Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", Calvin and Hobbes has evinced broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic interest.
Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair is named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. Set in the contemporary, suburban United States, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and his friendship with Hobbes. It also examines Calvin's relationships with family and classmates, especially the love/hate relationship between him and his classmate, Susie Derkins. Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a live anthropomorphic tiger; all the other characters see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, philosophical quandaries, and the flaws of opinion polls.
Characters
Calvin, named after the 16th-century theologian John Calvin, is a six-year-old, whose last name is never mentioned in the strip.[31] Despite his poor grades in school, Calvin demonstrates his intelligence through his sophisticated vocabulary and a philosophical mind.
From Calvin's point of view, Hobbes is an anthropomorphic tiger, much larger than Calvin and full of independent attitudes and ideas. When the perspective shifts to any other character, readers again see merely a stuffed animal, usually seated at an off-kilter angle and blankly staring into space.
Calvin's unnamed mother and father are typical middle-class parents. Calvin's father is a patent attorney and his mother is a stay-at-home mom. Both remain unnamed except as "Mom" and "Dad," or pet names such as "honey" and "dear" between themselves. Watterson says, "As far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." Like many other characters in the strip, they are relatively down-to-earth and their sensible attitudes serve as a foil for Calvin's outlandish behavior.
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