Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)

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Calvin
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance November 18, 1985

Calvin is a fictional character in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. He is one of the strip's primary characters, along with Hobbes. Calvin is most remembered for his "dastardly plots" (most of the time against girls), his humor, his wisdom (and misapplication thereof) and his extensive vocabulary uncharacteristic to a six year old. His first piece of dialogue was the line, "So long, Pop. I'm off to check my tiger trap". His last line of dialogue was also the strip's final line: "It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy... Let's go exploring!" Calvin appeared in almost every Calvin and Hobbes strip printed and published.

Contents 1 Personality 2 Calvin's alter-egos 3 Inventions 4 The Noodle Incident 5 Grades 6 Christmas 7 Philosophical reference 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Personality

Named after 16th Century theologian John Calvin, (founder of Calvinism and a strong believer in predestination which Calvin mentions several times in the strip), Calvin is an impulsive, insubordinate, imaginative, energetic, curious, bratty, rambunctious, obnoxious, irate, and intelligent six-year-old, and is often very selfish. He's usually lost in his own little world. Though Calvin is usually shown as caring only about himself, he has appeared otherwise on occasion to have a deep care for animals, such as the time he found an injured baby raccoon. He got his parents to try to help it, and then cried when it died. He also mourns the loss of a bird that died when it hit a window. He decries birds' inability to write memoirs and constantly tries to make Hobbes feel inferior for being a tiger, yet just as often the reader finds Calvin commenting on the pettiness of humans and envying the quiet dignity of animal life. Calvin appears to be ambidextrous, because he is shown left-handed in some strips and right-handed in others.

Despite his abysmal grades, Calvin has a wide vocabulary and an advanced sense of irony that rivals that of an adult. His grapples with philosophical quandaries (explored - and illustrated - most elaborately during hazardous sled and wagon rides) are usually cut short by a crash, banal distraction, mischievous urge or, as seen here, a sarcastic retort from one of his parents:

Calvin: "Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life and in some way compensate for all of the opportunities you botched?"

Calvin's father: "If I were, you can bet I'd be re-evaluating my strategy."

Calvin (later, to his mother): "Mom, Dad keeps insulting me."

Another example of Calvin's advanced vocabulary:

Calvin: "I've been disempowered! My centering, self-actualizing anima has been impacted by toxic, co-dependent dysfunctionality!"

Calvin's mother: "You've been temporarily inconvenienced. Take out the trash."

Calvin: "ARE YOU SAYING THERE'S A DIFFERENCE?!"

He has also said, "You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!" In school, he typically does almost no work; for a project on bats, he writes a brief poem that describes bats as "unspeakable giant bugs" (on the basis that "they fly" and "they're ugly and hairy"), and for his "scientific illustration", he "traced the Batman logo and added fangs". Calvin is guilty of a lot of groundless bragging, once asking everybody to introduce him as 'Calvin, Boy of Destiny' and 'Calvin the Bold', even putting the name on tests beside 'Official Notary Seals.'

His boastfulness is more amusing because of how poor a student he really is. For a report on the mythology of Mercury (with Susie), he writes a short statement (5 minutes before it's due) about how Mercury was the god of flowers and bouquets, as evidenced by the registered trademark of Florists' Transworld Delivery. He concludes by saying, "Why they named a planet after this guy, I can't imagine." Calvin's lack of discipline infuriates Susie and earns him another F (because Susie was his partner, this is also her first F).

Calvin's precocious vocabulary, imagination and curiosity are always struggling against his complete refusal to learn anything he doesn't want to - from teachers, parents or the lessons that emerge from his follies. When he willingly goes to the library to learn about snakes, he then realizes learning can be fun when not enforced. Thus Calvin seems to suffer from bad grades out of boredom. He drifts off in class, imagining it as a prison with Miss Wormwood as the warden, or himself as Spaceman Spiff, his teacher now a slobbering alien monster to be destroyed by lasers. He has a wide knowledge of dinosaurs.

