“A Gorgeous waste”: solitude in Calvin and Hobbes

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the important but unexamined role that solitude plays in Calvin and Hobbes. The proclivity that Watterson’s 6-year-old protagonist has for being by himself forms a core facet both to this specific character and to the comic as a whole. Many of Calvin’s exciting adventures, along with an array of his most beloved qualities, have their origins in solitude. Whether he is frolicking in nature or fantasizing about travelling through outer space, the best times that Calvin experiences are routinely times that he spends alone. In so doing, this feature forms an overlooked aspect to the strip’s premise as well as to its popularity. When the representation of solitude in Calvin and Hobbes is placed back within the comic’s original historical context, it can be seen as offering a larger commentary about changes taking place in American daily life and especially within the realm of childhood in the closing decades of the twentieth century. During a time when the ability of individuals to spend time alone was increasingly scarce and even stigmatised, Calvin and Hobbes offered a powerful case study about the benefits, joys, and importance of solitude.

KEYWORDS:

• Calvin and Hobbes
• U.S. newspaper comics
• Bill Watterson
• solitude
• American childhood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Bill Watterson commented on this situation in ways that frequently challenge this view. For example, the cartoonist once asserted: ‘When Hobbes is a stuffed toy in one panel and alive in the next, I’m juxtaposing the “grown-up” version of reality with Calvin’s version, and inviting the reader to decide which is truer’ (qtd in Martell 2009, 55). Meanwhile, in a different set of remarks on this same topic, Watterson went even further, writing: ‘The so-called “gimmick” of my strip – the two versions of Hobbes – is sometimes misunderstood. I don’t think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously comes to life when Calvin’s around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product of Calvin’s imagination. Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way. I show two versions of reality, and each makes complete sense to the participant who sees it’ (qtd in Martell 2009, 55).

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Michelle Ann Abate

Michelle Ann Abateis Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults at The Ohio State University. Her latest book, Funny Girls: Guffaws, Guts, and Gender in Classic American Comics, will be released from the University Press of Mississippi in early 2019.