Happy Anniversary to Calvin and Hobbes!

Posted by Stacy in Cartoon & Comic, Neatorama Only on November 19, 2008 at 8:47 pm


Happy Anniversary to Calvin and Hobbes! It was November 18, 1985 (I know, I’m a day late), that the precocious little boy and his sage stuffed tiger/real tiger first hit comic pages across America. So, I thought I’d hit you guys with a little C&H trivia… I know, it’s not nearly enough to fill the void Bill Watterson has left us, but it’s a little something.


Bill Watterson

Ever since he retired from Calvin and Hobbes, Watterson has been painting and “studying music”. He’s notoriously private and apparently hasn’t changed his lifestyle much. Up until fairly recently, he still lived in his hometown of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Now he lives in Cleveland, not too far away. He doesn’t do pictures or autographs, not for anyone, although he used to sign copies of his books and slip them into a little family-owned bookstore in Chagrin Falls. He found out that people were eBaying them instead of tucking them away in their own private collections, though, and stopped that practice.

Calvin’s Older Brother?

Originally, Calvin and Hobbes were supposed to be minor characters in the strip Watterson was trying to syndicate. They were both the same as they are now – a little kid and his tiger – but were supposed to be only occasional characters. When he sent that strip to United Features, they suggested that he rework the whole thing to center around Calvin and Hobbes. So Watterson did. And United Features rejected the strip anyway. It was eventually snatched up by Universal Press Syndicate instead.


Licensing

You know those decals you see on trucks sometimes that have Calvin taking a whiz on the Chevy logo (or the Ford logo, or the BMW logo, or whatever)? So not legal. Actually, almost anything you see with Calvin and Hobbes on it is copyright infringement. Here is the complete list of things Bill Watterson has approved for mass production:

  • Books
  • Two calendars (1988-1989 and 1989-1990)
  • A textbook called Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes
  • One t-shirt for a traveling art exhibit

    • Watterson issued a cease-and-desist. Some of the makers complied and substituted a different (but similar) boy for Calvin, some replaced him with a female Calvin, and some just ignored him altogther. “I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo,” Watterson once said. Go here for a rather comprehensive site of all of the fake Calvin logos. It’s pretty impressive.

    Namesakes


    You can probably figure out where Calvin and Hobbes come from (I’ll go over that in a second) but lots of the other characters are inspired by real-life people too – or not-so-real-life people.

    Calvin, of course, is named after John Calvin, the 16th century theologian who was a huge proponent of predestination. We don’t know Calvin’s last name. Watterson has said that people often assume that Calvin is based on his own childhood, but he disputes this fact and says that he was actually a very quiet, obedient kid.

    Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes, who said that the natural state of humans was to be at war. Watterson has said that he feels Thomas Hobbes had a “dim view” of people. Hobbes’ feline characteristics were based on Watterson’s cat, Sprite.

    Miss Wormwood got her name courtesy of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. In the C.S. Lewis tale, Wormwood is the nephew of an experienced demon and is being advised by his uncle on how to damn men to Hell.

    Susie Derkins received her distinctive last name because “Derkins” was the nickname of Watterson’s wife’s family’s beagle.


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    COMMENT

    59 comments to "Happy Anniversary to Calvin and Hobbes!"

    1. matt
      November 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

      i'm 33, which means i grew up reading the strip every day in the newspaper. i recently re-opened a lot of my old c&h books, and it's interesting to read them with a different, more adult eye of mine - first off, i'm noticing how damn well-drawn the work was, especially with the colored strips. i've also noticed that the sunday features often have a pattern where the first two panels could survive on their own - kind of a standalone one-two punch within the larger comic for the day. but aside from all that, it's still terrifically good writing. bill was really great at what he did. thanks, mr watterson.

    2. mrmuggles
      November 19th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

      That's really sad that Watterson stop doing it :(
      It's the best cartoon ever! So lovable! My favorite parts is when Calvin does these horrible snowmen! :D

    3. Daz
      November 19th, 2008 at 9:07 pm

      Actually I think Wormwood is originally a name from the bible, the book of revalations:
      A star that falls to earth and poisons one third of the waters

    4. Bob Smythe
      November 19th, 2008 at 9:07 pm

      [deleted]

    5. christopher
      November 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

      "[deleted]"

      that's the most awful thing i've heard in while.

    6. Snappy
      November 19th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

      Peeing on logos & such is more of a Bart Simpson job. It's too bad sellers and users of such emblems have stolen (in the first case) and co-opted (in the second) Watterson's hard work and creativity for their own profit.

