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Get to know the characters of "Calvin
and Hobbes". These descriptions are by Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic. |
 Calvin
is named for a sixteen-century theologian who believed in predestination. Most people
assume that Calvin is based on a son of mine, or based on detailed memories of my own
childhood. In fact, I don't have children, and I was a fairly quiet, obedient kid-almost
Calvin's opposite. One of the reasons that Calvin's character is fun to write is that I
often don't agree with him.
Calvin is autobiographical in the sense that he thinks about the same issues that I do,
but in this, Calvin reflects my adulthood more than my childhood. Many of Calvin's
struggles are metaphors for my own. I suspect that most of us get older without growing
up, and that inside every adult(sometimes not very far inside)is a bratty little kid who
wants everything his own way. I use Calvin as an outlet for my immaturity, as a way to
keep myself curious about the natural world, as a way to ridicule my own obsessions, and
as a way to comment on human nature. I wouldn't want Calvin in my house, but on paper, he
helps me sort through my life and understand it.
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 I've never given Calvin's parents names, because as far as
the strip is concerned they are important only as Cavin's mom and dad. Cavin's dad has
been rumored to be a self-portrait. All of my characters are half me, so it's true in some
ways, but Calvin's dad is also partly a satire of my own father. Any strip about how
suffering "builds character" is usually a verbatim transcript of my dad's
explanation for why we were all freezing, exhausted, hungry, and lost on camping trips.
These things are a lot funnier after twenty-five years have passed. Calvin's mom is the
daily discipinarian, a job that taxes her sanity, so I don't think we get to see her at
her best. I regret that the strip mostly shows her impatient side, but I try to hint at
her personality and her interests by what she's doing when Calvin barges in.
Early on, Calvin's parents were criticized by readers for being unloving and needlessly
sarcastic. (Calvin's dad has remarked that what he really wanted was a dog.) At the time,
I think it was unusual for a comic strip to concentrate on the exasperating aspects of
kids without a lot of hugs and sentimentality to leaven it. We usually only see Calvin's
parents when they're reacting to Calvin, so as secondary characters, I've tried to keep
them realistic, with a reasonable sense of humor about having a kid like Calvin. I think
they do a better job than I would.
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 Susie is earnest,serious, and smart-the kind of girl I was
attracted to in school and eventually married. "Derkins" was the nickname of my
wife's family's beagle. The early strips with Susie were heavy-handed with the love-hate
conflict, and it's taken me a while to get a bead on Susie's relationship with Calvin. I
suspect Calvin has a mild crush on her that he expresses by trying to annoy her, but Susie
is a bit unnerved and put off by Calvin's weirdness. This encourages Calvin to be even
weirder, so it's a good dynamic. Neither of them quite understands what's going on, which
is probably true of most relationships. I sometimes imagine a strip from Susie's point of
view would be interesting, and after so many strips about boys, I think a strip about a
little girl, drawn by a woman, could be great.
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Named after a seventeeneth-century philosopher with a dim
view of human nature, Hobbes has the patient dignity and common sense of most animals I've
met. Hobbes was very much inspired by one of our cats, a gray tabby named Sprite. Sprite
not only provided the long body and facial characteristics for Hobbes, she also was the
model for his personality. She was goodnatured, intelligent, friendly, and enthusiastic in
a sneaking-up-and-pouncing sort of way. Sprite suggested the idea of Hobbes greeting
Calvin at the door in midair at high velocity. |
With most cartoon animals, the humor comes from their humanlike behavior.
Hobbes stands upright and talks of course, but I try to preserve his feline side, both in
his phisical demeanor and his attitude. His reserve and tact seem very catlike to me,
along with his contained pride in not being human. Like Calvin, I often prefer the company
of animals to people, and Hobbes is my idea of and ideal friend.
| The so-called "gimmick" of my strip-the two versions of
Hobbes-is sometimes misunderstood. I don't think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously
comes to life when Calvin's around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product of
Calvin's imagination. The nature of hobbes's reality doesn't interest me, and each story
goes out of its way to avoid resolving the issue. |
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Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way. I
show two versions of reality, and each makes complete sense to the participant who sees
it. I think that's how life works. None of us sees the world in exactly the same way, and
I just draw that literly in the strip. Hobbes is more about the subjective nature of
reality than about dolls coming to life.
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 Probably
the only person Calvin fears is his baby-sitter. I put her in a Sunday strip early on,
never thinking of her as a regular character,but her intimidation of Calvin suprised me,
so she's made a few appearances since. Rosalyn's relationship with Calvin is pretty
one-dimensional, so baby-sitter stories get harder and harder to write, but for a later
addition to the strip, shes worked pretty well.
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 As a
few readers have guessed, Miss Wormwood is named after the apprentice devil in C.S.
Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. I have a lot of sympathy for Miss Wormwood. We see hints
that she's waiting to retire, that she smokes too much, and that she takes a lot of
medication. I think she seriously believes in the value of education, so needless to say,
she's an unhappy person.
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 Moe is every
jerk I've ever known. He's big, dumb, ugly, and cruel. I remember school being full of
idiots like Moe. I think they spawn on damp locker room floors.
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