The theme for November came together even faster than I planned! Certainly friendlier than reminding everyone about the election of Reagan…the anti-FDR and one of the worst presidents ever.
No, Calvin and Hobbes is a more pleasant topic because it was one of the last great daily newspaper strips published. Today, I doubt something like Bill Watterson’s creation would have the reach it once did because the Internet just doesn’t have the reach it likes to boast. There were other great strips preceding it and a couple more appeared before newspapers declined into the dying empires they are today, but they just didn’t appeal to such a wide audience. Dilbert involves workplace idiocy, kids don’t get it. Foxtrot was family stuff, again, lost on kids and many adults just roll their eyes. Bloom County was satire, less than half of America understood it, especially during the anti-ironic Reagan era. Doonesbury was relegated to the editorial page, hell, my grandmother’s GOP uber alles-excuse called The Daily Pantagraph printed Bloom County there.
Watterson’s strip was something new and refreshing. His vast talent helped immensely too. Not too many cartoonists can switch between realism and a cartoony look. The subject matter was also easy to relate to. When I was a small kid, I didn’t have Calvin’s imagination or imaginary friend, yet I always remembered the “unfairness” of adults, the drudgery of school and having to find ways to entertain myself before iPads and kick-ass gaming consoles.
It sucks there’s only about a decade of material. On the other hand, Watterson did the right thing. He quit while he was ahead, before his creation wore out its welcome and evolved into space filler, most comic strips today if anyone bothers to read physical newspapers anymore. Does anybody get excited about what kind of sandwich Dagwood is going to make or what his boss will kick him in the ass for? Then again, you’ll never see a bumpersticker of Dagwood urinating on the Chevy logo or on his knees praying.