Miss Wormwood rightly observes that Calvin spends more energy evading work and thinking of creative excuses than he would actually working. In one instance, he writes: "I cannot answer this question as it is against my religious principles"; on another occasion he answers "I don't know" for every question in his homework. During another test Calvin writes, "I cannot release this information as it might compromise our agents in the field." (He mentions his tests are "popular reading in the teacher's lounge") Rather than seek real help, Calvin usually defers to the only one he really trusts - Hobbes, who despite all his regal feline wisdom shares Calvin's penchant for creative stupidity, often turning simple math problems into overcomplicated nonsense (he solves addition by invoking algebra, as in "let's begin with Y, as in "Why do we care?", once declared that "numerator" was Latin for "number eighter", and told Calvin during a test that seven plus three was seventy-three).

Despite their friendly fighting, Calvin considers Hobbes the most intelligent creature in his life and rarely perceives his 'help' as misguided. Occasionally, he allows his Dad to teach him math (via cunningly stealing money), resulting in Calvin betting Susie Derkins 25 cents over a math test. Calvin of course fails (due to day dreaming about Spaceman Spiff) and reluctantly pays up. Later he brags to Hobbes that he cheated Susie by only giving her three dimes, much to the amusement of Hobbes. Their buffoonish rapport as partners in mischief is the strip's most endearing quality, but the lesson they take away from any situation is usually the wrong one.

Calvin loves Hobbes when they're best friends. However, Calvin frequently gets enraged at Hobbes, such as during the storyline in one Sunday strip where Hobbes wins a game of checkers.

He commonly wears his distinctive red-and-black striped shirt, black jeans, and magenta sneakers, which are prone to get knocked off his feet when he's pummeled by Hobbes after returning from home or by class bully Moe at school. Watterson has described Calvin thus:

• "Calvin is pretty easy to do because he is outgoing and rambunctious and there's not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth."^[1]
• "I guess he's a little too intelligent for his age. The thing that I really enjoy about him is that he has no sense of restraint, he doesn't have the experience yet to know the things that you shouldn't do."^{[citation needed]}
• "The socialization that we all go through to become adults teaches you not to say certain things because you later suffer the consequences. Calvin doesn't know that rule of thumb yet."^{[citation needed]}

The subject of Calvin's grades was addressed in another strip, where Calvin's father points out that he loves to learn, and "has read just about every dinosaur book ever written". He then asks, "So why aren't you doing better in school?" to which Calvin replies, "We don't read about dinosaurs".^{[citation needed]}

Calvin certainly doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. In one of his various silly money-making schemes, Calvin is shown standing behind a box with “SCIENTIFIC NAMES: $1.00” written on it:

Hobbes: "Scientific names?"

Calvin: "Sure. Scientists think up all these cool, wacky theories, but then give them dull, unimaginative names. For instance, scientists think space is full of mysterious, invisible mass, so, what do they call it??? Dark matter! DUUHHHHHH!!! I tell you, there’s a fortune to be made here!"

Hobbes: "I like to say ‘Quark!’ Quark, quark, quark, quark!"

Calvin: "Instead of making a fool of yourself, how about you go and find me some scientists?"

Calvin sometimes displays antisocial tendencies. He has wished he were dead, only to then say he really wished that everyone else was dead at least once, and often shows reluctance to join organizations. For example, story lines involving him as a Cub Scout were dropped because Watterson saw them as uncharacteristic, and, while explaining to Susie on a see-saw why he didn't sign up for recess baseball, says he hates organized sports (as opposed to when he plays with Hobbes), saying "I figure when I [want to get bossed around], I'll join the Army and at least get paid."^{[citation needed]}

Calvinistic predestination as a philosophical position basically entails the idea that the human action affecting a person's ultimate salvation or damnation is predestined beforehand. Calvin's consistent gripe is that the troublesome acts he commits are outside of his control: he is simply a product of his environment, a victim of circumstances. Calvin once told Hobbes that he (Calvin) believes in predestiny because "life is a lot more fun when you're not responsible for your actions." He does frequently escape from his environment into elaborate fantasy worlds; one of the strip's recurring devices is the humorous juxtaposition of Calvin's fantastic perception with the quotidian viewpoint of other characters. On many occasions, Calvin sees himself in an alternate guise; as the astronaut and explorer Spaceman Spiff, the superhero Stupendous Man, the private eye Tracer Bullet and many others (see Calvin's alter-egos).

