Calvin

From The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki

Calvin
First appearance:	November 18, 1985
Last appearance:	December 31, 1995
Other characters

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."

-Calvin, from The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin is one of the title characters of Calvin and Hobbes, along with his best friend and stuffed tiger, Hobbes. He is a perpetually-six-year-old boy with a penchant for getting into trouble and a wildly vivid imagination. The comic almost always focuses on Calvin's life, his troubles, and his adventures.

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 Calvin's 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 strip of the series ever printed and published.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 2 Appearances 3 Calvin's Alter-Egos 4 Calvin's Social Relationships 5 Personality 6 Personal Life 7 Inventions 8 Artistic Evolution 9 Calvin's last name. 10 Trivia 11 See also

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Calvin's first appearance was in the first strip. He was checking his tiger trap, baited with a tuna fish sandwich. (He claimed that "tigers will do anything for a tuna fish sandwich".) Hobbes also stated that tigers are "kind of stupid that way" while hanging upsidedown.

[edit] Appearances

Calvin's main trademark appearence was his black pants and a striped red shirt, similar to Peanuts character Linus van Pelt, who also wore a red striped shirt. At times, depending on the season and weather, he was also seen wearing his winter clothes or his raincoat. Other times, Calvin would then change into his Stupendous Man outfit, jumping inside the closet and donning his hood and cape. In a few strips, you can see that he wears "tighty-whitey" style underwear. Being extremely short, Calvin once exclaimed "Short pants touch my feet, OK!?"

[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 when being bored or not paying attention). 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.

Calvin's daydream alter-egos include: Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, and many others.

• Spaceman Spiff, an intergalactic hero, (as in Calvin's perspective) who drives a red spaceship with a bubble canopy. He always wears his space goggles, and his uniform. Spaceman Spiff always encounters aliens, and always gets his spaceship to crash. Calvin mostly thinks of Spaceman Spiff at school, usually with Miss Wormwood and as an alien.

• Sometimes, Calvin transforms into Tracer Bullet, who is a hard-boiled private eye who solves mysteries and shares Calvin's amazing vocabulary. Each Tracer Bullet strip is mostly black and a bit of white. The name Tracer Bullet comes from a Military round coated with aluminum paint that "Traces" its way to its target. 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.

• One alter-ego Calvin actually transforms into is Stupendous Man, not by his imagination, but by an actual costume which his mother made for him. Stupendous Man is a superhero of Calvin's perspective. When Calvin does homework, he sometimes dons his costume and blasts the school or try to set the Earth one day behind. He usually tries to save Calvin from work rather than protecting the planet. One time when Hobbes asked Calvin if Stupendous Man had ever won a battle (because he usually doesn't, thanks to Calvin's teacher, babysitter, or parents), Calvin told him that all of Stupendous Man's victories were moral victories.

Sometimes Calvin does a host of other personalities and creatures. 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". He creates different water scenarios while taking a bath, such as intimidating a giant monster, facing an enemy monster Megalon (which was actually his mother). Also, he's behaved like a breaching whale or attacking shark.

list of other alter egoes

[edit] Calvin's Social Relationships

His social relationships at home, in the public, with other children, and at school are not so stable. He has hard times socializing, and thus, has few friends. But he is also frequently bullied by Moe, another classmate in Calvin's school. He also annoys his own babysitter, Rosalyn who often gets him in trouble. His only real friend is his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who he almost is never seen without. Calvin remarks in one strip about how "it's shameless the way we flirt," when talking about Susie Derkins.This implies Calvin's relationship with Susie, especially early in the strip. This relationship gradually got more advanced to the point, where it seemed as though they were mortal enemies, when they were actually good friends. This could imply HateShipping. Watterson has remarked about how he started to let the personalities bounce off each other, and this improved the meaning of their relationship.

[edit] Personality

Named after 16th Century theologian John Calvin, (founder of Calvinism and a strong believer in predestination), Calvin is an impulsive, insubordinate, imaginative, energetic, curious, bratty, rambunctious, obnoxious, and intelligent six-year-old, and is often very selfish. Calvin is a rebellious, irritating, imaginative, and a disagreeable person; though he tries desperately to show his true, good side. He almost always only expresses this side in front of Hobbes. He was 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 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.

Despite his low grades, Calvin has a wide range vocabulary and an advanced sense of irony which even rivals that of an adult. Calvin's woods are influential on him in that they help bring out his small but redeeming contemplative side. His wagon and toboggan also helps him in bringing out his contemplative side, but he usually rides it with Hobbes and ends up driving his wagon/toboggan (which "wouldn't survive a 200 MPH collision with a stationary object" as Calvin says) right over a cliff. His grapples with philosophical quandaries are usually cut short by a crash, banal distraction, mischievous urge or, as seen here, a sarcastic retort from one of his parents. For example, in one strip Calvin asks "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?", to which his father replies: "If I were, you can bet I'd be re-evaluating my strategy.". After which, Calvin tells his mom that his father keeps insulting him.

