Calvin and Hobbes Growing Pains

Calvin and Hobbes was a great, classic, surreal Comic strip; - the Thinking Man's Comic Strip, and as great as it was, it, like early Star Trek: The Next Generations, went through a rough, protoformed "puberty", having trouble finding it's way, trial and

error, like this one. It only came in aorund 35 newspapers, and Bill Watterson's hometown didn't get it.

He didn't think it was necessary anyway, that C&H should have had an unspecified offscreen beginning, left to the Reader's Imagination, just like Hamster Huey, the Noodle Incident, and pretty much anything after Calvin's growing up.

Fairly obviously, straightforward Kid Shit. Of course, since this was the early days, when the basics were being established, this is obvious. Hobbes, was meant to be ambiguous, either a look at different realities and POVs for different people, and of course, whether Hobbes is Real, a Toy, or some bizarre, in-between character (multidimensional? a character you really have to look to see any signs of life? Psionics?)

shall also be yet another abstract element to this Comic Strip.

If you've noticed by this point, Bill didn't even give Calvin a Mom until a few weeks later, and Hobbes's behaviour here is kind of protoformed: Smooch? would he have Bert* kiss him? This is also still in the predictable Kids with Imagination getting into dilemmas territory.

*Yes, in a psychotic dream, I somehow ascertained Dad and Mom to be Bert and Lambie. I have Psychotic, PSYCHOTIC Dreams.

This is also protoformed as far as the Monsters go: It's still just predictable Kid-Imagination-Trouble stuff, and oh... Calvin's Mom is mentioned, close but NO cigar to being seen, and at least little development would be required for the Monsters to become a more imaginative problem.

Finally, the Mom appears here. The Monster one above is one of the best, despite the intense awkwardness of the protoformed days, and Calvin at the bottom is using his imagination in a more recognizable way.

Also, Lambie, Mom, has her lips in a "poet" wisp (one of those weird, symbolic things that appears in dreams, and bizarre words and ideas that pop up to illustrate or describe stuff other people wouldn't even bat an eyelid at; I have plenty of those, too...)

Protoformed Spaceman Spiff, here, the art is REALLY cringe-inducing, Spiff changing from bound and gagged to just bound, with generic, almost non-existent story, and nasty cartoony Mrs. Wormwood. Oh yeah, and the premise is another generic Kiddie set-up, thankfully, things would get a LOT better than this.

This is almost a stable, straightline "Parent's POV/Kid's POV" strip, aside from the uneven, somewhat cartoony look of the 1985 art, this could actually pass.

Susie appears around here. Bill overplayed the quasi-romantic tension too much. Thankfully, that, and the outright nastiness would become more multifaceted.

Ok, this is one that simply doesn't work. Wouldn't Calvin be grossed out, when he figures out what's going on here? This is another predictable "typical kid with a dash of trouble and weird shit happening", and definitely is dated.

Why would this even happen? Even if Calvin wasn't a troublemaker, wouldn't there be some kind of Babysitter? Clearly,

this was one of the worse victims of protoforming.

And NO CUB SCOUTS@#. Bill Watterson admitted, sheathing it in a vinier of "Producer can be stuck in a corner if he isn't careful", but basically it's "I just blindly went with it; - Calvin and Hobbes need to be wandering on their own; - putting them with some other kids isn't going to do more than bludgeon that." Sending them camping with Mom and Dad was better for the Characters and such.