Favorite Comic strip and why.

MiamiHeat · 10-25-2008

Calvin and Hobbes- just because of the depth and breadth of it's philosophy- they aren't named Calvin and Hobbes on accident. A strip about Santa's legitimacy turns into a philosopher's rumination on Pascal's Wager. A strip about the bully Moe isn't really about bullying and a strip about homework isn't really about homework, but more about the existential connection we have to an unfair and hostile world. A strip about riding a wagon down a wooded hill and off a cliff is actually a shrewd metaphor about enjoying the ride even though the consequences, maybe terrible, lie in the future.

Plenty of strips avoided the philosophy altogether and went right into condemnation of environmental destruction, human greed and the like. Which was amazing- because besides Doonsbury, not too many comic authors have the courage to be outspoken politically.

Peanuts did the same thing in way, but in a generational sense, I don't think it pulled me in the way Calvin and Hobbes did. As a kid I identified with Calvin; I too sat in classrooms daydreaming about bombing the school with an F-16, I too spent summers rummaging around in the woods and I too was a kid who imparted philosophical skepticism into everything. It's not just a comic strip, it's a reflection on existence and all of its contradictions, parsed into the head of a hyper-active six year old. One of the great 20th century works of writing.

dude, i just wanna laugh!

baseline bum · 10-25-2008

Originally Posted by MiamiHeat

dude, i just wanna laugh!

Calvin & Hobbes works flawlessly on that level too.

Calvin: I’m so smart it’s almost scary. I guess I’m a child progeny.
Hobbes (with look of intense sarcasm on his face): Most children are.
Calvin: What?
Hobbes: Nothing.

spurster · 10-25-2008

For current comics, Dilbert, because it's the truth.

For past comics, the Far Side by far.

velik_m · 10-26-2008

Alan Ford.

Also Asterix.

MaryAnnKilledGinger · 10-26-2008

Calvin and Hobbs has lived a charmed existence. It came out at just the right time when the audience was not too jaded to dismiss it and yet sophisticated enough to enjoy it.

I often wonder in this post 9/11, post Columbine world how much of Calvin's boys-will-be-boys violent fantasy daydreams would have been allowed.

My favorite Calvin and Hobbs was the mother pulling up to the house with groceries to find a few mangled half-melted snowmen bearing signs that say things like "The End is Near" and "Spring is coming."

I don't even remember the punchline that Calvin's mom gets in the final panel. Just the image of the prophets of doom snowmen in my head makes me still chuckle.