Calvin and Hobbesfeatured a number ofhilarious cartoons that lampooned writers and the act of writing, as Calvin in particular repeatedly succumbed to literary pretensions. As withthe strip’s equally memorable jokes about art and artists, creator Bill Watterson used his comic duo to offer cogent criticism of writers, as well as the position of writers in American culture.
Despite being only six-years-old, Calvin routinely displayed a surprisingly detailed perception of art and culture – though by a strip’s conclusion, this tended to curl back into childish confusion for the sake of a solid punchline.
Fans ofCalvin and Hobbesknow that it was often far from a simple cartoon abouta boy and his “imaginary” tiger, and artist Bill Watterson never hesitated to throw a lot of highbrow concepts at his readers when it suited him, albeit usually in Calvin’s twisted formulation.
First Published: July 13, 2025
Though Calvin would eventually discover his love of writing on his own time, thisCalvin and Hobbescartoon finds him putting off a book report he has to do for school. Speaking with Hobbes, he circumvents the fact that he’s ignoring his homeworkby getting philosophical about it, asking “why get an ulcer over things that don’t really matter?”
Assuming a reader accepts the premise that Hobbes is imaginary,Bill Watterson’s strip can be thought of as a look into the interior world of a deeply imaginative young child, who displays exactly the kind of introspective disposition and tendency toward solitude that are often the hallmarks of a future writer. In this case, Calvin has yet to discover that his wild creativity can be directed onto the written page – though in future comics, he will.
9Calvin’s Plan To Write His Autobiography Quickly Goes Up In Flames
First Published: June 01, 2025
In thisCalvin and Hobbescomic, Calvin has gotten the itch to be a writer, and now it becomes a matter of figuring out what kind of writer he wants to be. Thesix-year-old’s characteristic inventivenessimmediately finds him looking to subvert expectations of genre and form, as he declares his intention to write “a fictional autobiography,” based on his experiences “but with a lot of parts completely made up.”
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As high-minded of a literary aspiration as this might be, it is soon revealed through conversation with Hobbes that Calvin is very much a “function over form” kind of writer. When Hobbes is skeptical about the “fictional autobiography,“Calvin excitedly explains that he needs to fictionalize his life, telling his tiger friend it is “because inmy book, I have a flame thrower!”
8Calvin Displays A Lack Of Journalistic Integrity, Suggesting He Should Stick To Fiction
First Published: August 20, 2025
In this hilariousCalvin and Hobbescomic, Calvin is depicted playing journalist. Many readers of a certain age will likely be able to relate to this experience – yet few can likely claim to have been immediately drawn to tabloid-style, sensationalist reporting the way Calvin is. As his Mom attempts to prepare dinner, Calvin asks to interview her; when she tells him she’s cutting fish for their meal, the intrepid young newswriter immediately conjures a startling headline, jotting down:
KNIFE WIELDING MOTHER HACKS ICHTHYOID! GRIM MELEE IS EVENING RITUAL! SUBURBAN FAMILY DEVOURS VICTIM!
As funny as this punchline is on its own – topped off byMom swiftly ushering Calvin outof the kitchenas he’s still writing – what elevates it to laugh-out-loud status is the look of pure adrenaline on Calvin’s faceas he gets his “page one lead story.”
7Calvin Finds Out There’s No Funding For His House Newspaper
First Published: August 03, 2025
Following up on the previous day’sCalvin and Hobbesinstallment, this strip finds Calvin continuing his attempt to get a publishing career off the ground. Amusingly, that involves attempting to extort money for “labor and production costs” out of his Dad, in exchange for favorable coverage in the paper.
Calvin gives his Dad an ultimatum: either cough up fifteen dollars, or “be the subject of a comic strip called Dopey Dad.” In the final panel,Hobbes and Calvin are shown later collaborating on “Dopey Dad,” making it clear that while Calvin didn’t get the money he wanted, he is ultimately satisfied roasting his father in comic formas an alternative. Once more, author Bill Watterson makes it evident that his young protagonist is better suited to pursuing fiction, rather than non-fiction.
6Once Again, Calvin’s Ambitions As A Writer Get Him In Trouble
First Published: June 18, 2025
Without a doubt, this strip features Calvin’s most unorthodox writing project – to the point where it substantially overlaps with his penchant for chaotic mischief. “I want to pour gasoline in big letters on the lawn,” he explains to his Dad, “and set fire to it so airplanes can read it as they fly over.”
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Naturally, Calvin’s Dad dumps figurative cold water on this idea, thankfully extinguishing it at the planning stage before he had to do so literally. What makesthisCalvin and Hobbesstrip particularly interesting, though, is the way the final panel in the sequence doesn’t dwell on Calvin’s disappointed response, but ratherstays with his father, who sinks into his recliner, looking defeated, and mutters to himself: “I don’t even want to know what he intended to write.”
