Secondary characters in Calvin and Hobbes

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Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes features a wide range of secondary characters. These range from his fellow students at school to monsters and aliens from Calvin's vivid imagination.

Contents 1 Calvin's family 1.1 Calvin's father 1.2 Calvin's mother 1.3 Other relatives 1.3.1 Uncle Max 1.3.2 Grandparents 2 Susie Derkins 2.1 Mr. Bun 3 Miss Wormwood 4 Moe 5 Rosalyn 6 Other characters 7 References

[edit] Calvin's family

Calvin's parents
Calvin's unnamed parents, usually referred to only as "Mom" and "Dad".
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance (Dad) November 18, 1985 (Mom) November 26, 1985

Calvin's mother and father are for the most part typical Middle American middle-class parents; like many other characters in the strip, their relatively down-to-earth and sensible attitudes serve primarily as a foil for Calvin's outlandish behavior. Both parents go through the entire strip unnamed. They are referred to only as "Mom" and "Dad", pet names such as "hon" and "dear", or sarcastic names, like "Socrates" or "Mr. and Mrs. Empathy". Watterson has never given Calvin's parents names "because as far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." (Although in one strip, where bug-Calvin's hopping on a typewriter, a close-up of the letter shows the name "Glen", possibly referring to Calvin's dad.)^[1] However, Watterson sometimes uses them to explore situations adults can relate to, such as the desire to enjoy leisure time as opposed to the need to work, or bad customer service and frustrations when grocery shopping. Also, occasionally Watterson takes the time to flesh out the two parental characters. One example is a storyline in which the family returns from a wedding to find their house has been broken into and ransacked. For several strips, Calvin and Hobbes fade into the background as Mom and Dad reflect on the impact of the event. Early on in the strip, Watterson says, they were criticized by readers for being overly sarcastic and insufficiently patient, especially Calvin's father, who has several times reminded his wife that he really wanted a dog instead of a son. Calvin's mother has stated a few times that she wanted a girl, and at points, Calvin's antics frustrate them so much that they act like they were sorry they had him, and it may be true, at least at the time.

Calvin's parents drive a purple subcompact hatchback similar to an early 1980s Honda Civic or VW Golf. This may be because Bill Watterson drove a Civic himself. The car is the setting of family trips, and is occasionally the victim of Calvin's mischief, such as the long story where he accidentally pushes the car into a ditch. The car is usually drawn as bouncing along the road as it drives, to give it the illusion of motion. There may also be another car, as in one strip, when Calvin's parents went out to dinner (Rosalyn appeared), Hobbes suggested they learn to drive "using the other car". However, in another strip, Calvin attempted to play hooky from school, and after his mother captured him, she said his father would be late for work because she had to drive Calvin to school (which could not happen if there was a second car).

The parents occasionally invite guests over to their house, and Calvin usually ends up messing up the visit.

[edit] Calvin's father

Calvin's father is a patent attorney who is portrayed to the reader as an upstanding middle-class father, despite how his son may see him. An outdoorsman, he enjoys bike rides and camping trips, sometimes in extreme weather and insists that these activities, like Calvin's chores, "build character".

When Calvin asks him questions, he often makes up outlandish answers. For example, Calvin's father once said that the wind is caused by trees sneezing (though when asked if this was true, he responded, "No, but the truth is more complicated."), and that light bulbs and vacuum cleaners work by magic. When asked about how weight limits for bridges are measured, he answers, "They drive bigger and bigger trucks over the bridge until it breaks. Then they weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge." When asked why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, he replies "Solar wind". Calvin always appears to believe the answers, despite his mother's reactions, as Calvin said, "I take it there's no qualifying exam to be a dad". It is interesting to note that to be a patent attorney traditionally requires a natural science or engineering bachelor's degree preceding the usual Juris Doctor needed to practice any other branch of law — something Watterson would know, as his own father was a patent attorney — and therefore, Calvin's father presumably knows the real answers to his son's questions.

This playful streak allows him to occasionally find moments of solace with Calvin, and it is implied that Calvin's father may have been like Calvin in his youth. Calvin has described his traditionalist father as "the most boring Dad in the world." Calvin's father may also have been a party animal in college. In one strip, Calvin is looking through his father's college yearbook and finds a picture of him standing next to a keg, wearing a “Party Naked” T-shirt. In another strip, he defined "the ol’ college try" as, "when you gather your friends, grab some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow."

Calvin frequently expresses his discontent with his father's reign by plaguing him with opinion polls, pretending that his father is elected every four years like the President of the United States. There have been several strips that show Calvin saying that his father's popularity is slipping, and in one strip, Calvin fantasized what the papers will look like when his father is defeated in the next election. His father pays little attention to Calvin's campaigning — especially since the polls invariably focus on the 6-year-old-male and stuffed-tiger demographics.

Watterson occasionally uses Calvin's father to comment on various aspects of adulthood. He seems to be frustrated with the constant rat race and struggle to get ahead, and seems more than a little ambivalent about America's consumer culture, once commenting that pitching the day's allotment of junk mail make him a “terrorist” for not “buying distractions from a simple life”. He seems happiest when he is riding his bike or sitting in the backyard watching the sunset, and enjoying peace and quiet. Ironically, sometimes he goes to the office to escape Calvin, though Calvin calls his work phone several times, once for him to tell a story.

In addition, the character could be seen as having been based on Watterson's own father,^[1] who was also a patent attorney, and often told his family that unpleasant things "built character". As can be gleaned from a photograph and self-caricatures of Watterson, Calvin's father bears a striking resemblance to the cartoonist himself, though the latter sports a moustache.^[2][3] Watterson has said that he identifies more with this character than with Calvin. Given that Calvin's father is noted in the Tenth Anniversary book as having some of the hobbies of both Watterson's own father (running in the sleet, going camping while telling his miserable family that they are "building character"), and some of Watterson's own beliefs and hobbies (frustration with consumer culture, being an avid cyclist), he is likely an amalgamation of both Wattersons, father and son.

On some occasions, Calvin has pointed out that his dad has neglected to buy a VCR (or as he sometimes refers to it, a "video player") which at one point led to his Dad saying "How cruelly we mistreat you, Calvin." and giving Calvin a copy of Oliver Twist. Calvin's mom has, too, pointed this out in one strip where her and Calvin return home from a kids' matinee and his dad asks "How was the kiddy matinee movie?" to which Calvin remembers that he saw a movie and stated it was OK. However, Mom comes home and Dad too asks her about the matinee and she grabs the front of his shirt and angrily emphasizes "WE...ARE...BUYING...A VIDEO PLAYER."

[edit] Calvin's mother

Calvin's mother is a stay-at-home mom who is frequently exasperated by Calvin's antics. Prior to Calvin's birth, she worked a stressful job filled with aggravation, which Calvin's father claims is the reason she was better prepared to stay at home and raise Calvin. Whether or not he was jesting is debatable. On the rare occasions when she is not reacting to Calvin's misbehavior, she seems to enjoy quiet activities, such as gardening and reading. She is frequently the one forced to curb Calvin's destructive tendencies; in one Sunday strip, she allows Calvin to smoke a cigarette in order to teach him how unpleasant smoking can be. She also usually seems sympathetic towards her son's relationship with Hobbes, and a few times has found herself speaking to Hobbes as well, though this embarrasses her. She has even called out to Hobbes once the same way Calvin did when she was looking for him, perhaps implying that, like her husband, Calvin's mother also has her own moments of playful imagination, despite generally being a straight-laced adult.

Watterson has said he regrets the fact that the strip mostly shows her impatient side, but he also tries to show other aspects of her personality by what she is doing when Calvin invades. She keeps a clean house, as she is occasionally found refinishing furniture or painting the walls. She also seems to have an active social life, writing letters and leaving phone messages for friends, even inviting friends over for tea on occasion. Needless to say, Calvin tends to interfere with all these things.

Although Calvin's behavior drives his mother crazy (Calvin once quipped "another day, another gray hair for Mom!"), she still loves him very much. When Calvin was lost on a trip to the zoo, she became sick with worry, and was thrilled when his dad brought him back. In one strip, she is shown chasing Calvin shortly before bedtime, tickling him whenever she catches him; in the end, Calvin explains to his father, "Her plan backfired, Dad. I'm all wound up, and Mom needs to be put to bed." She has also stepped in when his father goes too far with his own private jokes, going so far as to say "I know somebody who's going to get a lot of coal in his stocking, buster" after his dad tells him that the family will keep the undecorated Christmas tree in the garage and that Calvin might not get gifts. She frequently scolds her husband for his sarcasm in dealing with their son. Also, she is shown to be on Calvin's side when they go for their usual camping trips, she is just as much complaining about these outings as Calvin, as she says "a whole week without a newspaper or a decent cup of real coffee!" She is sometimes able to calm Calvin down when he is in a bad mood, offering peanut-butter crackers, comic books and other treats to cheer him up. At one point, Calvin became ill and his mother tended to him from the start, beginning in the early morning when Calvin throws up. Though she is almost always shown criticizing Calvin's behavior, it is revealed that she may have been problematic when she was a child as well. In one strip, she tells Calvin, "Someday I hope you have a kid that puts you through what I've gone through", to which Calvin replies, "Yeah, Grandma says that's what she used to tell you". Fans have made similar theories about Calvin's dad's behavior as a child.

She, like Calvin's father, may have been a party animal in her college days. In one strip Calvin looks through a college yearbook and pictures and asks his father who the “bimbo” in the picture is, to which he responds “that ‘BIMBO’ is your mother!”. This also implies that the two were fellow students and/or juvenile "crushes".

Calvin dislikes his mother's cooking, to the extent that she must trick him into eating it, often by telling him that it is something disgusting, such as "monkey heads," "spider pie," or "maggots". In one strip, Calvin even claimed his mother used shrunken heads, an octupus, weed killer and white paint in one of the meals. In another strip, Calvin even gets the idea that his mother regurgitated the meal, as he had just seen a nature documentary, where it explained that mother birds regurgitate their meal for their brood.

Although she loves him very much, Calvin's mother has sometimes made references in some strips that she wanted a daughter instead of a son. In one instance, she has even blamed her husband for giving her the chromosome that gave birth to Calvin. Calvin himself has even theorized that she thinks of this; after she turned down Calvin's offer of helping around the house with unnecessary carpentry, he stated: "Mom wanted a girl. I just know it."

In another strip, she apparently, although it was probably just a fit of rage (although that resulted in outrage against the strip similar to the portrayal of Calvin 's father as not wanting children in the first place), instructed a stranger driving a car to report to the police she killed Calvin after Calvin and Hobbes both unwittingly honked the horn so someone could help after her car has a problem.

Motorist: "Want me to call a tow truck, lady?"

Calvin's mother: "First call the police and report an infanticide."

[edit] Other relatives

[edit] Uncle Max

Calvin's Uncle Max appeared in a series of strips in 1988, visiting the family. Uncle Max is Calvin's father's "big brother". Like typical brothers, they often joke on each other. When Calvin (who first suspected he was a con man trying to swindle them) guesses that Max was in jail (to explain why he hasn't met Max), his mother is outraged, while his father seems to agree with Calvin, saying "with Max, that's not a bad guess". He seems to be a lot smarter and up to date than Mom and Dad, and is more in tune to Calvin's interests. He seems to have a good relationship with children and does not take Calvin's jokes literally, which is the main reason why Calvin and Hobbes like him. Max is not married and does not appear very wealthy. He seems like he has a very attentive job which may explain why he left so early. He does not think Mom and Dad do enough to raise and control Calvin. When Calvin snuck into Max's suitcase to try to find his present, Max, annoyed, asks, "Did your Mommy and Daddy raise you like this, or did they just untie you for this visit?"

Watterson had said Uncle Max was intended to be an expansionist character and include him in further strips such as where the family would go to Max's home to pay him a visit. He never appeared again after the week wherein he was featured in the strips, because Bill felt in the end that Max was not a great idea. A substantial reason for this was that it was strange for Max to be unable to refer to the parents with proper names, as Watterson never gave them any, and that the character never provided any new material for Calvin that he had hoped for.^[4] This may also explain why none of Calvin's other relatives appear in the strip.

He somewhat resembles Groucho Marx.

[edit] Grandparents

Calvin has a maternal grandmother and grandfather. A grandfather who smokes is mentioned, but it is unclear whether he is maternal or paternal. None appear in the strip, and are rarely mentioned.

The grandfather is mentioned during a scene on May 25, 1986, where Calvin smokes a cigarette (and winds up in a coughing fit). Before he does this, Calvin's Mom says: "Sure Calvin. I think your grandfather left some in the back." A reference was made to Calvin's maternal grandfather when Calvin is describing him to Hobbes, echoing Bill Watterson's complaint that comic strips are too small and now look like Xeroxed talking heads (complete with the strip being done with Calvin and Hobbes as motionless "talking heads"). Hobbes then tells Calvin that his grandfather takes comic strips seriously; Calvin says as a result, his mother is looking into nursing homes for him, implying that this grandfather is maternal.

Calvin's maternal grandmother is mentioned after Calvin misbehaved in the doctor's office, when his mother tells Calvin, "Someday I hope you have a kid who puts you through what I have gone through.", to which Calvin replies, "Yeah, Grandma says that's what she used to tell you." She is also mentioned when Calvin's mom is typing on a typewriter. Mom: "Who wrote 'Help I'm a bug' on my letter to Grandma?" (though it's possible she was talking about her own grandmother). In another strip, Calvin is writing a thank-you note to Grandma for sending him a box of crayons as a gift. Hobbes comments on the quickness of the note, and Calvin says "Yeah, I always write her a thank-you note right away...Ever since she sent me that empty box with the sarcastic note saying she was just checking to see if the postal service was still working." Also, in another strip, Calvin makes "funny" expressions on his school pictures and comments that he can't wait for his mom to send his picture to Grandma.

[edit] Susie Derkins

Susie Derkins
Susie Derkins, Calvin's next-door neighbor
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance December 5, 1985

Susie Derkins is a classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. She is the only recurring character in the comic strip to have both a forename and a surname revealed. Named after Watterson's in-laws' family beagle,^[1] she first appeared early in the strip as a new student in Calvin's class, but in later strips acts as if she has lived in Calvin's neighborhood for her entire life. In contrast to Calvin, she is polite and diligent in her studies, and her imagination usually seems mild-mannered and civilized, consisting of games such as playing "house" or having tea parties with her stuffed animals; Calvin (and, by extension, the reader) considers them boring and dull. On one occasion, she played with a doll named Binky Betsy. Her parents have spoken in the strip several times but it is never confirmed that they appear in the panels.

During the strip's first years, Susie was seen wearing a skirt or overalls, and was drawn with a large round elliptical head, much like Charlie Brown's. Her appearance slightly changed over the years as Watterson's art evolved.

Susie and Calvin's relationship is a constant source of tension; she is frequently the victim of Calvin's derision and plots, and is also often willing to retaliate when provoked. Most commonly, Susie will be the target of Calvin's water balloons or snowballs. Calvin often goes to great lengths to disgust or annoy Susie, founding his and Hobbes' secret club, G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) as a general anti-girl organization; but, almost invariably, Susie becomes the target of their harassment (either because of Calvin's rivalry with her or because of the more practical aspect that no other young-girl characters appear in the strip). Unfortunately for Calvin, Susie is his equal (and often superior) in cunning, often turning his plans into ignominious defeats. However, during a storyline where Calvin was debating over whether or not to join a baseball team, the two were able to mildly speak to each other over Calvin's dilemma while on a seesaw. Hobbes has a crush on Susie and is sometimes able to pressure Calvin into playing with her.

Watterson admits that Calvin and Susie have a bit of a crush on each other, and that Susie is inspired by the type of women he himself finds attractive. This love/hate relationship is most obvious early in the strip's evolution, particularly a Valentine's Day strip in which Susie seems to appreciate a rather juvenile gift Calvin gives her (a hate mail valentine and a bunch of dead flowers), and he rejoices inwardly when she acknowledges his efforts (albeit by throwing a snowball at him). Watterson, in retrospect, decided this was a bit heavy-handed, and resolved to simply let the two characters bounce off each other in future, to the point of practically removing any romantic subtext. Calvin's attraction to Susie does, however, manifest itself in different ways. Frequently, Hobbes shows appreciation for Susie's "feminine wiles;" as Hobbes is sometimes considered to be the non-dominant side of Calvin's personality, it is possible that Calvin (or Watterson) simply chose to display Calvin's attraction to Susie by proxy instead of in person. Furthermore, during one series of strips Calvin modifies his "duplicator" to copy only his good side; this well-dressed, polite and very-intelligent version of Calvin soon becomes besotted with Susie (and is mystified by her hostility towards him, but later claims the true Calvin has earned such a poor reputation, which is why Susie was annoyed with the good Calvin's love letters). Calvin once referenced their love/hate relationship in one strip after the two had just finished exchanging a barrage of insults, saying how it was "shameless the way we flirt."

The two sometimes speak at their bus stop, with the usual result being that they both become exasperated with each other. Susie and Calvin also interact at the lunch table, where Calvin takes the opportunity to repulse her with disgusting descriptions of what his lunch contains (for example, a "cow pie" for dessert). One such strip, according to the Tenth-Anniversary retrospective, resulted in a newspaper canceling their subscription when Calvin pulled out his dessert: "Look, a thermos full of phlegm!" Another instance involves Calvin implementing a "great idea in action" by stuffing his entire lunch (a jelly sandwich and a banana) into his thermos of milk, shaking it up to form a rudimentary smoothie, and preparing to "choke it down" while Susie turns away in disgust. Once Calvin took the joke a bit too far, pouring his manicotti down his shirt and actually scaring her away from the table by pretending that they were his intestines falling out.

At one point, she and Calvin were assigned to do a project on Mercury in which she writes about the planet and he writes about the mythology of Mercury. At the beginning of the story, Calvin complained about Susie's habit of eating each ingredient in her sandwich separately and concluded "It certifies you as a grade-A nimrod." Also, Susie was aggravated by Calvin's constant bouts of goofing off when he should have been getting research, including when he was drawing Martians which aggravated Susie to the point that she exclaims "It's no use! I'll have to go to a second-rate college because my idiot partner spent the study period drawing Martians!" to which Calvin attempts to cheer her up with a flip book in which a Martian eats an astronaut. Calvin also proclaimed that, when he gave his half of the report, that "a funny thing happened to him on the way to the library yesterday" to which Susie exclaims that it wasn't her fault. It might or might not have been one of Calvin's bouts of mischief in which Susie was present, although he could have said that just to waste the time for the presentation of the report.

On some occasions, Susie does not take Calvin's attempting to hide from and alerting Susie about things (i.e., his bicycle and the snow goons) that were "out to get him" seriously. One time she remarked "Our class voted Calvin 'Most likely to be seen on the news someday'."

[edit] Mr. Bun

Mr. Bun is Susie's stuffed rabbit, which frequents her tea parties as a guest.

Unlike Hobbes, Mr. Bun is not depicted as possessing an alternate reality, and was once described by Hobbes as being comatose. However, considering Hobbes' own dual nature, it may simply be that Calvin and Hobbes do not participate in whatever reality Susie constructs for Mr. Bun. (This is used for comedic effect occasionally, as when Susie, playing "House" with Calvin, attempts to use Mr. Bun as their baby child, only to have Calvin refuse to recognize him as a human infant—with the entire strip, including the rabbit, drawn in a realistic style à la Rex Morgan, M.D.) Likewise, Susie does not perceive Hobbes the same way Calvin does: in one week-long series of strips, Susie rescues Hobbes from a dog and serves the motionless toy tea alongside an equally-motionless Mr. Bun; Hobbes only "comes to life" when Calvin finds him at the tea party. It was also one of the few times Calvin treated Susie with respect; Calvin kisses Susie's hand, which was clearly due to being overjoyed at finding Hobbes.

