Calvin and Hobbes | |
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The cover of Calvin and Hobbes, the first collection of comic strips, released in April 1987
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Author(s) | Bill Watterson |
Website | www |
Current status / schedule | Concluded |
Launch date | November 18, 1985 |
End date | December 31, 1995 |
Syndicate(s) | Universal Press Syndicate |
Publisher(s) | Andrews McMeel Publishing |
Genre(s) | Humor, family life, politics, satire |
Calvin | |
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First appearance | November 18, 1985 |
Created by | Bill Watterson |
Comic | Calvin and Hobbes |
Information | |
Age | 6 |
Hobbes | |
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First appearance | November 18, 1985 |
Created by | Bill Watterson |
Comic strip | Calvin and Hobbes |
Information | |
Species | Bengal tiger |
The Father and Mother | |
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Calvin's unnamed parents, usually referred to only as "Mom" and "Dad"
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First appearance |
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Created by | Bill Watterson |
Comic | Calvin and Hobbes |
Susie Derkins | |
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Susie Derkins, Calvin's classmate
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First appearance | December 5, 1985 |
Created by | Bill Watterson |
Comic | Calvin and Hobbes |
Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic",Calvin and Hobbes has evinced broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic interest.
Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair is named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. Set in the contemporary, suburban United States, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and his friendship with Hobbes. It also examines Calvin's relationships with family and classmates, especially the love/hate relationship between him and his classmate, Susie Derkins. Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger; all the other characters see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, philosophical quandaries, and the flaws of opinion polls.
At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. In 2010, reruns of the strip appeared in more than 50 countries, and nearly 45 million copies of the Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold.