Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Calvin & Hobbes: Art Before Commerce



Everyone loved Calvin and Hobbes, and they still do, even though the comic ceased over twenty years ago. What is it that made the strip so special? Bill Watterson never phoned it in. He held his comic to the highest standard until he ran out of things to say …and then he quit. The strips never had a chance to become repetitive or cliched. But that’s not all there was to it. Even all these years later, seeing a Calvin and Hobbes strip is a delight. Little boys with vivid imaginations will always be with us, as well as the philosophical questions they have about our confusing world.   

6 comments:

Patty O'Heater said...

The best cartoon strip. Ever. No arguments, it just is!

Bicycle Bill said...

I think Peanuts by Charles Schulz could just as easily deserve that title. About the only difference between the two is that Schulz did allow his characters to be licensed and marketed.

-"BB"-

WTM said...

Long before there was Calvin and Hobbes, there was Little Orvy, another small blonde-headed boy with a vivid imagination, who had incredible adventures by way of daydreams. Catchphrase - "Orvy's in orbit again", as each sequence ended with the revelation that the sequence had all been a daydream. No stuffed tiger, though. Little Orvy was an obscure comic strip and my opinion is that Watterson co-opted its basic premise, thinking that no one would ever connect the dots, since Little Orvy ended in the late 1960's.

Bicycle Rider said...

Little Orvy:

https://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2016/08/yager-meister.html

Anonymous said...

Watching that so many of the drawings showed rang a bell.
Most I've read many times and never get tired of them.
I'd never heard of Orvy, he appears to set off on daydreams.
Calvin's adventures are very Calvin centric the world is his oyster to do his bidding... it just doesn't know it.
xoxoxoBruce

Skyreiter said...

I still re-read those strips every day. And I have several of the collections to thumb through at my leisure. They are just as fresh and entertaining as they ever were, no matter how many times I see them.