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, ranging from Calvin's nameless classmates at elementary school to gargantuan aliens on distant planets.

Contents 1 Calvin’s family 1.1 Calvin's father 1.2 Calvin's mother 1.3 Other relatives 1.4 Trivia 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 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, except as "Mom" and "Dad", or such pet names as "hon" and "dear." 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." ^[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. 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.

[edit] Calvin's father

Calvin's father is a patent attorney who is portrayed as an upstanding middle-class father, as his son might see him. An outdoorsman, he enjoys bike rides and camping trips, and insists that these activities, like Calvin's chores, "build character." When Calvin asks him questions, he often makes up outlandish answers, such as:

Calvin: "Why does it [the sun] move from east to west?"

Dad: "Solar wind."

or

Calvin: "Dad, what makes wind?"

Dad: "Trees sneezing."

Calvin: "Really?"

Dad: "No, but the truth is more complicated."

Calvin (later, to Hobbes): "The trees are really sneezing today."

or

Calvin: "Dad, why are old photographs black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?"

Dad: "Of course they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It's just that the WORLD was black and white then.

Calvin:"Really?"

Dad: "Yeah, the world didn't turn color until sometime in the '30s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

Calvin:"Oh."

Dad: "Well, truth is stranger than fiction."

Calvin: "Then why are old paintings in color? If the world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted that way?"

Dad: "Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane."

Calvin: "BUT... but how could they possibly have painted in color? Wouldn't their paints have been in shades of gray back then?"

Dad: "Of course, but they changed color like everything else in the '30s.

Calvin: "So why didn't black and white photos turn color too?"

Dad: "Because they were color photographs of black and white, remember?"

These repeated vague and outright false answers may be social commentary on the distortion of reality that pervades much of Calvin and Hobbes. It is intriguing to note that to be a patent attorney traditionally requires an engineering degree; therefore, Calvin's father should have the actual scientific knowledge of the questions Calvin asks. His refusal and nonsensical responses indicate the adult world's unwillingness to share the knowledge or deliberate distortion of reality. There is a huge possibility that Calvin's father may be unwilling to share knowledge because he believes that Calvin is too young to understand exactly how such things work. This is a totally misguided assumption, as Calvin has shown signs of intelligence more than once, though often shows signs of refusing to actually learn things.

Indeed, Calvin's father's willingness to provide outrageous explanations may reflect Calvin's reluctance to take the more difficult road of learning how things really work. When Calvin asks what makes wind, his father answers, "Trees sneezing." When Calvin asks, "Really?", his father replies, "No, but the truth is more complicated." The last panel shows Calvin leaning into the wind, saying, "The trees are really sneezing today."

Of course, these bits of nonsensical fatherly "wisdom" may also signify that Calvin's father, like Calvin himself, has an imaginative streak that occasionally bursts free of his straightlaced paternal façade (thus implying that Calvin's mother's occasional accusations that Calvin must have inherited his outlandish behavior from Dad's side of the family may, in fact, be correct).

This playful streak of his allows him to occasionally find moments of solace with Calvin, and it is implied that Calvin's Dad may have been like Calvin in his youth, such as in the strip in which Calvin's Dad shows a surprising understanding of Calvin's impatience, and has subsequently matured and developed a more pensive character. This lends a pleasant optimism to the strip, as it is possible that Calvin's obvious intelligence may someday be understood by society and put to good use, and he will become a well-rounded character like his dad. This, of course would mortify Calvin if he were to read it, as he himself, in his youthful jubilance, describes his traditionalist father as "the most boring Dad in the world."

Calvin's Dad 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, when Calvin asked his dad what the "ol’ college try" meant, his father responded that it was "when you gather your friends, grab some cheap beer, order a pizza, and forget about tomorrow."

Watterson occasionally uses Calvin's Dad 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 all the various junk mail he received might make him a “terrorist” for not “buying distractions from a simple life.” He seems happiest when he is simply riding his bike or sitting in the backyard watching the sunset, and enjoying peace and quiet. Ironically, sometimes he needs to go to the office to get some peace and quiet away from Calvin.

The character is a satire of Watterson's own father^[1], who is also a patent attorney, and often told his family that unpleasant things "built character." The actual caricature bears a striking resemblance to Watterson himself, minus his facial hair (see image). Watterson has said that he identifies more with this character than with Calvin. Watterson has said in the tenth anniversary book that Calvin seems to be confused how his dad stays dad, and thinks that he is elected dad every four years. There have been several strips that show Calvin saying that his popularity is slipping, his charts have lowered, and in one strip, Calvin fantasizes what the papers will look like when his dad is defeated in a landslide victory. However, his dad doesn't really seem to care.

[edit] Calvin's mother

Calvin's mother is a stay-at-home parent 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. On the rare occasions when she is not reacting to Calvin's misbehavior, she seems to enjoy quiet activities, such as gardening and reading The "Daily Disciplinarian." 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 (although she refers to one instance as "talking to a stuffed animal").

