Happy 30th Anniversary Calvin And Hobbes!

On this day 30 years ago a brilliant cartoonist named Bill Watterson introduced the world to an adventurous and mischievous six-year-old boy named Calvin and his anthropomorphic stuffed tiger, Hobbes.  

From their amazing debut on November 18, 1985, till their final appearance on December 31, 1995, Calvin and Hobbes inspired an entire generation of American children and young adults.  

The first Calvin and Hobbes comic strip published on November 18, 1985 by cartoonist Bill Watterson.

  
Calvin and Hobbes has been an inspiration for all of us guys who nostalgically remembered the days we were once young boys and only needed their active imagination and favorite toy/best friend to get by in life. These were the days when girls were still icky and stupid and parents were totally clueless -- at least as we saw it at the time. 

I was nine-years-old at the time and remember reading the very first Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in my grandpa's paper. I was hooked right from the start. 

As an awkward kid, identified with Calvin right from the start: a highly over-imaginative rugrat who was the constant target of bullying by jerks, teachers who could not understand his brilliance, parents who did not appreciate his sense of humor, and best friends with a stuffed tiger that came to life in his imagination. 

Actually, as an adult today I know that Calvin was a bit of a little arrogant snot who was usually kept in check by his parents and -- to a degree -- by Hobbes and his often sardonic sense of humor. He was also the outlet for a bit of anti-social behavior. Unlike Calvin, any kid today fantasizing about blowing up his school with an F-15 fighter jet, or writing school reports about natural selections that involve predatory dinosaurs eating his "arch nemesis" Susie, and building snowmen being eaten alive by monsters with today's (somewhat bizarre and ridiculous) zero tolerance policies would probably have resulted with a trip to a psychiatrist for said child, and a good deal of medication....a fact once parodied by the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken.

Still, the rebellious adventures of Calvin and his sidekick Hobbes never failed to entertain me as a youth. Every week, through the outstanding comic artwork of Watterson, I would follow the duo on countless adventures from the densest jungles, to alien worlds and outer space, to the height of the Cretaceous Period as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, or a Deinonychus, playing superhero, and even the film noir world of the private investigator. 

Also what kid can honestly say they never pretended that a simple cardboard box wasn't a time machine, or space ship at one time, or another?

Calvin & Hobbes Travel Back To The Jurassic Period. Artwork by Watterson.

The philosophy of Watterson, as told by Calvin.

Foxtrot By Bill Amend. A Homage By One Comic Genius To Another.

Calvin and Hobbes will always be one of my top ten favorite comic strips of all time, and certainly one of the most inspiring to this writer and blogger's overactive imagination. 

 

Thank you for helping make my transition from childhood to adulthood awesome, Mr. Bill Watterson!