10 Longest Calvin and Hobbes Storylines

Summary

• Calvin and Hobbes featured standalone works of art but occasionally had longer story arcs that deepened the lore of the strip.
• The longest storylines included Calvin and Hobbes going to Mars, Calvin’s failed kidnapping plan, and mysterious snowmen coming to life.
• Bill Watterson’s artwork shines in stories like Calvin losing control of gravity and Calvin inventing a duplicator that causes chaos.

Calvin and Hobbes was best known for its daily musings on life and its look inside the mind of a 6-year-old with an overactive imagination. While some weeks would focus around a particular theme or setting, for the most part, each day’s strips were standalone works of art. However, throughout the course of the strip’s 10-year run, creator Bill Watterson did occasionally experiment with longer story arcs.

These stories started off relatively short, with Watterson devoting a week’s worth of strips to a narrative like Calvin getting sent to the principal’s office or a dog running off with Hobbes. Eventually, they grew longer, stretching out multiple weeks as Calvin and Hobbes traveled to Mars or battled killer snowmen that came to life. Some of these storylines would get follow-ups, deepening the lore of the comic strip. Here are the longest-running storylines in Calvin and Hobbes history.

10 Calvin and Hobbes Go to Mars

September 12–October 1, 1988

For a 6-year-old, Calvin is remarkably perceptive about the problems that plague the world around him. He realizes that the grown-ups have ruined Earth with pollution, and decides to leave rather than inherit a spoiled planet. He and Hobbes figure that they can be the first to settle on Mars. They load up their red wagon with supplies and blast off, using a hill and a ramp to get enough speed and lift to break through the atmosphere.

The 1990
Calvin and Hobbes
collection,
Weirdos from Another Planet!
, gets its title and cover art from this storyline.

They make it to Mars, although they do forget to bring a camera. At first, they find the planet peaceful, if maybe a little boring. However, they soon encounter a tentacled alien living under a rock. This weirdo from another planet is just as scared of them as they are of it, making Calvin and Hobbes realize that the alien is afraid that humans will ruin Mars like we ruined Earth. They decide to go back home and try to fix their own planet before they go messing around with other worlds.

9 Calvin Sends Away for a Propeller Beanie

February 27–March 18, 1989

Calvin learns a number of hard lessons when he sends away for a battery-powered propeller beanie from his favorite cereal, Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. First, he has to eat four boxes of the cereal, a concoction of pure sugar that Hobbes compares to eating a bowl of Milk Duds. It’s almost too much for Calvin, but he manages to eat enough to get four proof of purchase seals to send away for the beanie. Then, he needs to learn patience, since it will take about six weeks for the beanie to arrive.

After weeks of waiting and imagining how the beanie will let him fly around the world, Calvin finally gets his beanie. But, of course, there is some assembly required. Calvin snaps a piece while he’s building it and blames Hobbes, even though the tiger didn’t do anything. Calvin’s dad manages to fix the broken piece of plastic, and they finish assembling it. However, there’s more disappointment in store for Calvin, as the propeller just spins around and doesn’t make him fly. But it’s not a total loss, since the beanie came in a great cardboard box that Calvin and Hobbes can use to have some real fun.

8 Calvin Signs Up to Play Baseball

April 16–May 5, 1990

When all the other boys in his class sign up to play baseball at recess, Calvin reluctantly joins to avoid getting teased for playing with the girls. The problem is that Calvin hates organized sports, preferring to play made up games with Hobbes. His dad is proud that Calvin is playing a sport, pontificating about how it builds character (which makes Calvin hate it all the more). He tries to run some drills with Calvin, but a grounder bounces up and hits Calvin in the face, giving him a bloody nose.

In his first game, Calvin is sent to play deep left field. However, he doesn’t understand the rules and stays out there at the end of the inning when his team comes up to bat. He catches a fly ball hit by his own teammate, leading the other kids to ridicule and berate him. His gym teacher is equally unsympathetic, calling Calvin a “quitter” when he decides he doesn’t want to play anymore. He’s saddened that, no matter what he does, he seemingly can’t please anyone. But his spirits are lifted when Hobbes suggests a game of Calvinball, the least organized sport in the world.

7 Calvin and Hobbes’ Kidnapping Plan Fails Miserably

August 20–September 8, 1990

The top-secret club G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) may have been started to torture Calvin’s neighbor, Susie Derkins, but every plot they come up with completely flops. During one summer day, Calvin and Hobbes decide to sneak attack Susie with a water balloon. They spend so much time coming up with maps and codes that Susie goes inside for lunch. Unfortunately for her, she leaves her doll, Binky Betsy, outside for Calvin to snatch it. Calvin leaves a ransom note at Susie’s door, demanding $100 for the safe return of Binky Betsy. As if Susie hadn’t already figured out he kidnapped her doll, Calvin signs the note.

Susie gets one over on the pair by tricking them into thinking she’s paid the ransom, then grabbing Hobbes while Calvin’s back is turned. Calvin is furious that the tables have turned on him. For his troubles, Calvin ends up being the one paying a ransom when he gives Susie a quarter to get Hobbes back. He’s equally mad at Hobbes for not mauling Susie when he had the chance, calling him a traitor to G.R.O.S.S. However, all is forgiven when Hobbes reveals he read a page of Susie’s diary where she calls Calvin a “pig-faced smelly fat-head.”

