Tracer Bullet
From The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki
| Tracer Bullet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance: | May 16, 1987 |
| Last appearance: | March 2, 1991 |
| Other characters | |
Tracer Bullet is a rare alter-ego of Calvin's.
The character, a private investigator based on any number of film noir and detective novel clichés, makes his first appearance in a story in which Calvin gets a bowl haircut courtesy of Hobbes. When Calvin was forced to wear a hat to cover his bad haircut, the alter-ego was born, appearing in a total of three story arcs. He works out of an office on 49th street, and charges $50 per day, plus expenses.
Bill Watterson is quoted as saying:
Tracer Bullet stories are extremely time-consuming to write, so I don't attempt them often. I'm not at all familiar with film noir or detective novels, so these are just spoofs on the clichés of the genre. Cartoonists don't use black much anymore (the eye, being lazy, is attracted to empty white space, especially when the panels are so small), and we miss some dramatic possibilities that way.
While Tracer Bullet's narration usually dominated the individual strips he appeared in, his monologues tended to only provide exposition or reflection on previous action. The actual storyline generally would progress through comments by Calvin or any associated characters, almost always in panels featuring the real world of Calvin, not the imagined world of Tracer Bullet.
[edit] quotes
- "I've got eight slugs in me. One's lead, and the rest are bourbon. The drink packs a wallop and I pack a revolver."
- "My buddies travel light, and they're fun to have around. One travels in a holster, and the other in a hip flask."
- "I keep two magnums in my desk. One's a gun and I keep it loaded. The other's a bottle and it keeps ME loaded."
