Bill also ended the strip exactly ten years after he started. Frankly, I appreciated his honesty and integrity around the strip. The comic stuck around just long enough to leave a lasting impression but never too long to overstay its welcome.
'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
41–50 of 153 posts
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, your comment reminds me of something my wife and I were talking about. We have been starting to let our child have a little more screen time and choose what he wants to watch (within the parameters we set). Some shows and movies seem harmless, initially, but then we noticed in so many kids movies (e.g., Zootopia, Sing), they're always yelling at each other, expressing anger, frustration, and hostility towar…
> Some shows and movies seem harmless, initially, but then we noticed in so many kids movies (e.g., Zootopia, Sing), they're always yelling at each other, expressing anger, frustration, and hostility towards one another. My kids are similar. Years ago I actually just unplugged the TV and put it behind some furniture for 3 months because I was so fed up. It calmed them down a lot (this was after Covid lockdowns, when…
As always, the home model is what has greater influence than any tv show. If parents are also behaving as in the TV shows then the shows simply serve as confirmation bias to what the children observe.
I noticed that when I adopted a loving, quieter tone, and truly focused on do as i do vs do as i say attitudes, my children began to reject the "norms" shown on the tv shows. Today my children remark about how their friends act at their homes and towards their parents, and we have discussions about it.
That said, I definitely had the problem you describe, but it was resolved by focusing on consequences of actions and being ready to follow through on punishments (much like you did). Combined with the do as i do attitude, those punishments were ultimately punishments for me as well. You are being a terorrizing little bad ass? ok no TV. But then this means I can't watch TV because then they might watch TV while in the same room as me. Mutual pain.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, your comment reminds me of something my wife and I were talking about. We have been starting to let our child have a little more screen time and choose what he wants to watch (within the parameters we set). Some shows and movies seem harmless, initially, but then we noticed in so many kids movies (e.g., Zootopia, Sing), they're always yelling at each other, expressing anger, frustration, and hostility towar…
> Some shows and movies seem harmless, initially, but then we noticed in so many kids movies (e.g., Zootopia, Sing), they're always yelling at each other, expressing anger, frustration, and hostility towards one another. My kids are similar. Years ago I actually just unplugged the TV and put it behind some furniture for 3 months because I was so fed up. It calmed them down a lot (this was after Covid lockdowns, when…
Peppa Pig is at least funny. The one that pushed me over the edge wrt to behavior modeling was Caillou. My god people have some self respect as parents. You have to have to create some boundaries for children, not just knee-jerk syrupy-sweet coddling from dawn til dusk.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#44Calvin's dad was quite a character, wasn't he?
As a child I identified with Calvin. Now as a 50+ year old I find I identify much more with the dad.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#45IMO, Watterson stopped at just the right time to preserve his legacy and keep the strip associated with childlike wonder and innocence. In the last years of C&H there was a certain curmudgeonliness creeping in, as Waterson started to mock modern commerce and art. I think the cartoonist was naturally growing older and more disillusioned, and his strip faintly started to sound like Calvin’s dad instead of Calvin.
I had to look up what curmudgeonliness means, Wiktionary was extremely helpful: curmudgeonliness: The state or condition of being curmudgeonly. okay, let's look up curmudgeonly: curmudgeonly: Characteristic of a curmudgeon; churlish nearly there: curmudgeon: An ill-tempered person full of stubborn ideas or opinions, often an older man.
Yea English be like that sometimes
Look up some crazy sounding 20+ character word, takes three steps, and then you get a definition of the sub-sub-sub word and it says ".... blah blah, derived from the Greek base - and then also the Latin base -", and you realize you had no chance at getting it from any kind of first principles or anything.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#46As a kid, I had no idea they would someday print books, so each day I cut out the strip from the newspaper and paste it into a book. I’m sure my mom threw it away decades ago, but I wish I still had it.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#47Watterson serves as one of the symbols of an era when selling out was considered a great sin. It makes me laugh how thoroughly that idea - that selling out is bad - has been defeated.
That being said, I'm sure he would've done it the same way today.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#48Calvin and Hobbes was the only comic I ever truly loved and collected. All of the books are well-worn from my childhood. They sat on a shelf for a couple of decades, and now I get to enjoy watching my kids fall in love with them too.
I don’t think I fully appreciated the range of humor and topics Bill Watterson explored when I was young. Plenty of strips are perfect for my 9 year old; she was in fits of laughter just yesterday at Hobbes’s physical comedy and the elementary school drama with Susie and Mrs Wormwood. But other strips are much more intellectual, touching on politics, life, and morality. I appreciate these more now as well, because they often spark deeper conversations with my kids when they ask me to explain them.
I doubt he’ll ever see it, but thank you, Bill, for giving multiple generations so much laughter.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, your comment reminds me of something my wife and I were talking about. We have been starting to let our child have a little more screen time and choose what he wants to watch (within the parameters we set). Some shows and movies seem harmless, initially, but then we noticed in so many kids movies (e.g., Zootopia, Sing), they're always yelling at each other, expressing anger, frustration, and hostility towar…
I don't have kids so I never thought about it from that angle, but I really dislike how yell-y so many modern animated shows are. Couldn't make it through a single episode of Rick and Morty. I'd never thought how it might impact kids, but now that you mention it, I can only dislike the trend more.
Rick and Morty is absolutely not a kids show.
Re: 'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40
#50That is just two years after I burst onto the page. Calvin and Hobbes was a major part of my childhood - I loved it. For something casually consumed on the daily at the breakfast table, it was so earnestly, so obviously, smarter than the median cultural offering. Smarter also then the local nightly news broadcasts. Smarter also than the median educational intervention I experienced through elementary and middle schoo…
The first C&H comic strip compared to the last one: https://imgur.com/a/semJX :.)
Fun fact - Hobbes eventually lost those little paw pads