Calvin, Susie and school bully Moe are the only children to appear with any frequency in Calvin and Hobbes, implying that Mr. Bun may well be Susie's only friend. This is evidenced in one strip where Susie invites Calvin to tea. Calvin, true to form, loudly refuses. Susie tries to pretend that Calvin's rejection was not worth worrying over, offering to refill Mr. Bun's teacup while commenting on the rudeness of "Mr. Calvin." Eventually, however, Calvin, supposedly at the advice of Hobbes, arrives at the party, to Susie's delight, defensively explaining, "We don't attend parties; we just crash 'em!" On another occasion, Calvin rudely dismisses Susie, then, at Hobbes' urging, apologizes and offers to let her play with them. Susie immediately declares that the game is "House", with herself as "the high-powered executive wife", Hobbes as her stay-at-home husband, and Calvin as their "bratty and brainless" child.

[edit] Miss Wormwood

Miss Wormwood
Miss Wormwood, Calvin's teacher
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance November 21, 1985

Miss Wormwood is Calvin's world-weary teacher, named after the junior devil in C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.^[1] She usually wears polka-dotted dresses, and is another character who serves as a foil to Calvin's mischief. Calvin, when in his Spaceman Spiff persona, sees Miss Wormwood as a slimy, often dictatorial alien.

Miss Wormwood is first shown as a short, squat character with a disproportionately small body, but evolves over time into a more anatomically plausible figure.

Although there is a definite progression of time in the Calvin and Hobbes universe, mainly exhibited by the changing seasons, Calvin and Susie inexplicably return to Miss Wormwood's first grade class every fall. This does not necessarily mean this is due to failure. The strip may run in a repeating time-loop, which would explain why Calvin remains six-years-old throughout the years.

Miss Wormwood is rarely sympathetic to the trouble Calvin has in school, and comes across as a rather strict, sour character. She often calls on Calvin when no one raises their hand to catch him off guard. Calvin either replies an excuse ("Hard to say, Ma'am. I think my cerebellum just fused."), or spaces out completely, usually in one of his alter egos. She is quick to send Calvin to the principal's office at the first sign of trouble. According to Calvin, who apparently takes joy in being the reason why Miss Wormwood mixes different stress-related medications, drinks Maalox straight from the bottle, and is waiting for retirement (one strip has her chanting in her head, "Five years until retirement, five years until retirement, five years until retirement..."). In the Tenth-Anniversary, Calvin implies that she smokes. Regarding the difficulties of reining in rambunctious students, she once commented that "it's not enough that we have to be disciplinarians. Now we need to be psychologists." After Calvin once declared that school was a big fat waste of his time, she tried catching him while he yelled into the hallway, "Help! It's the Thought Police!" Watterson says that he feels a great deal of sympathy for Miss Wormwood - given that the strip gives so much attention to playful imagination, Miss Wormwood may represent the perspective of the "real world", and its frustrations in trying to adapt to imagination. Another strip had Calvin imagining he found himself on a sheet of his own notebook paper, but had the advantage of making use of his doodles, such as being able to drive a military tank he drew, which he uses to shell the school, but is unable to stop a gigantic, vicious Miss Wormwood in his drawing. The real Miss Wormwood confiscates Calvin's drawing, sarcastically commenting "Hand it over, Leonardo". Although Calvin was clearly punished for doodling rather than paying attention, he makes the surprising political statement "The arts are always the first to go in the public school system".

Outside of academics, Calvin has actually gotten in trouble for show and tell. In a strip Calvin claims that he found a space alien which he feeds ammonia and keeps in a bag, then shows a snake like alien emerging from the bag. The alien is actually only a sock puppet, shown to Hobbes when he asks how did the presentation go, Calvin says Miss Wormwood now demands both his parents must sign his report card next semester. It is unknown why Miss Wormwood imposed such a harsh penalty for something that Calvin had considered creative, although it could be his teacher is worried he may be dreaming too much about outer space, or that his presenatation was so realistic it terrified the class.

Calvin often fails tests and usually writes ridiculous answers. In one strip, Miss Wormwood is shown handing a marked test to Calvin, angrily declaring "Calvin, your test was an absolute disgrace! It's obvious you haven't read any of the material!" She concludes "Our first president was NOT Chef Boyardee, and you ought to be ashamed to have turned in such preposterous answers!" To which Calvin remarks "I just don't test well." In another strip, after stating that he couldn't reveal where Plymouth Rock was, lest it "compromise our agents in the field", Calvin cheerfully says to the reader, "I understand my tests are popular reading in the teacher's lounge." One incident where he believes that he understands addition is a bad one. Believing (albeit in his Spaceman Spiff persona) that the numbers were planets, he crashed them together (6+5) and of course, 6, being larger, survives. Usually, he asks Susie for answers, and while getting a lot of wrong answers, still does it anyway. A typical dialogue would go:

Calvin: Susie, what's 12+7?

Susie: A billion!

Calvin: Thanks! [Thinks] Hold on, that can't be right... That's what she said 3+4 was...

Miss Wormwood appears to take points on tests away from Calvin due to his antics, at least on one occasion.

She is not just exasperated by Calvin failing tests, she often sends Calvin to the principal's office after quipping, commenting and asking questions.

