Hobbes is more playful, loyal, and kind. The only time he usually has doubts is with Calvin's imaginary inventions such as his Time Machine and Transmogrifier , which he is a reluctant participant at best. Hobbes acts as a big brother figure to Calvin, as he has a little more common sense than Calvin. Watterson based some of Hobbes' characteristics, especially his playfulness and attack instinct, on his own pet cat, Sprite.
Hobbes takes great pride in being a feline and frequently makes wry or even disparaging comments about human nature, declaring his good fortune to lead a tiger's life. In Calvin's philosophical ramblings, it is evident that Hobbes is usually Bill Watterson's voice on the subject, whereas Calvin usually seems to echo the sentiments or lack thereof of modern America.
It may otherwise be asserted that Calvin rather portrays an alter-ego of Watterson. Hobbes certainly changed in appearance over the strip's run.
At the beginning of the strip's run, Hobbes was slightly shorter, and his tufts of fur were less defined and shorter. His eyes also had more of a round shape, as opposed to the oval shape of later years. The most notable change, however, were the pads on Hobbes' hands. Hobbes began looking like his current self around mid In earlier years, Bill Watterson drew the pads on Hobbes' hands as a reminder that they were really paws, but later removed them as he found them to be visually distracting.
From Calvin 's point of view, Hobbes is a walking, talking, bipedal tiger, much larger and often much stronger than Calvin and full of his own attitudes and ideas.
But when the perspective shifts to any other character, readers see merely a little stuffed tiger. This is, of course, an odd dichotomy and leaves in question the nature of Hobbes' reality. Many readers assume that Hobbes is either a product of Calvin's imagination, or a doll that comes to life when Calvin is the only one around.
However, both of these theories are incorrect. As Watterson explains in the Tenth Anniversary Book , "Hobbes is more about the subjective nature of reality than dolls coming to life": thus there is no concrete definition of Hobbes' reality. Watterson explained: "Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way. The so-called 'gimmick' of Hobbes is the juxtaposition of Calvin and Hobbes' reality and everyone else's, with the two rarely agreeing.
Hobbes is supposed to represent how imaginative kids see their stuffed animals. There has been more than one instance of Hobbes appearing the way Calvin sees him around another person. One instance is when Calvin loses Hobbes in the first Calvin and Hobbes book, Hobbes is seen as a tiger in the company of Susie Derkins. However, she was facing the other way when it occurred see picture on right.
In a Sunday strip from the same book, the car stops going and Calvin and Hobbes beep the horn hoping for someone to come help. Hobbes is seen as a tiger when Calvin's mother is there, but she isn't looking. There is one strip when Calvin is fighting with Hobbes' and we see Susie's perspective in one panel, but some people think it was Calvin seeing him transform back into his stuffed animal form and expressing confusion. At one point, Calvin stated that Hobbes was steering, however since Susie was there, the imagination became to 'realism', and Hobbes was riding in the back as a stuffed tiger, displaying a hint about whether Hobbes is real or not.
However, it is possible that Calvin took the helm at the last second because Hobbes did a poor job of steering. November marked the launch of Calvin and Hobbes , appearing in about 35 newspapers. After a modest first year in newspapers, Calvin and Hobbes was published as a book and was a surprise hit. The book sales encouraged more newspapers to publish it. Watterson once received a fan letter from horror master Stephen King.
Susie Derkins's surname was the nickname of Watterson's wife's family beagle. Weingarten travelled to the illustrator's village of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and sent Watterson a letter informing him that he was willing to remain in town until the author decided to speak to him. The next morning, the columnist received a call from Watterson's editor, Lee Salem, letting him know that the artist had turned down the interview. Stephan Pastis, the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine convinced Watterson to come out of retirement in For one week, Watterson contributed new art for Pearls Before Swine.
Watterson clashed with his syndicate on the issue of licensing Calvin and Hobbes merchandise. After taking a sabbatical in , Watterson privately returned to Calvin and Hobbes with the intention of ending the famous comic strip.
Watterson's legacy was explored in the documentary Dear Mr. Watterson , which was funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Watch the trailer below:. It is one of the world's biggest prizes for a cartoonist and Watterson was the second American to ever receive the prize.
