle name to Calvin. She said no, because I would lose my real middle name. I then decided to return to my room to build a cardboard time machine to travel back in time to write-in Calvin on my birth certificate. Later that week, my mom gave me custom dog tags that had Calvin as my middle name. I was convinced my time machine had worked."

Haha, that reminds me of how I wanted to change my name to Bo Jackson when I was in kindergarten. I told my dad and he said you had to write a letter to court, which he said he would do so I signed my library card as Bo Jackson and all day the next day I was telling everyone that was my new name. I was sad to find out the next day that 'court' had sent me a letter saying that I couldn't change my name because there were already too many Bo Jacksons. It took me years a while before I finally figured out that the letter was made up by my dad .

2/4/2009 5:10:00 PM

Quote :

"you wouldn't see this published in any mainstream comic today"

Quote :

"similar comic published today would face being banned from newspapers and religious groups organizing to protest it."

simply not true. four major mainstream comics come to mind.

-- Boondocks
-- Pearls Before Swine
-- Get Fuzzy
-- Frazz

perhaps you can argue they don't match the pure awesomeness of Watterson's C & H, but they certainly are just as subversive.

Quote :

"i've heard a few current comic artists say that C&H was truely the last comic that will ever be a household name. There are no current comic strips today, or since C&H stopped, that are anywhere close to as widely known or read."

that may be true, but not because new comics can't compete. its because the traditional print media with it's tightly framed and regulated "Comics Page" is quickly becoming an anachronism.

growing up in the 80's and early 90's, we didnt have any options. you'd have one major newspaper (possibly two if you were in a big city) and between 0 - 2 independent weeklies with a few extras.

that was it. you couldnt go online to look at alternate comics or, hell, even mainstream comics that happened to not be carried by your local daily paper.

So, everybody in your area read the exact same comics, on the exact same day, or they didnt read comics at all.




[Edited on February 4, 2009 at 5:30 PM. Reason : ]

2/4/2009 5:18:55 PM

I have a bunch of comics I open up every morning on Yahoo News.

Arlo & Janis
BC
Dilbert
Frazz
Garfield
Get Fuzzy
Non Sequitur
Peanuts
Pearls Before Swine
Rose is Rose
Shoe

[Edited on February 4, 2009 at 5:55 PM. Reason : ]

2/4/2009 5:54:50 PM

the problem with the comics today, compared to C&H, is that it's more cynicism than heart

2/4/2009 5:58:09 PM

meh. listen to all you guys:


THESE COMICS TODAY, THEY AIN'T NONE OF 'EM NO GOOD! WHY.... WHEN I WAS A KID WE HAD *REAL* COMICS! THEY HAD HEART, I TELL YOU, HEART!!! YOU YOUNG'UNS DON'T KNOW NOTHIN'!!!

2/4/2009 8:23:02 PM

The newspaper comics are largely terrible these days, though it's more or less due to having stringent decency laws that are still trapped in the 1950s.

That, and old writers (or the family/son of the original writer) who don't quit even if they know the comic has basically run its course and run out of jokes.

[Edited on February 4, 2009 at 10:42 PM. Reason : .]

2/4/2009 10:42:12 PM

Comics are dead b/c newspapers are dead.

2/4/2009 11:19:28 PM

As long as I don't see Marmaduke I am fine.

2/4/2009 11:33:01 PM

^ i think there's a spot in hell reserved for people who cut out Family Circus cartoons.

2/4/2009 11:59:29 PM

Interesting, I randomly picked up a Calvin book 3 days ago and read that strip.

And I might get flamed for this, but I think the best heir to C&H is Ozy and Millie.

2/5/2009 12:06:47 AM

Quote :

"that may be true, but not because new comics can't compete. its because the traditional print media with it's tightly framed and regulated "Comics Page" is quickly becoming an anachronism."

this. i seem to recall bill watterson always having to fight the newspapers about the layout of his cartoons, because the papers wanted neat little boxes and he wanted to do his own thing.

2/5/2009 12:24:53 AM

Quote :

"THESE COMICS TODAY, THEY AIN'T NONE OF 'EM NO GOOD! WHY.... WHEN I WAS A KID WE HAD *REAL* COMICS! THEY HAD HEART, I TELL YOU, HEART!!! YOU YOUNG'UNS DON'T KNOW NOTHIN'!!!"

Get off my lawn!!
Damn kids and their music...

*shakes cane*

2/5/2009 12:05:32 PM

get fuzzy is pretty funny sometimes.

2/5/2009 12:36:06 PM

I am a fan of get fuzzy

2/5/2009 1:20:07 PM

Quote :

"the problem with the comics today, compared to C&H, is that it's more cynicism than heart"

This is so true.

2/6/2009 11:31:20 AM