Another example of Calvin's advanced vocabulary is when Calvin tells his mother that he has been "...disempowered! My centering, self-actualizing anima has been impacted by toxic, co-dependent dysfunctionality!". His mother then replies "You've been temporarily inconvenienced. Take out the trash.", to which shouts out "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 reality, Einstein's bad academic record in his childhood is nothing more that a widespread misconception, though it is possible that not even Watterson himself knew this. In school, Calvin typically does almost no work. During the story arc in which he has to do a report on bats, he writes a brief poem that describes bats as "unspeakable giant bugs"; on the basis that they could fly and were 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 an "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. To which, 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.

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 also 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." 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. 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 maths (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. The dream was maths related, as Calvin needed to answer the question 5 + 6, so Spiff crashed Planet 5 into Planet 6. Planet 5 was obliterated, leaving only Planet 6, so Calvin's answer was 6, and reluctantly pays Susie 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 occasionally hates Hobbes during the storyline of one Sunday strip where he claims that Hobbes cheated him on the Dinosaurs by simply winning.

He commonly wears his distinctive red-and-black striped shirt, black jeans, and magenta sneakers. 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."
• "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."
• "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."
• "I must admit, that Calvin is good. he's always been my favorite book character and a good read when I'm down in the dumps. He always makes me laugh, and his surly attitude and having Hobbes around really just does it for anyone."

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".

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; to which he explains that "Scientists think up all these cool, wacky theories, but then give them dull, unimaginative names (e.g., "Dark Matter").

Calvin has often been shown to have minor anti-social 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".

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. 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.

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 do not battle more realistic, subtle supervillains in comic books and 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] Personal Life

Calvin usually is causing pandemonium in school, his house, and generally everywhere he goes. He is often seen bugging Susie Derkins, his worst enemy. Calvin's only moments of serenity are with his best buddy, Hobbes. He gets average C grades, seeing he mostly gets Cs, but has gotten a few high grades. There was even a time when he got an A+, but he REALLY chewed Hobbes out for THAT.

[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 and things (eel, babbon, gaigantic bug, dinosaur, ECT.)labeled. When the button is pressed, it transforms the subject under the box into whatever the dial is set to, usually to some sort of animal, acommpanied by a zapping sound. 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 kid.

• Portable Transmogrifier, a.k.a. Transmogrifier Gun: This device is a blue squirt gun that transforms the target into whatever the shooter is thinking of. When Calvin defends his invention by saying "... you don't like the color of your bedspread, 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 money safe. 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 inaminate 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 (later added with Ethicator): This is the original duplicator, but with an "ethicator", an added 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. On another trip, they realised 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 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 one story, Susie has to stay at Calvin's house for a few hours to complete her homework so she has time to practice music once home. Horrified by this idea, Calvin calls an emergency meeting of G.R.O.S.S. 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 an emergency meeting. 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.

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

[edit] Artistic Evolution

Like Hobbes, Calvin looked very different at the beginning of the strip than at the end. During the strip, Calvin's eyes slowly got more oval-shaped and farther apart, his hair got longer and spikier, and he got noticeably taller.

[edit] Calvin's last name.

Calvin's last name is never revealed to the reader, although a popular misconception has circulated that his last name is "Wunderkind". This dates back to the strip in which Calvin fantasizes about winning the poster contest at his school and imagining his name in the newspaper. The word "wunderkind" (which means "child prodigy") appears next to his name.

It is also believed that Calvin's last name is Monroe. Originally, Monroe and Jones had an equal chance, but Jones appeared twice in Calvin and Hobbes, and was in a Homework paper, thus proving that it wasn't Calvin's last name. Mr. Monroe appeared only once and was eventually killed, much of how Calvin may have feelings and daydreams about his dad. Anyway, death was immenent for Mr. Monroe, who was probably supposed to be Calvin's father.

[edit] Trivia

• Calvin probably has a crush on Susie.
• Calvin writes with both hands, but it is commonly shown to be right-handed. During the baseball strips, Calvin noticeably can be seen wearing a glove on a different hand in each panel.
• Calvin's main personality varies in every comic strip. He's mainly shown to be mischievous and aggressive, but also shown to be adventurous, curious, and intelligent (to Calvin's demise). He is occasionally shown to be inappropriate (according to Calvin's snowmen) and miserable (when it comes to Moe, School, and other problems in mind)
• Calvin hated being forced to learn how to swim, but he is commonly seen in his "kiddy pool" during the summer.
• Interestingly, in both his first and last appearances, Calvin is wearing a hat of some sort, the first being a pith helmet and the last being a snow hat.
• Calvin is shown to be ambidextrous. In the fact, Hobbes and Susie are also shown to be ambidextrous while his father and mother are right handed.
• Calvin speaks five different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, and Latin.
• Calvin is shown to be a fan of Star Wars, Batman, and Looney Tunes, but seems to despise anything from Disney.
• Calvin sometimes is shown having a watch, but it disappears between panels.
• In many strips, Calvin is shown having five fingers. But in other strips, he is shown having only three or four.
• Calvin has two favorite cereals, "Crunchy Sugar Bombs" and "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs", althogh he is forced to eat oatmeal and sometimes Bran.
• Calvin is often dipicted of crashing 40% of the time on both the sled with red runners and the tobbogan.
• Calvin and Susie are the only known characters who have creative imaginations.
• In the early production stages of the series, Calvin's eyes were covered by his hair.

[edit] See also

• Calvinball
• Cardboard box
• Hobbes