In addition, Calvin has a highly developed artistic streak for his age. This is evident during the winter when Calvin indulges in constructing highly creative, if typically grotesque, snowmen and related tableaux.

Both Calvin and Hobbes seem to be fans of Batman and Astro Boy, which are the only "real" superheroes Calvin likes (Captain Napalm and Nukeman being unique to the strip), although he is never seen reading any of the comics. There have been a few references in some strips, one such is when Calvin begs his mom for dinosaur merchandise at the museum gift shop, and then he uses a trick, saying that the toys are educational for him.

After his mom buys the toys, Calvin says: "I wonder if we can get any Batman junk this way!", stating that his mom probably won't buy him any Batman merchandise, which could be a reference to the critical reaction toward the film Batman Returns for its dark nature, which was believed to be inappropriate for children at the time. Another reference is when Calvin and Hobbes are talking about why superheroes won't battle more realistic, subtle supervillains in comic books, not "evil maniacs with grandiose plots to destroy the world".

Hobbes agrees, and thinks that superheroes could send letters to the editor and pursue civic involvement rather than crime fighting. He then shouts: "Quick, to the Bat-Fax!", which is a parody of Adam West's famous catchphrase: "Quick, to the Batmobile!" from the 1960s Batman television series.

Calvin loves a cereal called "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs" to the point of obsession. Hobbes, on the other hand, despises the cereal, describing it as "like eating a bowl of Milk Duds" and on the same occasion, "pure sugar."

[edit] Calvin's alter-egos

Calvin's hyperactive imagination leads him to imagine himself as other characters with different powers and goals; he sometimes vanishes into a fantasy to escape a difficult situation (like a school quiz). It is important to note that Hobbes is not seen taking part in the fantasies involving Calvin's alter-egos, other than criticizing his choice of alternate personae. In many comics which involve Calvin in an alter ego, the strip is heavily stylized in such a manner as to portray Calvin's environment from his imaginative point of view.

On several occasions, Calvin has appeared as either a larger or a smaller version of himself, wreaking havoc like Godzilla or crawling across a book page as "Calvin, the human insect." More frequently, however, his imagination transforms him into a being of a different kind. He also daydreams at school as "Spaceman Spiff". While he imagines that he is "Spaceman Spiff", he often daydreams that Miss Wormwood or his parents are hostile aliens trying to take him as a prisoner. He creates different water scenarios while taking a bath, such as imitating Godzilla, facing an enemy monster, Megalon, which was actually his mother. Also, he's behaved like a breaching whale or attacking shark. He occasionally transforms into the super hero "Stupendous Man."

Sometimes, Calvin transforms into "Tracer Bullet", a private eye that shares Calvin's amazing vocabulary. Even though this is another recurrent transformation, Bill Watterson states that they are very time consuming and, hence, he does not make many of them. He also states that "the eye, being lazy, is attracted to white space, especially when the panels are so small." This presents a problem due to Watterson's excessive use of black to present the Tracer Bullet panels. This, as many other items in it, are "spoofs on the genre", as Watterson states. Tracer Bullet stories usually apply to Calvin breaking something, and his parents trying to blame him for it.

[edit] Inventions

Calvin occasionally makes machines (usually made out of a cardboard box), which normally lead to disaster. Here is a list of his inventions:

• Transmogrifier: This is a cardboard box with the open side facing down. It has a dial on the side with various creatures labeled. When the button is pressed, it morphs the subject(s) under the box into whatever the dial is set to, usually to some sort of animal. For example, in a comic story in "The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes," Calvin morphs into an elephant in order to memorize his homework. If the object to be transmogrified to is not on the box, the subject can write new items on any blank space on the box at will and transmogrify into them. The problem is that only Calvin and Hobbes can see whatever Calvin morphed into because their imagination is probably being used. So all the other people still see him as a child.