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 comes in. She seems to enjoy gardening and reading, and also keeping 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. 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." She frequently scolds her husband for his sarcasm in dealing with their son. Finally, 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."

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 either friends or just went to the same college and/or clubs.

Also portrayed in the comic strips, Calvin dislikes his mother's cooking. Once, she tricks him into believing that she was cooking monkey heads to convince him to eat his food (Calvin is immediately interested) but her plan backfires as her husband refuses to eat when Calvin starts to talk about what she had said to him. In another strip, Calvin's mom is shown cooking with excessively poisonous objects such as weed killer, paint, etc.; to which Calvin replies "I saw what went in it! I'm not eating it!"

Calvin's father once said that her old job was highly stressful, so that she would be perfect for staying home to deal with Calvin. Whether he was jesting or not is debatable.

[edit] Other relatives

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.

Calvin's Uncle Max has appeared in a strip, visiting the family. Uncle Max is Calvin's father's "big brother." Like typical brothers, they often joked on each other. When Calvin implies that Max was in jail (as an idea of why he hasn't really met Max), his mother is outraged, while his father seems to agree with Calvin, saying with Max, you never know. He never appeared again after the week 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.

[edit] Trivia

• On occasion, Watterson takes the time to flesh out the two parental characters. One example is a storyline in which the family returns from a wedding trip to find their house broken into. For several strips, Calvin and Hobbes fade into the background as Mom and Dad reflect on the impact of the event.
• Calvin's parents drive a purple 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 when he accidentally pushes the car into a ditch.
• The parents occasionally invite guests over to their house, and Calvin usually ends up messing up.

[edit] Susie Derkins

Susie Derkins, the only character with both first and last names, is a classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. Named for the pet beagle of Watterson's wife's family,^[1] she first appeared early in the strip as a new student in Calvin's class. 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.

During the strip's first years, Susie was seen wearing a dress or skirt and was drawn with a large round elliptical head, much like Charlie Brown's. Her appearance slowly 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, and he often goes to great lengths to disgust or annoy Susie. Calvin founded his and Hobbes' secret club, G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) as a general anti-girl organization, but in practice the club is almost invariably dedicated to pestering Susie specifically.

Watterson admits that Calvin and Susie have a bit of a nascent crush on each other, and that Susie is inspired by the type of women he himself finds attractive. Her relationship with Calvin, though, is frequently conflicted, and never really becomes sorted out. The love/hate relationship is most obvious in some of the early comics involving Susie and Calvin's relationships, when some punchlines revolved around Susie and Calvin going out of their way to malign each other, followed immediately by each thinking romantic thoughts about the other. Specifically, in an early Valentine's Day strip, Susie seems to appreciate a rather juvenile and insulting card and dead flowers Calvin gives her, and he rejoices when she notices 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.

On occasion, Hobbes takes action to attract Susie's romantic attention, often with success, and much to Calvin's chagrin. Although on the surface these scenarios take the form of Hobbes teasing Calvin and showing off his charms, they may be Calvin's way to disguise his own crush on Susie, by pretending that it is Hobbes' crush instead. As Calvin once said, "It's shameless the way we flirt."

[edit] Mr. Bun

Mr. Bun is Susie's stuffed rabbit which frequents her "tea parties" as a "guest." Unlike Hobbes, Mr. Bun is nothing more than a stuffed rabbit, having no "alternate reality" of his own (Hobbes once referred to Mr. Bun as 'comatose'). In a week-long series revolving around the loss of the stuffed Hobbes, who is found by Susie while out for a walk, Calvin loses the companionship of the alternate Hobbes while the actual stuffed and motionless Hobbes is served tea alongside an equally motionless Mr. Bun. The alternate Hobbes reappears when Calvin finds him sipping tea alongside Susie and Mr. Bun.

Given one of the more unusual aspects of the Calvin and Hobbes universe, namely the fact that the only other children generally shown in the strip besides Calvin are Susie and school bully Moe, 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." The final panel shows a dejected Susie, head in hands, with her final word on the situation: "Poop."

[edit] Miss Wormwood

Miss Wormwood is Calvin's world-weary teacher, named after the junior devil in C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.^[1] She perpetually 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 correct figure.

Although there is a definite progression of time in the Calvin and Hobbes universe, mainly exhibited by the changing seasons, Calvin and Susie return to Miss Wormwood's first-grade class every fall.

Miss Wormwood is rarely sympathetic to the trouble Calvin has in school, and comes across as a rather strict, sour character. She is quick to send Calvin to the principal's office at the first sign of trouble. She is also a heavy smoker—"Rumor has it she's up to two packs a day, unfiltered"—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..."). 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."

