I think it appeared in about 20-30 newspapers, new strips don’t make a big splash right away due to the expense but Calvin & Hobbes was a hit pretty quickly. Calvin was certainly an easy-to-relate to character even if you didm’t have an imaginary friend, Watterson was skilled at capturing the energy, helplessness and creativity of a small child. He was also wise enough to quit while he was ahead. Newspapers are struggling to make the transition with a generation of people who think everything should be free, OK, I don’t pay for the paper neither. I did have a sub to the New York Times recently, just making time to read it becomes a chore.
Moving along…
The strip went on to be a staple with many in college. Practically every Summer you could count on another compilation trade paperback to revisit past story arcs and the Sunday episodes in color. I think he was ripped off in numerous college shirts/artwork until the Simpsons appeared. Calvin urinating on a symbol allegedly originated from a Florida university ripping on a sports rival. How my nerves grate with the successor of him praying. Can’t we enjoy something without the Religious Right hijacking to put on the gas-guzzling vehicles for once?
After I graduated from college was when I finally got the joke/interpretation of the characters’ roles. Calvin and Hobbes are two of America’s foundational thinkers. John Calvin the Protestant founder who tends to receive the credit for pre-destination/grace-based denominations: Baptists, Methodists and often their Fundamentalist ilk. The “pilgrims” were Calvinists seeking grace in the New World. Thomas Hobbes’ adherents would’ve been in the middle and southern colonies. A voice of doubt with a gift for saying the obvious like the tiger does. You can see it in their behavior. Calvin will go off on a tear and Hobbes makes a cutting remark, citing the flaw in Calvin’s point. I had no luck finding the parody strip someone did with Calvin dressed as a Reformation-era Protestant taking his stuffed dragon to the stake to be burned. In the final panel, the dragon (Thomas Hobbes) transforms into a real one reminding the boy (John Calvin) how he is much like all of humanity, brutal and short.
Another solid parody was (Cliff) Clavin and Hobbes. The blowhard mailman from Cheers sitting next to Hobbes at a bar, blathering what he knows about tigers.
Thanks again Mr. Watterson. Your strip was a nice change of pace to balance out the cynicism of my other fave in the Eighties, which has returned (again), Bloom County.