6 Calvin’s Snowmen Come to Life

December 31, 1990–January 19, 1991

Calvin’s bizarre and often macabre snowman creations are one of the best running jokes of the entire strip. But this hobby backfires on him when he brings a snowman to life and it starts chasing after him. While Calvin and Hobbes try to think of how to kill the monster (Hobbes wonders, “Hmm… How did they finally kill Frosty?”) the snowman begins packing more snow onto himself, adding an extra head and arm and turning himself into a full-fledged snow goon.

This story provided the title and cover art for the 1992 collection,
Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
.

Things go from bad to worse when the snow goon begins building other snow goons. After his parents force him to come inside, Calvin is horrified to see that the snow goons continue building their army in the night, populating his whole front yard with monstrous snow fiends. Calvin and Hobbes eventually sneak out at night, blasting the goons with a hose while they sleep and covering them in ice. Naturally, his parents don’t buy his story and he ends up getting in trouble. But at least Calvin learns an important lesson: “Snow goons are bad news.”

5 Calvin Loses Control of Gravity

November 13–December 2, 1989

The best Calvin and Hobbes strips not only highlight Bill Watterson’s humor and philosophy, but also his incredible artwork. This simple story about Calvin avoiding his homework lets Watterson flip his world upside down, literally. Calvin’s personal gravity becomes reversed, making him float up to the ceiling. As he explores his home from this new perspective, Watterson turns the house into a unique landscape as readers see everything upside down.

Eventually, Calvin’s personal gravity is fixed, but his problems don’t stop there. He starts growing larger and larger, allowing Watterson to depict a Godzilla-sized Calvin wandering his neighborhood and the nearby city. The story’s last week features several completely wordless strips where Calvin grows bigger than the Earth and the galaxy. He encounters a strange door in the middle of space that takes him back to his room, where everything has returned to normal.

4 The Family Gets Robbed While on Vacation

April 24–May 13, 1989

While many of Calvin and Hobbes’ storylines are outlandish, this one hits on a real-life fear many people have. When the family goes to a wedding, Calvin accidentally leaves Hobbes behind. Most of the first week centers around him wanting to get in touch with his tiger, but things take a dramatic turn when the family arrives home and finds their house has been broken into. Calvin is terrified something has happened to his best friend, but he’s relieved to find out Hobbes is safe (and claims to have scared the robbers off).

This story puts a lot of focus on Calvin’s parents as they contend with the fact that they don’t feel safe in their own home. “This is one of those things you always figure will happen to someone else,” his dad says. His mom replies, “…Unfortunately, we’re all ‘someone else’ to someone else.” Though they’re still shaken, they eventually feel a semblance of peace when they remember that material things don’t matter as much as the fact that they’re all together and safe.

3 Calvin Invents a Duplicator

January 8–February 1, 1990

What’s more trouble than one Calvin? Six Calvins. Using the same cardboard box that he used to create his transmogrifier, Calvin invents a duplicator so he has somebody to do all his chores and homework while he and Hobbes have fun. Naturally, being a replica of Calvin, the duplicate wants nothing to do with any of the responsibilities assigned to him.

The 1991 collection
Scientific Progress Goes “Boink”
gets its title from a line Hobbes says in this story.

The situation only gets worse when the duplicate decides to make duplicates of his own, resulting in six Calvins. Together, they drive his parents crazy and get Calvin into more and more trouble at school, as each duplicate insists that he is not the real Calvin. Eventually, Calvin tricks the duplicates into his transmogrifier and turns them into worms. Reflecting on what they’ve learned from the experience, Calvin sums it up nicely: “Ok. So we didn’t learn any big lesson. Sue me.”

2 Calvin Trades Earth to Aliens in Exchange for Some Leaves

October 2–21, 1995 and December 19–23, 1995

Calvin will go to any measure to avoid doing his homework, so when he’s assigned to collect 50 leaves, he naturally puts it off until the last minute. This leads to one of the weirdest stories in Calvin and Hobbes history. The night before his project is due, he and Hobbes are scrambling to finish when a spaceship arrives. Two aliens demand to be taken to the leader of Earth, so Calvin says they’re speaking to him. He agrees to hand over the Earth to the aliens in exchange for 50 leaves from their home planet.

Of course, nobody believes that Calvin’s leaves are from an alien world and he fails his assignment. Months pass, and when winter arrives, the aliens return, incensed that the planet Calvin sold them tilts away from the sun and covers them with snow. Calvin threw away the leaves after failing the project, so he can’t give them the refund they demand. Instead, he and Hobbes give the aliens their Christmas stockings to keep them warm. The aliens are satisfied, and Calvin is thrilled that Santa will reward him for such a nice deed.

1 Calvin Starts a New Club and Ends Up Wrecking His Mom’s Car

May 15–June 10, 1989

When Calvin decides to start a secret new club with Hobbes, things escalate quickly and the two end up going on the run after pushing his mom’s car into a ditch. This four-week storyline marks the first appearance of their club, G.R.O.S.S., which Calvin starts for the express purpose of excluding Susie. They figure that the garage would make the best place to hold their secret meetings, they just have to move the car out of there.

Thinking that they can just push the car a few feet, Calvin and Hobbes lose control of it, and it rolls backward into a ditch. The two panic and decide to go on the lam before Calvin’s parents figure out what they’ve done. Surprisingly, his mom is just relieved that nobody was hurt, and all Calvin receives is a talking-to. Combining G.R.O.S.S., a bad idea that gets out of hand, and the two best friends setting off on an adventure, Watterson’s longest-running story is the perfect coalescence of what makes Calvin and Hobbes so great.