[edit] Moe

Moe is the prototypical bully character, "a 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. 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 (such as telling him that his "simian countenance [suggested] a heritage unusually rich in species diversity." "What?" (Calvin hands over money) "Never mind. That was worth 25 cents."). 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 "it'll be a dark day if [he] ever [found] out who!" Another time in the strip, Hobbes is brought to school and Calvin successfully psyches Moe out by daring him to touch Hobbes (Calvin thinks Hobbes is scaring him; Moe thinks that the dare is some sort of trap).

[edit] Rosalyn

Rosalyn is a high school senior and Calvin's official babysitter whenever Calvin's parents need a night out. She is the only babysitter able to tolerate Calvin's antics, which she uses to demand raises and advances from Calvin's desperate parents. 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. 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. Occasionally, Calvin manages to gain the upper hand by tricking Rosalyn into devious situations, such as locking her out of the house.

In nearly all the "Rosalyn stories", Roz is shown demanding advance payment and raises in wage from Calvin's parents, supposedly because she needs the extra money to pay for college. (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 a dinner without "real pauses in the conversation." Therefore, they always gave Roz 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. There once was a mention of Calvin's original babysitter, Amy.

[edit] Other characters

• Aliens: 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 an unusual 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.
• Doctor: Calvin occasionally visits his pediatrician, who appears to be a mild-mannered physician with a friendly demeanor. Calvin, however, frequently sees him as a vicious, sadistic interrogator, sometimes visualizing him as an alien or overreacting to his playful diagnoses.
• 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.
• 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, Russy White, Filthy Rich, Ronald, Jessica, Flow, Claire, Clarance and Candace. There are thirty students in the class.
• Max: Max is Calvin's uncle, his father's older brother, who resembles his father with a bushy mustache. Max appears in the strip on only one occasion. Watterson found it difficult to write Max's dialogue without referring to Calvin's parents by name, and also felt that Max just didn't fit in the universe of Calvin and Hobbes, so his existence was limited to a few strips.
• 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).
• Mrs. Carroll: Mrs. Carroll is Calvin's next door neighbor who is referred to once in a strip. Calvin was apparently running naked through her yard when she calls Calvin's parents. It also seems that his Dad had removed Calvin from her birdbath earlier on in the strip.
• Fred: Fred is a teacher that is referred to once in a Calvin and Hobbes strip. He is in the Teacher's Lounge after Calvin runs out.
• Charlie: Or Chuck 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."
• Tommy Chesnutt: A student at Calvin's school who is mentioned when Calvin's Mom asks if Calvin is bullied at school for bringing Hobbes. Calvin replies: "Hobbes ate him!"
• Calvin's Grandfather: He is mentioned during a scene where Calvin smokes a cigarette. Before he does this, Calvin's Mom says: "Sure Calvin. I think your Grandfather left some here." It has also been revealed that Calvin's grandfather takes the newspaper comic strips pretty seriously.
• Calvin's Grandmother: She is mentioned after Calvin's second appointment at the Doctor's office. Mom: "Someday I hope you have a kid that puts you through what I've gone through." Calvin: "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?" In another strip, Calvin is writing a thank-you note to Grandma. 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."
• 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 has once appered in a strip where Calvin gives Susie a mean Valentine. Calvin says to her: I'd like to give a Valentine to a girl I know.. Mrs. Derkins explains: What a sweet little boy you are.. She is also shown from the waist up in a foiled attempt to pester susie, and having some brief dialouge during Suise's first experience with Calvin's alter-ego, "Stupendous Man".
• Gym Teacher*: An unnamed gym instructor appears in an early "spaceman spiff" adventure. Some readers have speculated him to be one and the same as Mr. Lockjaw. However, he is taller and burlier, with a full head of white or blond hair, and with a smaller nose. However, given how other characters have evolved, he could be the same person.
• Substitute Teachers*: Occasionally, Calvin's class will have a substitute teacher. However, the only one named was Mr. Kneecapper, about whom Calvin told Susie a story that he killed a student. Once, when Calvin learns that Mrs. Wormwood is sick and they have a substitute teacher, he asks, "Can I hire a substitute student?" On another occasion, Calvin says that Mrs. Wormwood is really from a hostile alien race planning to conquer earth. He says that she is putting subliminal messages in their textbooks to make it so that when their generation controls the earth, and the aliens invade, the human race will be helpless. He also states the real reason she is unavailable is because she is going to give her report to her superiors. He ends the strip by remarking "Fortunately, I'm too smart for them. I never do the assignments".

[edit] References

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Characters
Calvin | Hobbes | Secondary characters
Terms and objects
Recurring themes | Horrendous Space Kablooie | Opposite Day | Transmogrifier
Other
Calvin and Hobbes in translation | List of Calvin and Hobbes books | References to Calvin and Hobbes | Setting of Calvin and Hobbes