[edit] Moe

Moe
Moe, a bully at Calvin's school.
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance January 30, 1986

Moe is the prototypical bully character, a large, cruel, dimwitted "six-year-old who shaves" who is always shoving Calvin against walls or onto the ground, demanding his lunch money and calling him "Twinky", or occasionally "Twinkie". Moe is the only regular character who speaks in an unusual font: his (frequently monosyllabic) dialogue is shown in crude, lower-case letters (probably the most intellectual word Moe has ever used is "spatula"). Watterson describes Moe as "every jerk I've ever known."^[1]

While Rosalyn is frequently a match for Calvin's plans, and serves as, perhaps, his "match" on a more strategic and psychological front, Moe seems to be the only character capable of frustrating Calvin to the point of absolute resignation, and operates merely through brute force and physical coercion. Calvin's rare attempts to retaliate have mainly consisted of mocking Moe with words the bully can't understand:

Moe: Gimme a quarter, Twinky.

Calvin: Your simian countenance suggests a heritage unusually rich in species diversity.

Moe: What?

Calvin: Here you go. (flips a quarter to him; to audience) That was worth 25 cents.

or another incident:

Calvin: I want to ask you, Moe; are your maladjusted antisocial tendencies the product of your berserk pituitary gland?

Moe: (thinks) Uh...

Calvin: Isn't he great, folks? Let's give him a big hand!

In another strip, Moe threatens to pound Calvin in gym class. With that Calvin responds, "Get your kicks now, you glandular freak! Because once you've grown up, you won't be going around beating up people for no reason!" Moe responds, "Yeah. I guess you're right." The last panel featuring Calvin with his head thrust through a locker uttering, "That really wasn't what I meant at all." Another episode had Moe once again harming Calvin; where Calvin reassures himself by saying "Many years from now, when I am successful and he is in prison, I hope I have not matured sufficiently so as not to gloat." Although Calvin's adult self was never shown in the strip, Moe's rotten attitude strongly suggests he is headed for serious trouble, and possible imprisonment.

His mother is once shown calling the school to notify them on Moe's bullying, although it only made Moe return 25 cents to Calvin because some person had squealed on him and that "it'll be a dark day if [he] ever [found] out who!" Calvin then says, "I think I'll use this quarter to call my insurance agent." Another time in the strip, Hobbes is brought to school and Calvin successfully psychs Moe out by daring him to touch Hobbes (Calvin thinks Hobbes is scaring him; Moe thinks that the dare is some sort of trap).

Moe is the only minor character in the strip who hurts Calvin without being provoked. He is also the only minor character who is never portrayed as having his own bursts of imagination, or at least being treated with some sympathy, as has sometimes been the case with Miss Wormwood.

[edit] Rosalyn

Rosalyn
Rosalyn, Calvin's babysitter.
Comic strip(s) Calvin and Hobbes Creator(s) Bill Watterson First appearance May 15, 1986

Rosalyn is a high school senior and Calvin's official babysitter whenever Calvin's parents need a night out, usually at a movie or something similar. She is the only babysitter able to tolerate Calvin's antics, a fact which she uses to demand raises and payment in advance from Calvin's desperate parents, starting from a meager 8 dollars a night in her earlier appearances. She is also, according to Watterson, the only person Calvin truly fears—certainly she is his equal in cunning, and doesn't hesitate to play as dirty as he does. Originally created as a nameless, one-shot character with no plans to appear again, Watterson decided he wanted to retain her unique ability to intimidate Calvin, which, ultimately, led to many more appearances.

Rosalyn's idea of effective babysitting is a 6:30 bedtime for Calvin, and she has little patience for his attempts to rebel against her. Calvin will often freak out whenever he hears that Rosalyn is going to be babysitting him, in one instance screaming in protest non-stop for an entire strip (prompting his Mom to say in the last panel, "For goodness' sake, Calvin! Take a breath before you pass out on the floor!"). Another instance is when Calvin asks his Dad to get out the magnum, or at least a "wooden stake and a mallet." In one strip, she orders Calvin to go in the house and to his room, only to receive the reply "Jawohl, mein Fuhrer!" and the Hitler salute. In the final Rosalyn story, however, the traditional war is averted by a game of Calvinball, in which Rosalyn proves to be a formidable player, and once again trumps Calvin with a clever move in the last panel. This display of extensive imagination showed her to be not entirely lost to the dull world of adulthood, and this trait allows her to sympathize with Calvin's needs and ultimately control him much better than his mother ever could, such as in the same storyline as above, in which she allows him to stay up half an hour past his bedtime, and plays Calvinball with him, two actions which Calvin's mom would be sure to avoid (ironically, on returning home, Calvin's parents refuse to believe that she was able to play a game with him, much less convince Calvin to willingly go to bed, and assume she is making a joke). Occasionally, Calvin manages to gain the upper hand (or at least until his parents arrive) by tricking Rosalyn into precipitous situations, such as locking her out of the house so he and Hobbes can watch TV and eat cookies, or taking Rosalyn's science notes, which she needs to study for a test the next day, and locking himself and Hobbes in the bathroom and threatening to flush them down the toilet if she didn't give into his demands.

In nearly all the "Rosalyn stories", Rosalyn is shown demanding advance payment and raises in wage from Calvin's parents, supposedly because she needs the extra money to pay for college or for the hard work she puts into to control Calvin. (For exactly the same reason, she briefly appears as Calvin's swimming instructor.) They are reluctant to pay such exorbitant rates, but even more unwilling to have Calvin ruin their outings. Therefore, they always gave Rosalyn her raise.

