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.
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[edit] Calvin's family
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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. 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 broken into. 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 that she wanted a girl once, 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, or at least one of them.
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 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.
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, 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 has said that the wind is caused by trees sneezing 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." Calvin always appears to believe the answers, despite his mother's reactions. 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. His nonsensical responses could indicate the adult world's unwillingness to share knowledge, possibly because he believes Calvin is too young to understand exactly how things work. This is totally misguided assumption; Calvin can be very smart when he wants to be. Having said that, Calvin also resists lessons when he doesn't want to learn, and Calvin's father's nonsensical replies could be a way to humor his son's stubbornness. They may also signify that Calvin's father, like Calvin himself, has an imaginative streak that occasionally bursts free of his straightlaced paternal façade, thus confirming Calvin's mother's occasional accusations that Calvin must have inherited his outlandish behavior from his father's side of the family. Finally, Calvin's father may do it simply because he can, as part of the hazing any older male is tempted to visit on their friends and relatives.
This playful streak of his 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. Examples of the solace include the strip in which Calvin's father 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; he 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.
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". 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 a fusion of both Wattersons, father and son.
[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. Whether he was jesting or not 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 being a generally strait-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." She frequently scolds her husband for his sarcasm in dealing with their son. Also, she is also 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".
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" or "spider pie".
She has used Calvin's love for hamburgers as an advantage in one instance; after Calvin takes a single lick of food and flails about on the floor pretending to die, she put him back in his chair and explains to him, lightly frustrated, "Oh, knock it off, Calvin. It's hamburger casserole. There's not a thing in there you don't like." Calvin, awestruck that the meal is hamburger, takes a bite and explains in detail that it is not so bad and that he's suppressing the "gag reflex". His mother, understanding the underlying meaning, patiently replies, "Good. I'm glad this is such a hit."
Moving green glops occur in some strips; after Calvin's mom served him oatmeal, Calvin then thrashes around the house chasing after the glop of oatmeal. After Calvin's mom is exasperated by the entire mess in the kitchen, she shouts to Calvin's dad "It's YOUR fault we didn't have a sweet little girl! Your stupid chromosome, not MINE!" The final panel shows a confused Dad going back to reading his book. A thought bubble above him reads "I just live here".
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; verbally, but mostly emotionally. She has even blamed her husband for giving her the chromosome that gave birth to Calvin (see above), in an angry fit of rage. 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."
Calvin's dad (in one strip only) uses the "gross food" trick.
- Dad: Good idea, Calvin. It's a plate of toxic waste that'll turn you into a mutant if you eat it."
- (Calvin devours plate)
- Mom: There has got to be a better way to make him eat!"
- Calvin: Ah, I can feel it working... "
[edit] Other relatives
[edit] Uncle Max
Calvin's Uncle Max has appeared in a strip 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 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 sneaked 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.[4] This may also explain why none of Calvin's other relatives appear in the strip.
[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 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 here." 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." This implies that Calvin's mother could also have been unruly at times when she was a little girl, as well as the fact adults can sometimes forget they were children once and may have made life hard for their parents. 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 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
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Susie Derkins is a classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. 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 she makes reference that she may have been living 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. Her parents have spoken in the strip several times but never appeared in the panels.
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. Having said that, Susie is Calvin's equal in cunning, often turning his plans into ignominious defeats.
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. Having said that, Hobbes has shown frequent 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.
Often portrayed in some strips, she is repulsed by whatever Calvin packs in his lunch bag, mainly due to Calvin usually making up something disgusting (i.e. a "cow pie" for dessert). In one instance, Calvin asks would she like to know what he has packed, Susie says she doesn't want to hear what he has so Calvin, who is lightly enraged explains that he has packed a peanut butter sandwich; soon Susie is immediately relieved and then Calvin gleefully tells Susie "It's my dessert that's gross. Look, a thermos full of phlegm!" (According to the Tenth-Anniversary retrospective, this line resulted in a newspaper dropping the strip.) Another instance involves Calvin implementing a "great idea in action", which involved Calvin stuffing his entire lunch (consisting of a jelly sandwich and a banana) into his thermos of milk and letting it soak, then shaking it up and preparing to "choke it down" while Susie turns away in disgust. Once Calvin took the joke a bit too far, pouring his pasta down his shirt and actually scaring her away from the table by pretending that they were his intestines falling out.
Calvin, at one point, explains that he has a "mouse loaf" sandwich while Susie has a peanut butter sandwich. Susie, disgusted, doesn't even want her own lunch anymore after Calvin's descriptions of his sandwich leaving a gleeful Calvin, noting some cookies in her lunch, asking "What kind of cookies are those?"
