Learning about this hidden treasure

As a boy I always loved to read comics in the Sunday paper but for some strange reason my local newspaper never carried Calvin and Hobbes! I didn't know that this Comic strip even existed until this year! Of course I had seen the decal of Calvin on cars and trucks but didn't know it belonged to this great comic. Here I am a guy in his late twenties and thankfully found this great little documentary called "Dear Mr. Watterson" which was directed and stared Joel Allen Schroeder and thanks to this my eyes were open to this hidden world. Since watching the doc I've purchased my first Calvin and Hobbes book and read it once a day!  I've just only started going down this road but here is a brief introduction to the characters.



Calvin – Calvin, named after the 16th-century theologian John Calvin, is a six-year-old, whose last name is never mentioned in the strip. Despite his poor grades in school, Calvin demonstrates his intelligence through his sophisticated vocabulary and a philosophical mind. He commonly wears his distinctive red-and-black striped shirt, black pants, and white-and-magenta sneakers. He also wears a jacket when going to school or when playing in the snow. He is an enthusiastic reader of comic books and has a tendency to order items marketed in comic books or on boxes of his favorite cereal, Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. Calvin also has a sensitive side as well. This is displayed, for example, when he finds a dying raccoon and tries to save it but fails. The scene is made even more poignant by Calvin asking Hobbes not to "go anywhere" while Hobbes hugs him and promises him he won't.

Hobbes – From Calvin's point of view, Hobbes is an anthropomorphic tiger, much larger than Calvin and full of independent attitudes and ideas. When the perspective shifts to any other character, readers again see merely a stuffed animal, usually seated at an off-kilter angle and blankly staring into space. In more than one strip, Hobbes is shown being washed in a washing machine, a fact Hobbes takes in stride and which Watterson has referred to as "one of the stranger blurrings of what Hobbes is."

Hobbes is named after the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who held what Watterson describes as "a dim view of human nature." Hobbes (the tiger) is much more rational and aware of consequences than Calvin, but seldom interferes with Calvin's trouble making beyond a few oblique warnings. Hobbes is sarcastic when Calvin is being hypocritical about things he dislikes.