    7. whitbyboy
      November 19th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

      Bob Smythe - you're a sad sad bigot. Do you have a white hood in the trunk of that car of yours?

      Sincerely, Dan the atheist.

    8. AndyIII
      November 19th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

      Bill Watterson is one of my great heroes of all time.

      He made great popular art on his own terms, never sold out or cheapened his art, and walked away before it tired him or bored everyone else.

      I remember when he decided the Sunday color comics needed more room to really tell his stories. Calvin and Hobbes was so popular that they had to deal with it. He wasn't just swinging power around, he just needed more room, and the market had to adjust...wonderful.

    9. Cal
      November 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

      I dont think wormwood is from the bible. the 10th anniversary book pictured has a bunch of little facts about individual strips and characters from watterson himself, and he says pretty much exactly the same story about the screwtape letters.

    10. Brian Lutz
      November 19th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

      There's a fine line between preserving the integrity of ones work and behaving like a pretentious snob, and Bill Watterson crossed that line long ago.

    11. Clifford
      November 19th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

      Bob Smythe, Bill Watterson would not approve.

    12. Christophe
      November 19th, 2008 at 11:56 pm

      Best cartoon ever, for kids and adults alltogether.
      I don't why but I what really like is...
      T-REX IN A F14!!!
      :D

    13. MrJoeBangles
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:02 am

      I've always thought of those "Calvin" stickers on cars as something akin to heresy. Sad that you can't keep a beautiful thing beautiful...

    14. shecky
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:46 am

      The stickers I always thought were a bit disturbing, transforming Calvin into a sociopath. They seemed to escalate in offensiveness for a while. I wouldn't be surprised to them evolve into Calvin sodomizing people/things/ideas that the car owners dislike.

    15. Lemons
      November 20th, 2008 at 1:56 am

      @Matt- That's actually due to the constraints on most Sunday-format strips. Most Sunday comics are/were sold with possible alternate layouts, thus forcing a strict panel-by-panel structure. The idea was that, if needed, the newspaper could cut out the first few panels and rearrange the panels to fit their page layout, and it's why you'll see a lot of "throwaway jokes" at the beginning. Later on, I believe Watterson fought to have C+H presented either in the format he drew, or not at all-- it cost him a few newspapers, but he ultimately thought it was worth it because he suddenly was free to eschew panel setups and draw much larger scenes. It's explained more clearly in the Tenth Anniversary Book, iirc.

    16. Bored
      November 20th, 2008 at 6:52 am

      Ugh, I hate those decals. You know the car is full of douchebags when you see one. Good find on the anniversary!

    17. matt
      November 20th, 2008 at 9:25 am

      thanks, lemons. i was aware of the in-fighting he was having with his format back in the day, but unaware of the formal constraints most sunday paper layouts put on everyone across the board. an interesting tidbit; thanks.

    18. ted
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:04 am

      I always assumed the decals were not approved, simply because they are so opposite to the idea of Calvin.

      lol @ the s0d0mizing comment. Maybe he could get together with the naked mud-flap girl.

    19. renderanything
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:14 am

      Fake Calvin pees on lawyers.
      I'm still making my way through the complete collection, and I appreciate the extra tid-bits.

    20. Namowal
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:37 am

      The religious Calvin bootlegs are as vulgar as the peeing ones. I wouldn't mind them using an original character, but ripping off someone else? What happened to "thou shall not steal?"

    21. Bill
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:46 am

      a lot of those early commandments got revised and reappropriated as 'thou shalt not think'

    22. John Jones
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am

      Calvin and Holmes RULE

    23. Hon Thraj
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am

      Great that he stopped doing it. Too many franchises are stretched out too long until they become disappointing and uninteresting and all the reader can feel is sadness at the great decline of what the reader once loved.

      Calvin & Hobbes - Never Jumped the Shark!

      Great idea for another copyright infringement t-shirt.

    24. KV
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

      Love Calvin & Hobbs. Discovered them in early 20's and when my son was old enough to read we started reading them together. He's 15 now and we still look over the books we have together every so often - and they still crack us up!! Best comic ever made.

    25. hobbes3
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

      @ Matt

      The reason the first two panels can be a standalone punchline is because in some newspapers, they allocate less space for C&H's Sunday comics, so they delete the header panel and the first two panels. Notice that the panels are also size proportioned so that without the header and the first two panels they can be rearranged from landscape to portrait layout (and reducing the size as well).

