The next day, by contrast, our buddy-comedy protagonists might muse on themes befitting a comic-strip title that name-checks two lofty thinkers. In one day’s strip, Calvin and Hobbes might engage in, say, a ballet of physical comedy – the stretch and squash effects rendering the strip as near to animation as a static art form can. Calvin rebels against that, therefore he always remains a hero.”Ĭalvin’s irrepressible nature is often comedically set against would-be toy tiger Hobbes, who, alive through Calvin’s eyes, holds forth as the voice of reason – leading to art that revels in both the physical and the philosophical. You get into adulthood, you get held down by your various responsibilities. “He stands for that rebellious spirit in the fact of a world that kind of holds you down. “I think that’s why to this day, some people get (Calvin) tattooed on their bodies,” Pastis continues. You’re really boxed in, and all you have is individual expression,” says Pastis, who collaborated with the “Calvin and Hobbes” creator on a week of “Pearls” strips in 2014, marking Watterson’s only public return to the comics page since 1995. Watterson “accurately captured how put-upon you feel as a kid – how limited you are by your parents, by your babysitter, by (schoolteacher) Miss Wormwood. Stephan Pastis, creator of “Pearls Before Swine,” views Calvin as an expression of pure childlike id, yet thinks there is a whole other dynamic that makes many of Calvin’s acts of imagination so appealing. Watterson’s ability to tap into childhood, including his own memories, propels Calvin’s flights of fancy, whether he is climbing into a capsule as Spaceman Spiff (facing down alien overlords as stand-ins for Calvin’s real-life authority figures) or imagining himself to be a fearsome beast. That dialogue reflects the comic’s sheer joy in taking readers on wild rides, exploring the creative possibilities with youthful abandon. A fresh snow is like “having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!” says Hobbes in the final strip. Just what is it about “Calvin and Hobbes” that continues to enchant so many?įor some fans and fellow artists, it begins with the comic’s sense of boundless imagination. “I don’t think any strip since ‘Peanuts’ made such an impact on so many people.” “Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Calvinball, G.R.O.S.S., the wagon rides, Calvin’s battles with his food, Calvin’s epic confrontations with (babysitter) Rosalyn, the cardboard-box inventions, Stupendous Man – and that’s just off the top of my head,” says curator Andrew Farago, whose Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco has exhibited Watterson’s original art. Ask a fan for a favorite “Calvin and Hobbes” scenario, and a stream of recurring comic premises pours forth. “I like to think that, now that I’m not recording everything they do, Calvin and Hobbes are out there having an even better time.”
“It seemed a gesture of respect and gratitude toward my characters to leave them at top form,” Watterson wrote in his introduction to “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes” box set.
31, 1995 – the day of the week on which creator Bill Watterson could create on a large color-burst canvas of dynamic art and narrative possibility, harking back to great early newspaper comics like “Krazy Kat.” The cartoonist bid farewell knowing his strip was at its aesthetic pinnacle. The final “Calvin and Hobbes” strip was fittingly published on a Sunday – Dec. It remains a tiger – the tiger – burning bright. And to this day, the creation – once syndicated to 2,000-plus papers – is ever-present on bestseller lists, in libraries and nested on home shelves within easy reach of nostalgic adults and each next generation of young readers.ĭecades later, the brilliance of “Calvin and Hobbes” refuses to dim. “Calvin and Hobbes,” one of the greatest strips ever to grace newspapers, blazed across the pages for a beautiful decade before heading off into the white space of our imaginations, trusting us to continue the next adventures in our heads. Yet the beloved duo have never really left us. “A new year … a fresh, clean start!” a joyous boy in red mittens said a quarter-century ago this week shortly before soaring forth on the most famous sled in American arts this side of “Citizen Kane.” And just like that, the high-spirited 6-year-old and his best buddy were never seen again – at least not in new images.
0 kommentar(er)