Whether Hobbes is real or imaginary is a question that fans have often debated. Watterson does not believe Calvin and Hobbes has a future in Hollywood. Despite his staunch opposition to licensing his characters, unofficial decals of Calvin can be seen on many cars around the world.
When asked if he had ever peeled one of these off a car out of spite, Watterson told Mental Floss , "I figure that, long after the strip is forgotten, those decals are my ticket to immortality. Refusing to license the comic strip represented a commercial loss for Universal Press Syndicate.
Calvin's spelling is not very good, as he spells 'Australia' as 'Ostryla'. When Calvin does apply himself, it is to fruitless goals; despite not having any ambition to be a paleontologist, he studies dinosaurs extensively, and his knowledge regarding the content of his comic books is impeccable.
This is not to say that Calvin is unintelligent. Despite his low grades, he masters an expansive vocabulary and an advanced sense of irony which even rival those of an adult. Even so, he does not pass up opportunities to learn swear words, which he estimates to know too few of. He is prone to expressing philosophy when going for a stroll in the woods or using vehicles such as his wagon.
His grapples with philosophical quandaries are usually cut short by a banal distraction, mischievous urge or sarcastic retort from either of his parents. Bill Watterson has described Calvin thus:. Calvin has often been shown to have minor anti-social tendencies. He has wished he were dead, only to then say he really wished that everyone else was dead at least once, and often shows reluctance to join organizations. For example, storylines involving him as a Cub Scout were dropped because Watterson saw them as uncharacteristic, and, while explaining to Susie on a see-saw why he didn't sign up for recess baseball , says he hates organized sports as opposed to when he plays Calvinball with Hobbes.
Calvin occasionally addresses John Calvin's belief in predestination. Being a short-sighted child who dodges work, Calvin considers predestination as a favorable release from his responsibilities, whereas Hobbes sees it as a threat to individual freedom. Calvin hates school, imagining multiple times that he blows it up with missiles. His grades are very low, once saying, "You know how Einstein got bad grades in school?
Well, mine are even worse! On one occasion, he saw snow outside and went parading around the house. His mother tells him it only snowed an inch, and then he says, "getting an inch of snow is like winning ten cents in the lottery. Although a bad student, Calvin expresses his intelligence by having a very expanded vocabulary and contemplating issues. He can also create poetry ad-lib, normally in front of Hobbes.
Bill Watterson once said, "Whenever I look at my cats, poems come to my mind," His ad-lib poet skills are probably an unintentional resemblance to Fatty, in Enid Blyton's Mystery series, who can also spout out poetry. He actually wanted to speak Dutch, so when he grows up, he'll return to Amsterdam where he belongs. Calvin's imagination far exceeds that of a normal child.
His wild imagination may take him to worlds where he does battle with aliens, or it may stay on Earth and use earthly creatures, such as dinosaurs, to perform his imaginative deeds. Calvin's thoughts will on many occasions wander to an "alternative reality," or an exaggerated world. Things that happen in the real world, such as his teacher yelling at him, often affect what happens in his imagination.
For example, during his daydreaming, Calvin often turns into Spaceman Spiff , while his parents or his teacher pose as the aliens. These alleged adventures, such as traveling back in time to the Jurassic period and photographing dinosaurs , are seen to be imaginary by Calvin's parents and peers, whilst believed by himself. This goes to show that his imagination is overactive, yet he and Hobbes believe that they actually occurred.
When not daydreaming in the middle of his classes, Calvin will also exhibit his imagination in the real world, an example being his turning into Stupendous Man or skipping school as part of a Spaceman Spiff scenario. This will often lead Calvin to injuries or punishment. Many occasions, things that would have been part of Calvin's imagination happen in real life.
For example, Hobbes is a plain stuffed animal to anyone but Calvin, but his actions are real. One time, when Hobbes tied up Calvin during his attempt to be the next Houdini, his father disregards the fact that Hobbes tied Calvin up, yet he couldn't have tied himself up without the help of Hobbes. Also, the Duplicator , an imaginative invention of Calvin's, creates duplicates that act exactly like him, yet a simple cardboard box couldn't have done something to a great technological advance.
His imagination, in these cases, caused real things to occur, though it has stirred controversy. The lack of licensing was distinctive. Joel Allen Schroeder, who made the documentary Dear Mr. Contact us at letters time. By Merrill Fabry. Calvin and Hobbes have been friends for 30 years. Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives.
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