Calvin and Hobbes
I had been acquainted with Calvin and Hobbes during my school days through the newspaper, The Telegraph. Back in the day there were two popular English newspapers— The Statesman and The Telegraph. Both were extremely popular in almost all Bengali households in West Bengal (who encouraged kids to read English newspapers that is, and I bet this was not an insignificant percentage). There used to be a small corner on one of the pages which had these witty comic strips for which I used to wait every weekend. They were crisp and funny, and almost every time I read the pieces, I used to learn a thing or two about English vocabulary. Those were good days. Transitioning to college and then working in a different city, whenever I used to come across the not very often sightings of these comic strips in some newspaper or journal, it always got me excited.
Quite a few years have passed since then. I am 37 now, married, with a job in one of the reputed IT companies in San Francisco. We relocated to the US at a very interesting time, just before the lockdown started for Covid-19, in early 2020. And man, was it just in time! Offices began to announce work from home, some for a few months, and a few forever. Life has seen a few changes since then. There is no longer a rush to start the day, to make coffee and get ready to take the shuttle to office. We get up whenever we want (unless there are early morning meetings, and there are quite a few of them), and get on with our daily schedule. But still for the past few months, it felt like life has been busy. In fact busy may not be the right word. The right word could be “taxing”, or “mentally taxing”, or “stressful”. There’s been a ton of stress. In everything we do. Walks are not normal anymore, going out for a beer is forbidden, receiving packages from Amazon feels like a chore. Plus, it doesn’t help when the house you stay in is like a pigeon hole. You cannot stand and move your hands from one side to the other without touching something and cursing. It is annoying.
Enter “The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury”. It is indeed a treasure. For the last couple of months, I had been making it a point to read a few pages of this iconic comic strip before I hit the bed. It has been therapeutic and adventurous. The escape to these pages every night has been so much fun. It is a work of genius to say the least. To Calvin, Hobbes is an actual friend, full of wit and humor. To Calvin’s parents, Hobbes is a stuffed toy and his imaginary friend. To a lot of readers, <spoiler alert>Hobbes may be Tyler Durden, Calvin’s alter ego. Hobbes has an amazing comic timing. There’s almost no come back from his one liners and closing comments. It’s almost as if he rests his case every time, and there are no further arguments, and rightfully so. It is amazing to think of the huge difference of the way both the characters think and act! To me, Hobbes feels like an elder brother to Calvin, who makes fun of him, gives him a hard time, his partner in crime, and someone who always has his back. And the way Calvin drifts to space as Spaceman Spiff to save a planet or evolves to a gigantic T-REX is a treat to read as well. And the best part is how he lands back to reality.
The narrative isn’t complete without the brilliant art work. It is honest, simple and creative. Now that it is over, I am going to miss it. A lot. I was reading the other day from one of the reviewers in Good Reads that Bill Watterson stopped writing this comic strip in 1995. The reviewer wanted to know what would Calvin and Hobbes look like twenty five years later. Would Calvin be a dad by now? What would the relationship look like between Hobbes and Calvin’s kids? I can’t help but smile to think about these possibilities and conversations. Here’s wishing that the author decides to bring the characters back to life for all the fans out there, and for humanity in general.