5Hobbes Reveals His Own Literary Aspirations, To Calvin’s Consternation
First Published: August 19, 2025
The “action” of thisCalvin and Hobbescartoonbegins with Calvin admonishing Hobbes for a story he wrote – which Calvin handed in for a school assignment as his own. Yet as it turns out,the story earned Calvin an “A+” and was lauded by his teacher – prompting an elated Hobbes to muse, “maybe I should send this to the New Yorker.”
As he rants, Calvin hilariously describes a story with touches of metafiction and postmodernism, tied together by Hobbes' own narration, which Calvin’s teacher describes as “a clever touch.” Once more, if Hobbes is taken to be imaginary, this cartoon depicts Calvin as a wildly talented creative writer, who simply needs to mature a bit more. Yet if Hobbes is real, then here he brilliantly upstages his best friend’s own aspirations toward a career as an author.
4Calvin Proves That He Has What It Takes To Be A Scholar
First Published: June 01, 2025
ThisCalvin and Hobbescartoonskillfully lampoons academic jargon, which Calvin has evidently discovered and wholeheartedly embraced as a style.As he explains to Hobbes, he came to like writing once he discovered that “the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas,“and that “with a little practice, writing can be intimidating and impenetrable fog.”
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As most college-educated readers will know, for every incredibly cogent and well-articulated piece of academic writing, there are usually five more that are night-unreadable, little more than sound and fury signifying nothing. When Hobbes reads Calvin’s book report title, it is essentially a string of scholarly buzzwords – which a satisfied Calvin responds to by saying: “Academia, here I come!” In typical Bill Watterson fashion, the injection of this critique into his work is inverted by Calvin’s newfound enthusiasm for “inflating weak ideas,” offering a counterintuitive perspective that amplifies the comic’s humor.
3Calvin Realizes There’s A Catch To Writing A Successful Self-Help Book
First Published: June 18, 2025
In this extendedCalvin and Hobbespanel, Calvin walks Hobbes step-by-step through the self-help tome that he intends to write,only to arrive at a disheartening conclusion for any author – if his method actually helps people, he “won’t be able to write a sequel.”
In the lead-up to that highly effective punchline,Bill Watterson uses Calvin as a mouthpiecefor a strong satirical critique of self-help as a genre, noting that in order for a self-help program to appeal to someone, it must first exploit their vulnerabilities. In other words, Calvin suggests that the “huge market” for self-help manuals sells its audience the problem so that it can then sell them the solution. As a result, he decides that his book will fill the niche for audiences who find themselves addicted to self-help books – something that Hobbes naturally expresses his own skepticism about.
2Calvin Voices A Common Piece Of Authorial Advice
First Published: July 19, 2025
Calvin returns to his ambitions as a fiction author in this strip, telling Hobbes that he’s “writing a novel”– except once more Hobbes, and by extension, the reader, find thatCalvin’s perception of the line between fiction and realityis, as one might expect, incredibly blurred.
As Calvin explains, his novel is about a person watching TV;when Hobbes unceremoniously walks away, Calvin screams after him, “they say write what you know!“On this point, he’s right – “they” do say this, in that it is a common piece of advice given to writers who are struggling to generate ideas. Adding a layer of humor is the fact that Calvin is generally so imaginative, that for him to sit down and not be able to come up with a more engaging story strikes a particularly funny chord.
1Calvin Is Already Thinking About His Legacy As An Author
First Published: July 27, 2025
Declaring himself a “genius,” Calvin explains to Hobbes in this strip that he has to leave behind a large volume of “correspondence” so that future generations will be able to understand him better. “My writing will provide countless fascinating insights for biographers,” he casually notes,to which Hobbes looks at the letter the boy is writing and retorts, “Such as how all your salutations begin, ‘hey, boogerbrain.”
To this, Calvin reveals the less lofty, more petty truth behind the letter – he ordered “X-Ray glasses” that he has not received yet.This is a classicCalvin and Hobbesset-upand punchline, starting out with Calvin’s ambitious and forward-thinking rumination on his own legacy, before it turns out that his desire is in fact very short-term. In both cases, Calvin is hilariously self-centered here, in the way that he tended to be in the funniestCalvin and Hobbescartoons.
Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes was a satirical comic strip series that ran from 1985-1995, written, drawn, and colored by Bill Watterson. The series follows six-year-old Hobbes and his stuffed Tiger, Calvin, that examines their lives through a whimsical lens that tackles everyday comedic issues and real-world issues that people deal with.