In at least four stories, Rosalyn telephones her boyfriend, Charlie, to cancel prearranged meetings which she cannot fulfill. (Charlie remains as an unseen character.) Calvin sometimes breaks in and urges Charlie to stop courting Rosalyn, asserting that Rosalyn is either sadistic or insane, or both.

Her character was created for a Sunday strip for May 18, 1986 as an unnamed character. Because Watterson liked the character and her attitude toward Calvin, Watterson wanted to continue to use her more. Because Sunday strips have to be done far in advance, Rosalyn's first daily strip appearance took place three days earlier on May 15, 1986 (probably an accident). This means that the decision to continue using Rosalyn was made soon afterward. However, the storyline ended on May 17, 1986, the day before her only Sunday strip appearance.

She is the only major secondary character to have never appeared under Spaceman Spiff.

Not only is Rosalyn Calvin's baby-sitter, she is also his swimming teacher. Calvin's mom took him for swimming lessons in one early story. While he's waiting for the lessons to start, he's worrying about how terrible the class will be. He says, "The only thing that could make this class worse would be if it were..." he turns and sees Rosalyn, "taught by my sadistic baby-sitter!" Rosalyn responds by saying, "Well look who's here." Calvin does not try to play any tricks on her, but he does fuss throughout the whole lesson, causing Rosalyn to remark, "What I put up with to pay for college." After the lesson is over, Calvin's mom tells him he is going to start taking piano lessons. (Incidentally, a piano is never shown in Calvin's house.) In spite of his mom's remark, Calvin is never shown taking piano lessons, and he is never shown taking swimming lessons either, but Rosalyn still continues to appear numerous times throughout the strip after that as Calvin's baby-sitter.

[edit] Other characters

• Galaxoid and Nebular: Calvin encounters many extraterrestrial life-forms in the course of the strip, usually during adventures as his alter-ego, Spaceman Spiff. Most of these aliens are non-humanoid, bizarre monsters, but they frequently turn out to be merely Calvin's imaginative perception of Susie, his parents and teachers. Initially, many of the aliens spoke in garbled, somewhat onomatopoetic language, with lines like "Ugga muk bluh Spiff." Later, some aliens' speech balloons contained geometric symbols with unclear phonetic values, or had a blocky, semi-computer-like font. In the strip's final year, Watterson drew two stories involving recurring alien characters, Galaxoid and Nebular, to whom Calvin sold the Earth for 50 alien leaves to use for his science project, which he failed because no one believed they were alien tree leaves (Susie notes "It looks like you took 50 maple leaves and cut them into weird shapes"). They returned in the final two weeks of strips, angry at Calvin because he failed to tell them about the changing seasons. After complaining that they were greatly overcharged and demanding Calvin bring the Earth up to code, Hobbes eventually gave them his and Calvin's Christmas stockings to keep warm.
• Doctor: Calvin occasionally visits his pediatrician, who appears to be a mild-mannered physician with a friendly demeanor. Calvin, however, sees him as a vicious, sadistic interrogator, sometimes visualizing him as an alien or overreacting to his playful diagnoses. At one point he frustrates the good doctor so much that he warns Calvin to not force him to "recant the Hippocratic Oath". In one strip, he says, slightly exasperated, after Calvin frantically asks what one of the doctor tools is and whether it will hurt, "It's a cattle prod. It hurts a little less than a branding iron." Calvin promptly faints, causing the doctor to say that "Little kids have no sense of humor". When the doctor gives Calvin a shot in the next strip, Calvin screams hysterically and promises that the doctor will lose his job. He made his final appearance when he diagnosed Calvin with chicken pox.
• Principal Spittle: Calvin's school principal is Mr. Spittle. He usually makes his appearance when Calvin has gone too far in testing Miss Wormwood's limits. He is portrayed as the same stale, academic type of character as Miss Wormwood. Mr. Spittle rarely speaks in the strip; typically, he is seen in the last frame looking over his desk as Calvin tries to explain his latest mishap, either with an apathetic or infuriated expression in his face. He is sometimes seen pressing the ends of his fingers together. He once said he hated his job after Calvin and Susie were sent there and begging him not to spank them. Another time the principal was involved when Calvin tore his pants and embarrased himself. When recounting the story to Hobbes and being asked how his embarrasing experience got him sent home early, Calvin said "Three teachers and the principal could not restore order", implying Principal Spittle suspended the entire class for uproariously laughing at Calvin and not wanting to do any schoolwork.
• Classmates: The reader sees various classmates of Calvin, but other than Susie and Moe they are almost entirely anonymous. Calvin seems only vaguely aware of them, but when he does pay attention to them they are always simply an audience, seeing Calvin as the misbehaving minority who makes things difficult for the conforming majority. Some one-time appearances are Tommy Chesnutt (who was allegedly eaten by Hobbes), Russy White, Filthy Rich, Blake, Ronald, Jessica, Flow, Claire, Clarance and Candace. There are a total of thirty students in the class.
• Mr. Lockjaw: Mr. Lockjaw is the gym teacher and coach of the baseball team at Calvin's school. He is a squat, burly man with little patience for people like Calvin who lack a competitive spirit. When Calvin leaves the team, Lockjaw calls him a "quitter", and this emotional trauma leads to the reader's first encounter with Calvinball.
• Scouts: Early in the strip, Watterson shows Calvin participating with other children in Cub Scout activities in the woods. Watterson thought at the time that scouting might offer some potential for interesting adventures, but eventually abandoned the idea, considering it uncharacteristic of Calvin to join an organization, and viewing it as a distraction from Calvin's intentionally personal world (much as Calvin himself did). Only one scout ever appears. However, Hobbes uses a Cub Scout manual to get Calvin untied from a chair on one occasion.
• Mrs. Carroll: Mrs. Carroll is Calvin's next door neighbor who is referred to once in a strip, after Calvin had run naked through her yard in an attempt to fly. She calls Calvin's parents to sort out the problem, and it is mentioned that his Dad had previously "got the little nudist" out of her birdbath.
• Fred: Fred is a teacher who is heard once in a Calvin and Hobbes strip. He is in the Teacher's Lounge after Calvin runs out during the strip run on December 8, 1985, in his second appearance imagining himself as Spaceman Spiff.

