Is the Tiger Real?

Well, well, well. Another scene in Calvin's bedroom with just Calvin, Hobbes, and Dad. One thing that I immediately noticed about this strip is that the pattern of Hobbes only appearing as a stuffed animal when he's out of Calvin's eye-line is broken. In both the first and third panels we see that while Calvin may not be looking directly at Hobbes, he is at least in his field of view. In addition, in the third panel, we see Calvin is looking directly away from Hobbes, yet Hobbes still appears as a real tiger. It addition, we see Hobbes interacting with someone other than Calvin for the first time, as he calls to Dad after he says goodnight. The line between the two worlds of Calvin's Hobbes and Dad's Hobbes seems to be blurring more. That being said, Dad obviously remains unconvinced, as his facial expression in panel three suggests his tone is probably sarcastic. We also see here the first glimpse of Hobbes becoming a more developed character, apart from just ...

Alright, scrap the formula used in the last post, I think I like the freeform paragraphs better. Maybe I'll go back to it at some point. In this strip we get to see Calvin's teacher (Mrs. Wormwood) for the first time, who is actually very reasonable in this instance. She seems to understand that it's important to let Calvin keep imagining that Hobbes is real, despite her inability to see him as anything more than a stuffed animal. We also see Hobbes appearing as a stuffed animal only when Calvin is looking away from him, which is a pattern that was developed in yesterdays strip. I don't really have much to say about the last two panels, as I think they basically just consist of the joke that Hobbes is advising Calvin on math problems incorrectly. On the other hand, I'm fascinated by the first panel. Calvin has apparently just finished displaying the tiger that he caught with a tuna-fish-sandwich-trap for show and tell. I wonder how the class saw Hobbes? Perhaps...

I'm going to try to follow a format today that I may end up using for the long-haul, or that I may discard on the wayside. First I'm going to go through a description of the events in the strip. Then I'm going to talk through some of the metaphors and deconstruct any deeper meaning that I can find. Finally, I'm going to try to relate this particular strip to my day somehow. Okay, sounds good. Description: 1st Panel: Dad enters Calvin's bedroom and questions him about the excessive noise. This is the first panel in the entire anthology where we see Hobbes drawn as a stuffed animal, and not a real tiger.  2nd Panel: Calvin blames Hobbes for the noise, insisting that it was Hobbes and not him that was jumping on the bed. Hobbes is again drawn as a stuffed animal. 3rd Panel: Just Dad in this one. Dad is mad. Dad points his finger (presumably at Hobbes) and tells Calvin that it was not Hobbes that is jumping on the bed, because Hobbes is a stuffed tiger to him,...

Well, we don't really get the resolution about Hobbes' "realness" that I was hoping for yesterday in this strip, I guess we'll just have to keep waiting. Once again, in this strip we see the dichotomy between Calvin's world and his Dad's world. *Quick side note, from now on I'm just going to refer to Calvin's father as Dad, because writing Calvin's Dad would get old very fast, and I don't feel like using the possessive perspective is always going to lend itself to the interpretation I aspire to do. Okay, resume*. Dad obviously has important things to be doing and doesn't want to be repeatedly bothered by Calvin's antics. However, after a few times looking over this strip, I wonder if the "Sheesh" in the third panel isn't a bit sarcastic. Maybe Dad isn't actually annoyed with Calvin, he's just basically doing a bit, pretending to be frustrated by Calvin's interruptions. Judging by Dad's attire, the ...

So beginnings I guess is the theme of today. This is the first strip of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson on November 18th, 1985. Today was also the first day of a new semester of graduate school for me, as I continue my candidacy as a Masters student in Civil Engineering. This is also the first semester that I'm exclusively a graduate student, as I finished my last undergraduate courses in December and officially graduated with a Bachelors of Environmental Engineering. I've read this strip many, many times, and honestly its usually one I cruise past, not giving it a second glance. It's certainly not very visually evocative like some of Watterson's later Sunday panels, and it's really just an introduction to characters that I already know intimately. Looking at this now, though, I'm struck by how effective of an introduction it is to three of the main characters in the series. Calvin's Dad is willing to entertain Calvin's game, but is overtly cynic...

Well, this is something that I've thought of doing for a while. Calvin and Hobbes was one of the first pieces of art that I really connected to as a kid. I mean, I liked  Harry Potter and I enjoyed Star Wars, but I never derived very much meaning from them. They were entertaining, had intriguing stories, taught some lessons, and maybe even contained a modicum of commentary on the human condition . I had been exposed to capital-a Art  before, and knew enough about the world to understand that adults thought that Art  was important and valuable. I didn't really get it, but there was also a lot I didn't get about the adult-world, like why they liked just sitting around talking so much, and why they drank things that smelled like something I would find under the sink. I knew that they put Art in museums so that adults could go look at it and...well supposedly they would get something out of it?  At school, I learned how the world worked by teachers telling me how it wo...