“When you think of newspaper comic strips, Peanuts probably comes to mind first. Charles Shultz’s crew was legendary, but Peanuts is far from the best comic strip of all time. That honor goes to Calvin and Hobbes. Created by Chagrin Falls native Bill Watterson in 1985, Calvin and Hobbes chronicles the adventures of a boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes.”
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When you think of newspaper comic strips, Peanuts probably comes to mind first. Charles Shultz’s crew was legendary, but Peanuts is far from the best comic strip of all time. That honor goes to Calvin and Hobbes.

Created by Chagrin Falls native Bill Watterson in 1985, Calvin and Hobbes chronicles the adventures of a boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes. The comic is mostly shown through Calvin’s imagination, which means he sees his best friend as a live tiger. The comic ran for 3,160 strips, through 1995, when Watterson pulled the plug because he had done all he could do with it.

If you are not familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, here are five reasons as to why it is the greatest strip in history.

Use of cardboard boxes

Never before has such a random, everyday item as a cardboard box been such a major player in a comic strip. Calvin would turn his box into a couple of different machines. There was the Transmogrifier, capable of changing someone into any animal they wanted. The Flying Time Machine would take Calvin and Hobbes anywhere they wanted in time. The Atomic Cerebral Enhance-O-Tron served as a thinking cap and the Duplicator could create replicas of anyone used it.

Calvinball

Calvinball was a sport that the duo invented. There were only two real rules. First, all players must wear masks and no one was allowed to question the masks. The second rule stated no game may be played the same way twice. Basically, you had to try and outwit your opponent in a game where the score could be Q-12.

Susie Derkins

She was one of Calvin’s classmates and, in general, his arch-nemesis. If there was a love interest in Calvin’s life, it was Susie. Calvin acts like all boys his age do around girls. He is generally picks on her anytime he can and is obsessed with trying to hit her with snowballs, even in the summer. He even went so far as to start his own anti-girls group. G.R.O.S.S. Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.

The noodle incident

This was a reoccurring story-line throughout the series which was never explained.

School life

Few comic strip characters have been quite the dedicated slacker that Calvin was, whether he was slicing pingpong balls in half to make it look like he was awake during Ms. Wormwood’s class or slipping the newest issues of Chewing Magazine behind a textbook.

He also classically exclaimed: You know how Einstein got bad grades – well mine are even worse!

The wagon

Another classic staple of the Calvin and Hobbes strip was when the two would go tumbling down a steep mountain on the way to sure injury while Calvin pondered deep subjects such as religion and the meaning of life.

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