Calvin and Hobbes

If I’d have to choose, I think I’d say that Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic strip. I have a huge compilation book of Calvin and Hobbes at home and I’m thinking of digging it out next time I visit. The character of Calvin is just so cute to me. He’s always thinking up little adventures and turning himself into epic super heroes. I really love stories about children with big imaginations and Calvin certainly has that imaginative spark. As a kid, my favorite cartoon was The Rugrats and Calvin and Hobbes reminds of the crazy, made up adventures Tommy and Chucky would venture on. The Rugrats were of course made for tv, so the characters had more room for larger and more detailed adventures, but with tiny newspaper space and usually no color, Calvin and Hobbes get to go on adventures just as funny as the babies in The Rugrats. Calvin is appealing to me for many reasons, yet one really stands out. His vocabulary is very large for such a little character. In one strip Calvin wants to play war with Hobbes and tells Hobbes he’ll be the “the fearless American defender of liberty and democracy” and Hobbes can be the “loathsome, Godless, communist oppressor.” To imagine a six year-old saying “Godless, communist oppressor” is just hilarious to me. We all know that six year-olds have no idea what communists are yet I totally go with it when I read this little boy saying such things. I like how annoying Calvin is to all of the other characters. He’s a total nuisance to everyone around him and he really has no idea. The illustrations are just really cute too. I love the way the characters look. They’re drawn with simple, yet at the same time, bold, black lines. I love Calvin’s giant head full of spiky, blonde hair and Hobbes’ lanky, plush body. The whole relationship between Calvin and Hobbes is interesting. They annoy each other, yet they’re best friends and always have each other’s backs. The thought of this silly little boy with an imaginary friend is very charming. It’s weird how it just doesn’t seem right when they show Hobbes as what he really is: an inanimate, stuffed, toy tiger. Yeah, I really think I’m going to search for my Calvin and Hobbes.