“Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes place 26 years later

wordpress ^ | September 18, 2012 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

[grundle]

Thanks for your kinds words!

[grundle]

I agree with you about Frazz. Thanks for mentioning it.

[stevio]

I forgot about Mr. Bun.

[Cyber Liberty]

Day by day sucks.

Yes, but the chicks are so...hotttt...

[SoothingDave]

Q. Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don’t understand why time goes slower at great speed.

A. It’s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain more time, because it doesn’t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you’re going west.

[cva66snipe]

Calvin at the door: Mom Hey Mom.
Mom in livingroom: Calvin stop yelling across the house. If you want to talk to me walk over to the living room where I am.
Calvin standing in front of Mom in living room: I stepped in dog crap where's the hose?

Priceless... LOL

[MiddleEarth]

I think it’s out already. My nephew had a copy of it this weekend.

[GeronL]

cool! I’ll keep an eye out

[MiddleEarth]

http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Zita-Spacegirl-Ben-Hatke/dp/1596438061

I think a 3rd is being released soon though.

[GeronL]

next Spring isn’t it?

[MiddleEarth]

Well, now I hear it will be about another year. Not sure.

[GeronL]

I think the Zita trilogy would make a good animated or maybe live action movie.

[MiddleEarth]

Wow, good point.

[miamcdavid]

You are Calvin’s mother? Thank you for letting him live so he could bring us so much joy! ;-)

[ottbmare]

There were a lot of times when it was a near thing for him, I promise you!

He’s a big tough well-muscled young Marine now. His Senior Drill Instructor made him behave in a way that I never could.

[Dr. Sivana]

Don't be exclusive: Pogo Possum,
Tumbleweeds,
Li'l Abner,
Opus/Bloom County,
Sherman's Lagoon,
Howard the Duck,
(current) Day by Day...

I had never thought of the best comic strip ever, and I am an avid comic strip reader.

I think one reason I never thought of a favorite is because the better newer authors had such obvious influence from the older authors. Charles Schulz inspired Lynn Johnston (For Better or Worse), Berke Breathed (Bloom County, Outland, Otis), and Bill Watterson. Chic Young inspired a lot of guys who couldn't do it nearly as well (Dik Young, Mort Walker). Some of the very old strips that were truly madcap probably influenced some of the absurdist stuff from the '80s on (Krazy Cat, Smokey Stover, Thimble Theater). Watterson himself admitted being influenced by Little Nemo in Slumberland (some AMAZING art in that early 20th century comic strip).

So to me, it's like asking who was the better scientist, Einstein or Sir Isaac Newton or Aristotle?

Of the list above, Tumbleweeds fails because the art is pathetic, one step up from Eek and Meek, and Mamma. I know smaller panels means shorter characters, but guys like Schulz and Ernie Bushmiller (the now respectable "Nancy") found a way to make it work.

Pogo always struck me as the most overrated comic strip ever. L'il Abner was great in its own way, and moved wonderfully quickly for a serial strip (compare with the plodding "Gasoline Alley" or "Brenda Starr"), but its appeal was too narrow for greatest of all time. And Al Capp was a character, to be sure.

Bloom County strips, like some of the Peanuts strips, have not aged so well.

Sherman's Lagoon's author has some conservative sympathies, but I can't remember laughing out loud at a single one. The art is pedestrian.

Not counting the nearly dead adventure/action/drama strips (Rip Kirby, Terry and the Pirates, Little Orphan Annie), I do think that Calvin and Hobbes certainly wins its era (with Honorable Mention to "The Far Side" for its absurdist genre. C&H brushes with fantasy, but never devolves into absurdity, except the absurdity of a little boy's imagination.) Dilbert wins in the post-comic strips should be suitable for the whole family category, follow C&H, which got a little risque at times, but was generally suited for everybody.

For earlier decades, I would have to give it to Peanuts (50s, 60s), Blondie (30s, 40s), Bringing Up Father (20s) with an honorable mention to Mutt and Jeff.

[zeugma]

Just got pinged to this from slashdot. Didn’t see the thread when originally posted. Thanks for posting it!

[Defiant]

Why Bacon?

Because everybody loves Bacon.

[Sheryl Brown]

Calvin does marry Susie. They have 3 kids. The daughter, Bacon, has a child named Francis.

[SZonian]

Bump to a “scary Trump” reference.

Great stuff!