this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
221 points (97.0% liked)
Comic Strips
18726 readers
1855 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- AI-generated comics aren't allowed.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
- !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Damn, this comic was deep sometimes.
And then you had other panels where the whole joke was Calvin being pounced on by Hobbs. A recurring event that as a kid I always compared to Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.
The difference is, Charlie Brown makes no attempt to substitute the ball holder, and continues to get frustrated at an obvious outcome.
Calvin is a child playing by himself, using imagination to create a fantasy world where he's sailing the seas, or exploring the moon, or being hunted by dinosaurs.......and then he pretends his best friend uses his distractions to tackle him at 60mph.
When you think about it, Calvin & Hobbs is really the story of a lonely boy seeping deeper and deeper into mental illness, while he struggles with low self esteme due to lack of a social life.
Meanwhile his parents mostly ignore him. Only being used in panels where Calvin needs discipline. Which is ironic, because the most famous image of Calvin is him peeing.
What? No, not even. First of all, Calvin and Hobbes is written specifically to allow for a Toy Story situation; they're only pretending to be not alive when adults are watching.
Second of all, Calvin never had any major mental illnesses (except maybe undiagnosed ADHD), much less "seeping deeper and deeper" into it. The author never intended that, and I damn sure never got that from any of my re-reads either.
Again, not even close. It wasn't even hard to find counter-evidence for this.
Only in the same way that Shirley Temple is most famous for her childhood acting, despite being a US diplomat later in life. What Calvin and Hobbes is most widely recognizable as has no bearing on what the majority of the comic was about.
Events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.