#1 Calvin and Hobbes 457 Points, 21 lists, #1 Amazing Thor, Goflyblind, Gojikranz, Invader Quirk, Johnny Unusual, Monty, Pegos220379, Therul
Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide; as of January 2010, reruns of the strip still appear in more than 50 countries. Nearly 45 million copies of the 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been sold.
Calvin and Hobbes is set in the contemporary United States in an unspecified suburban area. The strip depicts Calvin's flights of fantasy and his friendship with Hobbes, and also examines Calvin's relationships with family and classmates. Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a live anthropomorphic tiger; all the other characters see him 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, and the flaws of opinion polls.
Animated Adaptation: Watterson did consider allowing Calvin and Hobbes to be animated, and has expressed admiration for the art form of animation. In a 1989 interview in The Comics Journal he said:
“If you look at the old cartoons by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, you'll see that there are a lot of things single drawings just can't do. Animators can get away with incredible distortion and exaggeration ... because the animator can control the length of time you see something. The bizarre exaggeration barely has time to register, and the viewer doesn't ponder the incredible license he's witnessed. In a comic strip, you just show the highlights of action—you can't show the buildup and release ... or at least not without slowing down the pace of everything to the point where it's like looking at individual frames of a movie, in which case you've probably lost the effect you were trying to achieve. In a comic strip, you can suggest motion and time, but it's very crude compared to what an animator can do. I have a real awe for good animation.”
After this he was asked if it was "a bit scary to think of hearing Calvin's voice." He responded that it was "very scary," and that although he loved the visual possibilities of animation, the thought of casting voice actors to play his characters was uncomfortable. He was also unsure whether he wanted to work with an animation team, as he had done all previous work by himself.
Ultimately, Calvin and Hobbes was never made into an animated series. Watterson later stated in the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book that he liked the fact that his strip was a "low-tech, one-man operation," and took great pride in the fact that he drew every line and wrote every word on his own
Trivia: An officially licensed children's textbook entitled Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes was published in a single print-run in 1993. The book, which has been "highly recommend[ed]" as a teaching resource, includes five complete Calvin and Hobbes multi-strip story arcs together with lessons and questions to follow, such as:
What do you think the principal meant when he said they had "quite a file" on Calvin?
The book is rare and sought by collectors.
(sorry about the size of this one, I couldn't find a copy of this that wasn't grotesquely large.)
Topic: List of Crap 59: Top 50 Comic Strips Countdown! (Read 96006 times)