      Of course C&H also occasionally made a single panel Sunday comic that could obviously *not* be resized. Watterson's decision to draw these single panel comics angered many editors.

    26. Dan of the North
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

      Watterson's a genius! So many people can relate to Calvin & Hobbes.

      You know something is a success if when it's over, people still want more.

    27. Calvin
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

      That he was a genius. I was named over the comic strip in 89 and have collected and read all of his masterpieces several times.

    28. Disco Stu
      November 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

      I too am 33 and grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes.
      For Christmas last year, my wife gave me "The complete Calvin and Hobbes collection" it is 3 large hardcover books and weighs in at nearly 50lbs. Every time I leaf through it, I end up in tears laughing. My wife things I'm insane....who am I to argue.

      My favourite Calvin and Hobbes quote:
      (Calvin and Hobbes standing over a tree-stump)
      "Hobbes...sometimes I think that the surest sign that intellegent life exists elsewhere in the universe, is that none of it has tried to contact us."

      Brilliant.
      Mr. Waterson, you are a very insightful and funny, funny man.

    29. 33ed45
      November 20th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

      As far as the origins of "wormwood" - it's entirely possible that C.S. Lewis got his character's name from the bible, because his work has a great deal of influence from/meaning about Christianity (so you might all be right).

    30. The REAL Hobbes
      November 20th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

      Yeah, here we go again; Calvin, Calvin, Calvin. That's all people seem to know. Am I invisible or something? What is it that makes that little snot-nose so popular? Where would he be without me, eh? Nowhere, that's where! Without me he's nothing, NOTHING, DO YOU HEAR ME, NOTHING!!!!

    31. Lore
      November 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

      My love for Calvin and Hobbes began when I found them in my library when I was 10. My favorite scenes were always the ones with Rasalyn the babysitter and all the trouble that they got into. Watterson was a genius and should be commended for it.

    32. Louie Lovas
      November 20th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

      I'm 49 years old and I've been a Calvin and Hobbes fan from the very beginning. I own all his books - even all the repeat hardbound volumes. I have a framed copy of the final Sunday strip hanging on the wall in my office. Back in the day, every morning the first part of the newspaper I read was C&H. Nowadays, I don't even read the comics anymore.
      I still read the books... to my kids. They've all grown up with me reading them Calvin stories - laughing hysterically (even though I've read them a dozen times over). Best comic strip 'ever' and I mean ever.

      I can imagine reading them and laughing when I'm 80.

      C&H fan for life.

    33. Gerg
      November 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

      My all time favorite comic!!! I've always detested the car stickers as well. They always seemed to mirror the ignorant jacka** driving the car or, here in the south, truck. They did the Tasmanian devil the same way.
      ...Taz holding a rebel flag... SHAME!
      HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GUYS! :)

    34. SenorMysterioso
      November 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

      I remember being sad when he ended the strip. Calvin and Hobbes is great.

    35. MoodySteve
      November 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

      I started ‘reading’ Calvin and Hobbes years before I could actually read; it started with me looking at the funny illustrations and then eventually asking my grandfather to read them to me. That became our ritual – reading Calvin and Hobbes together and laughing until our stomachs hurt.
      20 years later… my grandpa’s gone now and I still feel a warm bond with him every time I open up a Calvin & Hobbes book. Not only has Bill Watterson provided me with an endless source of humor, but with an endless source of nostalgia as well.
      Happy Annivesary!

    36. tony l.
      November 20th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

      I'm from Bill Watterson's hometown.

      The year he graduated from our high school, the entire yearbook has pre-C&H imagery drawn all of it.

      There's a desk, that I imagine is still there, that he drew all over and was shellacked and sat in Mr. Piai's History class. I was lucky enough to have it as my desk for 10th grade history (in 1990).

      And if you look at the back cover of the 10th anniv book of Calvin & Hobbes, it shows Calvin as a giant walking through downtown Chagrin Falls, eating and destroying buildings.

      Woohoo!

    37. Stephane Grenier
      November 20th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

      I have to admit, I was a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes. It has to be one of the funniest strips ever. Too bad Bill retired, otherwise I suspect I'd still be buying his books.

    38. sloane
      November 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

      I miss Calvin sooo much that was the the only thing I read in the paper for years.

    39. Bob Smythe
      November 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

      CENSORSHIP RULES! Especially when it done out of fear. How come you haven't censored #21 from Bill? Or are you only afraid of offending the scary muslims?

      Weak.

