Few comic strips have proven to be as multifaceted as those ofCalvin and Hobbes. Bill Watterson’s genius involved a high degree of versatility, as many of his comics can thematically resonate on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. On one hand,Calvin and Hobbescan be heartwarming, teaching valuable life lessons and even more malleable reflections on life itself.
On the other hand,Calvin and Hobbescan also be utterly unhinged. Sometimes, that meansthe comic takes a dark turn, and other times, it just takes a weird turn. Either way,Calvin and Hobbescan get so random by the end of a strip that it makes the reader want to double take at the cover to ensure that they are still reading aCalvin and Hobbescomic.
Once they confirm that their eyes aren’t playing tricks on them,thereader then must wonder howCalvin and Hobbesgot so weird out of nowhere.
10Calvin Melts Away Like the Wicked Witch Of The West
First Published: June 21, 2025
The number one rule for any human of all ages is to always drink water, eith a notable exception being the witch ofWickedandWizard of Ozfame. Good ole H2O is the number one source of sustenance for anyone living,except as this cartoon shows, for Calvin, in his mind, too much water has dire consequences. Technically speaking, he’s not wrong, as drinking more water than the human kidney can reasonably excrete can lead to hyponatremia. What drinking too much water will not lead to, however, is turning into water.
Calvin thinks that to be the case, though, so the reader finds themselves confounded to watch the child drinking a glass of water on one panel, then moments later to melt away out of this cruel world. When looking at the root message, though, perhaps ‘don’t drink too much water’ is thebest adviceCalvin and Hobbescan offer.
9Attack Of The Clothes
First Published: August 03, 2025
Calvin and Hobbesis chock-full of recurring gags, but one of the strangest(yet funniest) running gags fromCalvin and Hobbeshappens to be whenever Calvin gets attacked by his clothes.In Calvin’s world, all the inanimate objects are alive, especially when it comes to pieces of clothing. This is no different, as what initially appears to be a mundane start to Calvin’s morning quickly turns into a nightmare when all of his clothing talks at him whilst bum rushing out of his drawers and onto his body.
In a horror scenario, the concept is a little bit mortifying, but on the brightly lit page, it highlights the signature wackiness that theCalvin and Hobbescomics are known for. It’s especially funny when his mother looks at her son completely unaware and bewildered as to what just transpired.
8Calvin Is A God…Literally
First Published: August 11, 2025
Nothing screams unexpected quite like a comic’s main character becoming an elder god. That would not sound so odd out of a Marvel comic or even from DC, asall-powerful gods litter the Marvel Universealone, but when it happens in a children’s comic about a suburban boy and his tiger, it starts to raise eyebrows. It’s almost like a jetlag-inducing culture shock to see a peering eye next to theCalvin and Hobbestitle card,followed by mention ofthe mighty god Calvin creating universes.
The culture shock brings the reader back to the comic’s reality when Calvin’s parents react, predicting that their son will one day become an architect with the attention to detail he gives to creating whole worlds in his head with a pair of tinkertoys.
7Things Get Real For Calvin And Susie, And Weird Real Fast For Readers
First Published: July 24, 2025
Whenever Calvin and Susie play house, it always seems to go left in some way. That’s mostly because whenever they play, it looks and feels like an actual crumbling marriage.That’s the exact intention of Bill Watterson, the creator ofCalvin and Hobbes. In Watterson’s exhibition catalog book,Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995, he says the following when addressing this exact comic strip:
With every strip, my goal is to surprise myself. If I’m not surprised, the reader surely won’t be either. The surprises are usually fairly small, so it’s a real delight when an idea pops in from Pluto. The soap opera drawing style, the ludicrous dialogue, the bizarre storyline - every part of the strip confounded expectations. I hoped the reader would wonder for a second if Calvin and Hobbes had been replaced by another strip.
Bill Watterson should know by now that his mission has been resoundingly accomplished, and out of all the comic stripsCalvin and Susie played house in, this one might be the most confounding;the artwork, as stunning as it is, is so unlikeCalvin and Hobbesthat it’d leave anyone to second guess what they’re reading.Then, the soap opera-esque committing to an argument about a bunny (or rabbit pretending to be a rabbit) is just as unexpected, yet captivating in a weird way.
6Calvin Kazams The World Away
First Published: June 26, 2025
There are few things that children adore more than magic. On paper, the average child learning magic is harmless,but as readers should know by now,Calvin is not the average child. While most kids want to learn magic as a means to learn how to pull a rabbit from a hat or make a pencil disappear, this kid uses his consistent kazam spell to turn his family into bug people and plunge the world around him into a desolate, apocalyptic wasteland.
