Calvin and Hobbes was a major part of my childhood - I loved it. For something casually consumed on the daily at the breakfast table, it was so earnestly, so obviously, smarter than the median cultural offering. Smarter also then the local nightly news broadcasts. Smarter also than the median educational intervention I experienced through elementary and middle school. It had finished by the time I was in high school.

I still love it, but my feelings now are mixed as well.

Calvin wasn't exactly a pro-social role model for me. He was the hero of the smartest media I was acquainted with - the sharpest mouthpiece for what was going on around me and how to be alive. It was vitally important for me to live up to his disdain for schooling, his aloofness, his contrarianism. Nothing horrified eight or ten or fifteen or twenty-two year old me so much as conforming (gross) to a Susie Perkins mode of existence - smart, but seemingly oblivious or indifferent to life's contradictions and hypocrisies.

Some thirty years later I understand that a person can move pragmatically, without self-harm or self-righteousness, through life's contradictions and hypocrisies without being oblivious or indifferent. Who knew?

Every day, I have a reminder to think of three things for which I'm grateful. I was just trying to find the third for today when I saw this headline.

I am grateful that I love my tattoos (and have no regret, which is the risk of tattoos), one of which is Stupendous Man. He was the first and it's because CnH holds such a special place in my heart. The comic largely shaped my childhood.

Bill Waterson had the integrity not to license his work, preferring that the reader not have the characters spoiled. He opted not to make boatloads of money in making this decision (cough, garfield, snoopy). He also declared that Sunday papers could print his comic unbroken or they could drop him and this allowed for truly magnificent art pieces where stories could be told in new ways. His integrity is legendary in the field.

Check out his recent work, The Mysteries.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-review-bill-watters...

The boxed collection is wonderful, and one of my favourites.

For folks who want a bit more, there have been a couple of homages:

"Hobbes and Bacon": https://imgur.com/gallery/all-hobbes-bacon-by-pants-are-over... --- a bit too on-the-nose for my taste, which doesn't really add anything

"Calvin and Company" by DomNX, wherein Calvin and Susie have twins named after Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir --- art not fully realized/up to the task, and again, all a bit too obvious

There was also one simply heart-breaking one, where Calvin has cancer, gets a decrepit Hobbes out of storage, and gifts him to a troubled grandchild, but not finding it on searching....

The thing is, laughing at problems, while cathartic, isn't actually inspiring folks to actually understand/solve problems/make the world a better place.... I'm reminded of a comic from childhood where a child sees duck hunters as part of the reason why a forest is clearcut for a development, instead of the reason why such land is preserved (the Pa. State Game Commission manages over 1.5 million acres) or, maybe I'm just overly pessimistic this morning because of intractable problems where people choose wrongly, mostly through not understanding the problem/ignorance/lack of sympathy for others --- classic example, drivers in cars who get upset because following a cyclist causes them slow down on their way to a red light --- rather a shame that the strips featuring Calvin's father as a cyclist weren't didactic so as to show/discuss that sort of thing, rather than going for the laugh.

As an '80s kid, Calvin and Hobbes ran for almost my entire childhood, and we have a number of the collections. I never fail to be impressed either by Watterson's talent, both in the art and in choosing the right words to say, nor by his integrity and restraint, both in refusing to allow his work to be merchandised and in choosing to stop when he did—when he felt he had said all he came to say.

Many more artists of all types could take so many lessons from him. Even some that are already great. He is a very humble man, but he stands among the legends of our time.

Edit: realized it would be good to add a link to the exhibition: https://fenimoreartmuseum.org/future-exhibitions/calvin-and-...

Gocomics seems to go after everyone who posts these comic strips on a regular basis.

The C&H sub-reddit stopped posting some time ago. [0]

The only C&H Search out there is not allowed to show the strips and instead redirects to Gocomics. [1]

Here's a blog post by S. Anand detailing some background on the takedown notice he received, although he doesn't mention who sent it. [2]

I feel saddened that the one comic strip that resisted commercialization has to have its fans face this.

But I suppose that's the nature of the web now.

[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/1m8j09a/th...

[1]: https://michaelyingling.com/random/calvin_and_hobbes/

[2]: https://www.s-anand.net/blog/the-calvin-and-hobbes-search-ta...

Watterson managed to keep that dual perspective without letting the strip drift into cynicism, which is rare for long-running comics.

That being said, I'm sure he would've done it the same way today.

I don’t think I fully appreciated the range of humor and topics Bill Watterson explored when I was young. Plenty of strips are perfect for my 9 year old; she was in fits of laughter just yesterday at Hobbes’s physical comedy and the elementary school drama with Susie and Mrs Wormwood. But other strips are much more intellectual, touching on politics, life, and morality. I appreciate these more now as well, because they often spark deeper conversations with my kids when they ask me to explain them.

I doubt he’ll ever see it, but thank you, Bill, for giving multiple generations so much laughter.

Now, I see this technique work so well for business and political leaders, comics, social commentators, etc. It is a very effective technique to capture the hearts of your audience.

Watterson, famously, never sold out. He is sort of an idealized, godlike figure, to many cartoonists.

Reminds me of this Onion story: https://theonion.com/peeing-calvin-decals-now-recognized-as-...

It is interesting how some random things from far away just used to catch in a country, but not in the neighbour one.

Our nr 1 hero at that time was Goldorak - everyone who is in their 50s today can sing the intro song (at least the first line) and knows a few of the attacks. Girls had Candy but we were absolutely watching it as well (I actually don't know if girls were watching Goldorak, I need to ask)

it's art and meaning and entertainment all in one

if it's been a while you should read them again with fresh eyes.

I am so incredibly happy that Watterson never "sold out" and gave away film/animation rights to his characters. They are perfect the way they are.

Maybe C&H and Peanuts were just too rooted in US suburban family culture. Dilbert had a niche following here and beyond that I struggle to even name another strip.

There are even more on xkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Calvin_a...

I remember people at work talking about that comic and loving it. But the my City Newspaper did not carry it :(

I can see it now in gocomics and it is great.