    40. ntopics
      November 20th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

      Calvin and Hobbes are great to see.
      Glad you all are around and I look
      forward to see more of your work.

      thanks from tony

    41. earl
      November 20th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

      I loved C&H in its first run. Now I enjoy it once again, every day at:

    42. earl
      November 20th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

      I loved C&H during its first run. Now I enjoy it once again, every day at: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/

    43. ted
      November 20th, 2008 at 6:52 pm

      Wow, Bob Smythe. Now my curiosity is piqued; I almost wish I knew what you said. You realize, of course, you are free to start your own blog where you can spew hateful comments about whomever you wish. I doubt I would visit, but you may get a small group, and eventually set up your own compound in the woods where you and your sexually insecure comrades can await the end of days with your loyal followers and your pre-teen wives.

      I note your initials are "BS". Very subtle for a troll.

    44. samlive
      November 20th, 2008 at 7:36 pm

      I get so angry whenever I see calvin "praying" in front of a cross plastered on some SUV with plates that say "lv4jsus". I have to physically remove myself from the area, lest I bash in the cars windows. I always walk away mumbling to myself "did those people even ACTUALLY READ calvin and hobbes? Do they have any idea what kind of child calvin is?"
      sure its possible that calvin is religious, but there's no way he'd ever willingly attend church until he was at least in his 20's. and even then he'd definitely attend a very liberal, open minded organization.

    45. Noelegy
      November 20th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

      Re: ripping off of trademarked material for religious purposes. Years ago a coworker had a catalog of T-shirts and the like with very familiar-looking logos repurposed for Christian messages: for example, the distinctive "The Lord of the Rings" logo and font rephrased as "The Lord and the King," or something like that.

      I expressed doubt that such blatant ripoffery could be legal. Her response was that it served a higher law than that of man. This was the same woman who firmly believed that in the future everyone will have RDI chips forcefully implanted in their hands (which made me giggle, because all I could think of was "Futurama" and how one had to have a career chip implanted in one's hand).

    46. Noelegy
      November 20th, 2008 at 7:52 pm

      P.S. "Calvin and Hobbes" was and is brilliant.

    47. cmholm
      November 20th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

      Loved C&H back in the day, especially Spaceman Spiff.

      My favorite rip-off: a Spaceman Spliff t-shirt, seen at a Dead show years ago. Calvin and Hobbes were in desperate need of some eye drops. Too bad I've never been able to google a reference to it. The links all lead to some DJ.

    48. Lonnie
      November 20th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

      Calvin & Hobbes was the most inspiring and creative comic strip to have ever existed. No doubt.

      While I respect Mr. Watterson's integrity by not "selling out", I do take exception with his not signing autographs. While it's true that some people will sell his signature on ebay, most people would truly treasure just having a memento from meeting him. I know some celebrities are upset that someone is making money from their autograph, but I think they're doing OK without this little extra income. I'm sorry, but he just sounds like a snob.

    49. Miles
      November 20th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

      I don't consider Bill Waterson a cartoonist. He is an artist and in the ranking of comics, no one is even playing the same sport.

    50. andras
      November 21st, 2008 at 4:12 am

      I really admire Watterson.
      Apart from this statement which does not really warrant a separate post, a question: what's the deal with the Calvin-prays-at-the-cross sticker? Both the kid and the cross has a very sinister feeling; it does not really look the "loving Christian" at all.

    51. ju2tin
      November 21st, 2008 at 7:37 am

      At least Watterson went out on top, like Larson. I would have much fonder memories of Bloom Country if Berkely Breathed had never drawn Outland or Opus.

    52. Rocky Rook
      November 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pm

      C&H was and is the best strip ever.

    53. ddc
      November 21st, 2008 at 4:42 pm

      Named my kid Calvin. That says it all.

    54. hobbes is awsome42
      November 22nd, 2008 at 8:54 am

      hey, all i no is that bill watson is a genius. calvin and hobbs is the best comic ever made! it is AWSOME!!!!!!!

    55. heth
      November 23rd, 2008 at 3:17 pm

      Normally I don't 'get' American humour but Calvin and Hobbes remains my favourite cartoon strip ever.

    56. web
      December 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 am

      I used to stay up all night reading the Essential Calvin and Hobbes when I was 6!

    57. ntuser
      December 4th, 2008 at 4:34 am

      Calvin and Holmes RULE!

    58. John.BB
      December 5th, 2008 at 2:25 am

      Bob Smythe, Bill Watterson would not approve.

    59. Erin
      January 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

      does anyone know WHY calvin and hobbes were named after the theologian and philosopher? what exactly are they supposed to have in common?


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