No reader would have expected any of those developments from the first panel, a simple image of Calvin staring atone of his parents. Somehow, the comic finds a new way to keep escalating. Just when the reader thinks they know where the rest of the comic is going to go, with Calvin turning all of his surroundings into bugs, suddenly that’s when the world ends.
5Calvin’s Imagination Runs Wild
First Published: July 04, 2025
It would be an understatement to say that Calvin has an overactive imagination; half of the reason why so manyCalvin and Hobbesstrips tend to go off the rails is because they take place inside that overactive imagination. Most of the craziness behind these comics leave readers confused until they realize soon enough that most (if not, the entirety) of the story is taking place inside the mind of a six-year-old boy. This comic showcases what is probably Calvin’s mind at its most chaotic.
Once Calvin’s mind starts roaming, there’s no stopping it, or telling where it will go next.
Planes crashing, earthquakes shattering, Farmer Brown’s gas leak, and a train literally going off the rails all make up this comic that’s, admittedly, a little much, even for Hobbes; once Calvin’s mind starts roaming, there’s no stopping it, or telling where it will go next. Some dream sequences shape him into a sweet and adorable kid, but stories like this showcasehow evil Calvin can get.
4Frosty The Scary Snowman
First Published: June 10, 2025
Making a snowmanis a favorite pastime for most children during the winter season. It’s becoming a lost art form, and Calvin has taking the art aspect to heart. The comic begins with him judging another child’s snowman attempt for failing to reflect contemporary suburban life. He’s criticizing it as one might judge an artwork at the Louvre. Likening his snowman-building skills to an artist himself, Calvin thinks he can do better. Instead, he craftsa terrifying monstrosity of a snowman. “The Torment of Existence,” he calls it.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Hobbes admires Calvin’s attempt to prioritize creative integrity over conforming to the norm. However, that may not be the feedback Calvin intended, as he immediately starts to construct his next snowman, one that conforms to the norm of snowman making. It’s hard to blame either. That’s a haunting image that one would not expect to find in a children’s comic.
3There’s Nothing Stupid About a T. Tex Jet
First Published: July 01, 2025
As much as the mind of a six-year-old boy can be perplexing and rife with oddities, it can’t be overlooked how creative children can be at that age. Calvin flexes such creativity by thinking up a T. rex in a jet;simply put, it’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a jet.On top of just being a clever rhyme, it makes for a one-of-a-kind visual. A lot ofCalvin and Hobbescomics that go left field are filled with one-of-a-kind visuals. It’s certainly a ludicrous sight. In fact, the comic itself acknowledges just how ludicrous the concept is.
“This is stupid"are Hobbes' exact words, words likely shared by a few readers looking at this comic. Most of the wacky ideas that kids come up with are stupid, but like the T. rex jet, it’s always marvelously creative, and that has to count for something. If so, so mustCalvin’s brilliantly outrageous idea.
2Calvin’s Worst Nightmare
First Published: July 03, 2025
The first panel is Calvin looking at his door, and in the second, his room is bombarded by a giant sock puppet version of his mother. That’s weird enough, but things get weirder when he soon realizes he’s in a cage monitored by alien monsters looking to imprint on his species. The next and final reveal of the comic is that this was all a dream, or, rather, a nightmare. Appropriately,this entire comic is nightmare fuel. It’s one twist after another, with each reveal somehow making for a scarier sight than the last.
It often goes overlooked just how often and how easily these comics fall into nightmare fuel. For as wholesome as this series can be, it can also produce some of the purest of terror to be contained in any newspaper clipping.
1The Tables Turn When The Deer Hunts The Deer Hunter
First Published: August 16, 2025
The best way for aCalvin and Hobbescomic to go off the rails or take a hard left is by subverting expectations. These comics can often take traditional ideas or phrases and turn them on their head. Arguably, the best example is this comic when adeer hunter finds himself deer hunted. It’s an ironic, almost dark reflection of what happens when the tables turn and a human gets to feel how a wildlife animal feels when they’re minding their own business, only to be scoped out in their natural habitat.
Like many moments in the comic’s history,Calvin and Hobbestakes a philosophicalapproach to storytelling that offers deeper analysis than one would expect out of a cartoon about a child and his talking tiger. Or, at least it would, if one-half ofCalvin and Hobbes’declaration to the class didn’t end with him being called into another emergency parent-teacher conference.
Source:Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995