• Portable Transmogrifier, a.k.a. Transmogrifier Gun: This device is a squirt gun that transforms the target into whatever the shooter is thinking of, usually an animal of some sort. When Calvin defends his invention by saying "... you don't like the color of your bedspread. Press this button,and ZAP! It's an iguana." to which Hobbes replies "One can imagine the myriad of uses for a hand-held iguana maker." However, it often has unintended consequences because it relies on the users mind to determine what the thing being transformed will be turned into. When Hobbes turns Calvin into a pterodactyl, he turns out much smaller than he expected, and is disappointed enough to shoot Hobbes back, turning him into a duck. This starts a shooting war that uses up the ammunition before Calvin can revert to a human but after Hobbes can return to his normal self. Somehow Calvin turns back on his own; Calvin presumes the effects simply "wore off" overnight. On another occasion, while free-falling after his balloon popped high up in the atmosphere, Calvin shoots himself with the gun with the idea of making himself "safe", and transforms into a hurtling safe. Calvin later says he then transmogrified himself into a light particle. As well as a pterodactyl or safe, it also transforms Calvin into a flower and Hobbes into a troll, proving that the transmogrifier can create extinct creatures, mythical creatures, plants, and inanimate objects.

• Duplicator: The same cardboard box, but with the opening laid sideways and with a button on it. It can clone whoever is inside it (making a 'boink' sound as it does so); Calvin clones himself in an attempt to get his chores done. However, the clone rebels, running off to play, and later creating four additional clones, all of whom get Calvin into trouble and leave him to take the blame. Calvin eventually turns all of the clones into worms while they are hiding under the cardboard box, which he turns into a Transmogrifier by writing on it with a marker.

• Upgraded Duplicator, with Ethicator: This is the original duplicator, but with an "ethicator" added (an arrow dial that points to either "Good" or "Bad"). Calvin creates a "good" version of himself to perform his chores and go to school. Initially, Calvin appears to have undergone a significant personality change; the "good" version has neatly combed hair, is extremely helpful and responsible. He is even-tempered, and, to Calvin's consternation, develops a heavy crush on Susie Derkins. When the "good" Calvin learns of Calvin's reputation through Susie, he becomes angry, and threatens to rip Calvin limb from limb. He is automatically destroyed for having an evil thought, which Calvin describes as a "built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron". Hobbes points out how even Calvin's good side is "prone to badness".

• Time Machine: The same cardboard box with the open side facing up. Calvin initially plans to take himself and Hobbes into the future in order to take back a future invention to become rich, but they face the wrong way and end up in the Jurassic period, the past, encountering a disturbed mother Apatosaurus. On another trip, they realized their mistake, and take photographic proof. But his dad claims that they are photos of his toy dinosaurs out in their front yard. The dinosaurs that Calvin and Hobbes see are all from the Late Jurassic period (Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and Allosaurus). Calvin also attempts a smaller-scale time travel one night; He goes from 6:30 to 8:30 in order to pick up a completed school assignment. But learns from the 8:30 version of himself that he (himself) hadn't done the work and hence he (the 8:30 version) does not have it. While the original and 8:30 Calvins fruitlessly attempt to get hold of the 7:30 Calvin, whom both of them blame, to do the work, the 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbeses finish the work, an essay about Calvin fighting with the other 2 Calvins while time traveling.

• Box of Secrecy: In a strip, Susie has to stay at Calvin's house for a few hours. Horrified by this idea, Calvin calls an emergency meeting of G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimey GirlS) to deal with the situation, but there isn't enough time to get to the regular HQ (Calvin's treehouse). Hence, he and Hobbes crawl underneath the cardboard box to hold a n emergency meeting. The name 'Box of Secrecy' is a take on the 'Cone of Silence' in the television series Get Smart. (In the same strip, Hobbes asks if they could punch holes in it to breathe through, but Calvin says that it is "Too Risky".)

• Cerebral Enhance-o-Tron: A colander, worn on one's head, attached by three strings (input, output, and ground) to a cardboard box. Calvin uses this to make himself super-intelligent so that he can think of a topic for a "persuasive argument"-style paper he has to do for homework. As a side-effect of its use, his forehead becomes much larger (apparently "[his] brain swelled"). Both the swelling and the super-intelligence are temporary, so when the intelligence wears off, his forehead returns to normal size. A very similar looking prop appeared in the 1984 motion picture Ghostbusters, as a brain scanning device.