[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. It is certainly true that Susie does not perceive Hobbes the same way Calvin does: in one week-long series of strips, a large dog steals Hobbes and Calvin dashes around in a panic; Susie rescues the motionless feline and serves him tea alongside an equally-motionless Mr. Bun. Hobbes only "comes to life" when Calvin finds him at the tea party. (Interestingly, after Calvin and Hobbes leave, Susie finds that all the cookies are gone.)
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 unemployed husband, and Calvin as their "bratty and brainless" child.
[edit] Miss Wormwood
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Miss Wormwood is Calvin's world-weary teacher, named after the junior devil in C. S. Lewis' 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 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. She is also a heavy smoker—"Rumor has it she's up to two packs a day, unfiltered,"— 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..."). 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 waste of 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.
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 Boy-Ar-Dee, 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 audience, "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 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...
She is not just exasperated by Calvin failing tests, she often sends Calvin to the principal's office after quipping, commenting and asking questions. Calvin has once stated "It's really gross how she drinks Maalox straight from the bottle" after protesting a "C" grade.
[edit] Moe
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Moe is the prototypical bully character, an extremely overweight "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) What?
- 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 the locker uttering, "That really wasn't what I meant at all."
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 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).
It could be noted that 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 been the case of Miss Wormwood.
[edit] Rosalyn
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Rosalyn is a high school student 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. Another instance is when Calvin asks his Dad to get out the magnum. 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, 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 devious 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 and locking himself and Hobbes in the bathroom.
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 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 not to have a dinner with "real pauses in the conversation" or watch a movie "without having advice shouted to the actors onscreen." 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.
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 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.
[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 a blocky 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, frequently 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 his doctor equipment was and how much it will hurt, "It's a cattle prod. It hurts a little less than a branding iron." Calvin promptly faints. When the doctor gave Calvin a shot in the next strip, Calvin screams,"AUGH! IT WENT CLEAR THROUGH MY ARM!!!!! OW OW OW OW! I'M DYING!!!! I HOPE YOU'VE PAID YOUR MALPRACTICE INSURANCE, YOU QUACK!!!!!!! WHERE'S MY MOM??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
- 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. He's been seen pressing the ends of his fingers together a few times.
- 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 said to be eaten by Hobbes), Russy White, Filthy Rich, Blake, Ronald, Jessica, Flow, Claire, Clarance and Candace. There are 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.
- 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. She calls Calvin's parents. It also seems that his Dad had "got the little nudist" out of her birdbath earlier.
Fred: Fred is a teacher who is referred to once in a Calvin and Hobbes strip. He is in the Teacher's Lounge after Calvin runs out.
- 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."
- Pete: Pete is shown once in a strip where Calvin goes to the barber, namely, Pete himself. He is one of the few one-time-appearing minor characters with a name whom Watterson actually drew into the strip.
- 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 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.
- Substitute Teachers: Occasionally, Calvin's class will have a substitute teacher. However, only two are named. One was a man named Mr. Kneecapper, about whom Calvin told Susie a story that he 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 named Ms. Franklin 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."
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 tricks her into catching chicken pox. Susie, in realization that Calvin is tricking her, asks "Any chance of getting transferred, Dad?"
- The Bedbug: This character appeared once in a Sunday strip. It bore a great resemblance to the Arachnoclaw in the 2005 remake of 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...."
- Mabel Syrup: The author of Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie and Commander Coriander Salamander and 'er Singlehander Bellylander.
- Monsters: the primary villain in the comic strip. Calvin has monsters under his bed and they have a plan to kill him but he outsmarts them, like one time in a Sunday edition the monsters were trying to trick Calvin to going to the Bathroom and grab him and suck out his Guts but Calvin outsmarts them by Peeing out the Window. The monsters under the bed are based on classical villains such as Maleficent and tons more.
[edit] Villains
- Monsters: the primary villain in comic stirp. Calvin has monsters under his bed and they have a plan to kill him but he outsmarts them, like one time in a sunday edition the monsters were trying to trick Calvin to going to the Bathroom and grab him and suck out his Guts but Calvin outsmarts them by Peeing out the Window. The monsters under the bed are based on classical villains such as Maleficent and tons more
- The Bedbug: This character appeared once in a Sunday strip. It bore a great resemblance to the Arachnoclaw in the 2005 remake of King Kong.
- Snow Goons: Calvin built a snowman and brought it to life as a media connection to Jurassic Park, but the snowmen became evil and transformed themselves into "Muntant, Deranged, Killer Monster Snow goons". As a fact: one night he went outside and sprayed all of them to death with a Hose
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Bill Watterson. Cast of Characters. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (press release). Andrew McMeel. Retrieved on 2006-03-19.
- ^ http://www.platypuscomix.net/otherpeople/watterson.html
- ^ http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html
- ^ Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, by Bill Watterson.
ISBN 0-8362-0438-7 (paperback)
ISBN 0-8362-0440-9 (hardback)
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