  Fred: Who was that?

  Unnamed teacher: Beats me, Fred.

• Charlie: Also called Chuck or Chaz by Calvin. Charlie is Rosalyn's boyfriend. Rosalyn usually has to postpone a date to watch Calvin, so he usually calls the house and often Calvin picks up, trying to convince Charlie that Rosalyn is a "sadistic kid hater."
• Charlie: Calvin once had his hair cut by a barber named at the end of the strip as Charlie. It is possible that Calvin never had his hair cut by Charlie again, due to Calvin yelling at Charlie because he did not give Calvin the haircut he wanted.

  Calvin's mother: Well, your haircut is certainly an improvement.

  Calvin: You like what the barber wrote?

  Calvin's mother: What?

  Calvin: Didn't the barber write, "I may have a bad haircut, but you're downright ugly." back there?

  Calvin's mother: Good Heavens, no!

  Calvin: (walking into the barber shop) OKAY CHARLIE! GIMME BACK THAT TIP!

• Pete: Pete is shown once in a strip where Calvin goes to the barber, Pete. He is one of the few one-time-appearing minor characters with a name whom Watterson actually drew into the strip. However, Calvin does occasionally go for haircuts afterward, and it is possible that Pete is still his barber, even though he isn't shown.
• Amy: She is mentioned after Calvin's Mom had called eight people in hopes of getting a babysitter for Calvin;

  Mom: "You remember Amy? She just laughed when I called her."

• Susie's mom: She is shown from the waist down in a foiled attempt to pester Susie, and is also seen having a brief dialogue during Susie's first experience with Calvin's alter-ego, Stupendous Man.
• Gym Teacher: An unnamed male gym instructor appears in an early "Spaceman Spiff" adventure. Some readers have speculated him to be Mr. Lockjaw. However, he is taller and burlier, with a full head of white or blond hair, and with a smaller nose.
• Substitute Teachers: Occasionally, Calvin's class will have a substitute teacher. However, only two are named. One was a man named Mr. Kneecapper, who, as Calvin tells Susie, had once killed a student. Before he is named, Calvin learns that Miss Wormwood is sick and they have a substitute teacher, he asks, "Can I hire a substitute student?". In one set of strips, a woman is substituting; she looks through some notes Calvin's teacher left and inquires which child Calvin is. Later, Hobbes asks Calvin what he thought of her, Calvin replies he is unsure as "she went home after noon." Dr. Facilier was a Show and Tell Teacher was Calvin's Teacher.

There are many other characters who are not addressed above, mainly because they have no specific names. For example, when Calvin's parents took him to the zoo, Calvin was lost as he followed another lady with the same skirt as his mother's.

• Susie's dad: Susie's dad is an unseen character who Susie asks after Calvin tries to trick her into catching chicken pox. Susie, after realizing that Calvin had almost tricked her, asks "Any chance of getting transferred, Dad?"

• The Bedbug: This character appeared once in a Sunday strip. It bears resemblance to Aracnoclaw from King Kong.

• Supertoad: A one-time appearing comic book character. Before Calvin went to sleep, Calvin's Dad says "so in the next panel, Supertoad goes "plooie!", and....", implying he is blown up.

• Mabel Syrup: The author of Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie and Commander Coriander Salamander and 'er Singlehander Bellylander.

• Monsters: the primary villains in the comic strip. Calvin has monsters under his bed who have a plan to kill and eat him but invariably he easily outsmarts them, as they are "All teeth and digestive tract, no brains at all". One of them was named Maurice, and another one is named Winslow.

• Calvin's Bicycle: Given to Calvin by his dad, the bike is a mindless killing machine. It will frequently chase (and even run over sometimes) Calvin, destroying household items in the process. In early strips the bicycle did not have a life of its own. It would just fall over, because Calvin had no balance. As Calvin could never learn how to ride the bike, and as he had so many accidents trying, he began to think the bike hated him, causing it to gain a life of its own. From then on it would start moving all on its own accord, chasing Calvin around.

[edit] References

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