• Concession Stand: This is not a machine, but often Calvin has been seen selling things by using his cardboard box as a desk, crudely writing the name of the "product," and the (sometimes) exorbitant price on the side. Calvin has been shown to try and sell a large number of things like this, many are real, overpriced products like crude lemonade (for $15), and random things such as, "A Swift Kick in the Butt." These sales often lead to injury, usually from Calvin's customer to Calvin. For example, Calvin made a concession stand that sold "Life" for 5 cents:
  • SUSIE: Here's a nickel. What do I get?
  • CALVIN: Nothing. I just ripped you off.
  • SUSIE: WHAT?
  • CALVIN: That's life!

The first thing that Calvin sells is insurance, which he demonstrates the usefulness thereof to Susie by firing a slingshot at her.

[edit] The Noodle Incident

The Noodle Incident is a running gag about a most likely unpleasant event in which Calvin was involved in the past. Whenever a character, usually Hobbes, mentions it to Calvin, he immediately gets very defensive about it. Watterson never actually showed the incident itself, choosing instead to let the reader decide for themselves what happened.

[edit] Grades

Calvin also explains his poor grades to Susie Derkins, when Miss Wormwood gives everyone their test back:

Calvin: What grade did you get?

Susie: I got an A.

Calvin: Really? Boy, I'd hate to be you. I got a C.

Susie: Why on Earth would you rather get a C than an A?

Calvin: I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations.

It should also be noted that he received an 'A' on one of his tests, as the panels panned to a grand-scale image of a parade thrown in Calvin's honor. Much to his dismay, Miss Wormwood immediately returned to the lesson plan, completely disregarding the anomaly. Also, Calvin got an A+ on the assignment that Hobbes from one point in time, and the same Hobbes from two hours later in time, wrote it for him. Although it is commonly mentioned that he gets bad grades, he is only shown getting an "F" on only one test/homework paper (although on projects and reports, it is obvious he did horrible on them, having twice gotten a "D-" and a "D--" on his insect collection). This was in a Spaceman Spiff story. He also gets bad grading stickers (happy face, frowny face, etc.) in a strip when he has a conversation with Susie about his grades. She claims to have a happy face sticker and guesses out loud that Calvin got a frowny face sticker. He tells her that he did not get a frowny face, which is revealed in the next panel to be the truth when he thinks,"I never even knew they made barfing face stickers!".

[edit] Christmas

Calvin is always full of holiday stress. Every year at the beginning of December Calvin forces himself to start being good. He seems to be convinced that no matter how bad he has been the other eleven months of the year, as long as he is good right before Christmas Santa will bring him presents. Every Christmas season Calvin endures major internal struggles as to whether the presents are worth being good. He once wrote a letter to Santa Claus, claiming to be his non-existent little brother, "Melville". One quote from a series of Christmas stories really exemplifies this struggle: "Throwing these snowballs will give me instant and assured gratification, while being good will give me delayed and unassured gratification." Calvin dreams that Santa tells him that the bullies and brats get presents (in Calvin's case, weapons of mass destruction) while the well-behaved kids get coal, if anything at all. Calvin also hypothesizes with Hobbes about the existence of an "Evil Santa", a twin brother of Santa Claus who gives toys to the bad girls and boys and rewards those who behave with "socks and underwear".

[edit] Philosophical reference

The historical crossover between the actual Calvin and Hobbes is, in fact the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, being born in Geneva under Calvinist rule. He wrote Contract Social, inspired by Thomas Hobbes. In this context, it is easy to make similarities to his book Émile, advising on the upbringing of a young boy. Rousseau states that freedom and imagination is important for his development.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Calvin and Hobbes Publicity site at Andrews McMeel Publishing

v • d • e Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson Characters Calvin · Hobbes · Secondary characters · Calvin's alter egos Other Calvin and Hobbes in translation · List of Calvin and Hobbes books