Blaglash.com

There are a few things in my childhood that stand out to me now.  One is Sunday nights and Ghostwriter, but even more clearly I remember waiting for my father to finish reading his newpapers so I could read the comics.  And in the comics section was a character that remains and inspiration to me to this day: Calvin.  Hobbes was cool too, but Calvin possessed this unearthly charisma for me- even though he was pen and ink on newspaper.  There are some individual strips that just seem to handily and simply explain the meaning of life, and I’m not kidding.

Calvin’s childhood is magical to me.  He has a vivid imagination, is super smart, rebellious, original and pretty much everything I look for today in a man.  His one liners are seriously the best things I’ve ever read, and the overall story of Calvin life is truly an achievement in comic art.  Bill Watterson, the author of Calvin and Hobbes, maintained a wonderful, pure and humorous vision throughout the life of the comic.  He even resisted many offers to sell out, you know, market Calvin.  Those peeing Calvin truck stickers?  He hated them.  So do I.

I was always so dissapointed at repeats when I was young.  I’d also get bummed if a strip focused on Calvin’s parents.

But now, I can appreciate the strips with Rosalyn and with Calvin’s parents.  Calvin was such a  viviacious kid, so unusual, it must have been hard to deal with him.  But the best thing about Calvin and his parents, is you know they didn’t spoil him, and you knew Calvin had his head on straight.  Unfortunately, in today’s “moral” environment, I don’t think newspapers would run Calvin and Hobbes; they’d cite violence as the reason.  Cause like, of the strips where he’d call hardware stores and libraries and ask if they had the supplies for home made bombs.  But if you follow Calvin, you know he’d never blow up the school.  At least on purpose.

One last thing: Susie is awesome, and I kind of picture them falling in love and getting married and having Calvin Jr.  Susie and Calvin constantly struggled, and even though Calvin made the typical 6 year old sexist remarks, Susie always won; not only battles of brain but those of brawn.  Yet their exchanges were consistently emotional, and Susie kept on sitting next to him at lunch, and Calvin always secretly wanted to be invited to her birthday party.  I wish Watterson would make a graphic novel of Calvin’s later life, using the wisdom that colored Calvin’s childhood and apply it to his adulthood.