I didn't have children of my own when the strips were first published. I laughed at them then, and I laugh even more at them now. Calvin is a very energetic and mischievous little boy.Hobbes is his stuffed tiger.
Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic, at times shows Hobbes as a stuffed tiger and at times real. What is he really? Is he a tiger who appears stuffed to everyone except Calvin? Or is his apparent life just a product of a little boy's very active imagination? We used to have long debates about this topic during study hall...
Something Under the Bed is Drooling was published in 1988, three years after Calvin and Hobbes first appeared in newspapers. The drawings have already been fine-tuned and the characters have established behaviors we expect to see from them. Many of the stories are not resolved in one strip, but continue on through about a week's worth of strips. I can remember not being able to wait to get my hands on the paper every afternoon just to see what mischief was going to happen next.
Calvin is an only child who greatly tries his parent's patience. At one point, he becomes invisible and takes off his clothes (they can be seen) only to be caught naked, with his hands in the cookie jar. I don't know how my child could explain that to me.
In one strip, Calvin creates tidal waves in the bathtub and you can pretty much figure out where the water ends up. Funny, I can remember doing that myself...
A strip where Calvin and Hobbes get a little too rambunctious in the house on a rainy day and his mother throws them out is funny since I threaten my own two daughters with that all the time.
The strips where he imagines himself to be Spaceman Spiff and tie into real life are a hoot. At the end we usually see where he really is and how it corresponds. In one case,Spaceman Spiff is attacked by slime on a distant planet. At the end, Calvin is playing with the school cafeteria's tapioca pudding.
One of my favorite strips is in this book, where Calvin decides he's "going to grow a long beard like the guys in ZZ Top" and can't figure out why his mother isn't putting up a fuss. Another trick is when Calvin answers the phone but acts like he is the caller.
I also love when Calvin asks for Crisco for school and uses it in his hair for the class pictures. After his mother combs it out, Hobbes helps him restyle it so he looks like "Astro Boy". He then paints a face on his stomach. When he shows the pictures to Hobbes they laugh about his mother's reaction and of the memories it will bring about years in the future.
Susie is Calvin's nemesis, but also the girl he will probably end up marrying. The two of them drive each other crazy at times, but she also seems to be the only person who wants to have anything to do with him.
Rosalyn is the only babysitter who can handle Calvin and that makes him dislike her all the more.
Calvin's father is almost as mischievous as his son. Often when Calvin asks a question, he will purposely lead his son on with the answer. For instance, Calvin asks is there were dinosaurs when his father was a kid, and he responds that he and Grandfather used to hunt them for rituals. Calvin asks him how they know the load limit on bridges, and he tells them they drive bigger and bigger trucks over it until it breaks, then weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge. He was probably a lot like his son at that age...
Watching Calvin play a game with Hobbes is funny since they change the rules to suit the situation. Usually they end up bruised and filthy at the end, after a small fight. Hobbesalways seems to get all the breaks in whatever game they're playing, while nothing ever seems to go right for Calvin.
The two of them on the sled during the winter is a recurring theme and a fun one as well. Winter seems to be one of the funnest times for the two of them as they create havoc with snowballs (Susie is their favorite target) and get into all sorts of trouble trying out new ways to use the sled.
Of course the title, Something Under the Bed is Drooling refers to the monsters that live under Calvin's bed and frequently torment him and Hobbes. As rambunctious and forthright as Calvin is, this brings home just how much of a little boy he still is.
These comics still bring a smile to my face, even more than ten years after they were first published. They don't come off as dated as so many other cartoons do, but are enjoyable to anyone, even if they are not a parent. It was a lot of fun to look back on them now with such a different perspective and get laughs from them all over again.
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