Calvin And Hobbes Satire

But before he gained recognition as a brilliant cartoonist with Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson worked on art and comics of a more political nature. These pieces, which included work for his college newspaper and Target magazine, were markedly different than Calvin and Hobbes. Nevertheless, Watterson's use of discerning wit and sharp satire is just as apparent, and just as funny:

However, it is in Calvin and Hobbes where Watterson's brilliance fully shines through. Calvin and Hobbes revolves around Calvin, whose imaginative world is populated by his ideas and fueled by curiosity, and Hobbes, Calvin’s stuffed tiger. Calvin, though young, reveals himself through successive comic strips to be actually wiser beyond his years; although that is

Being brought up and having lived his life in the unnamed part of a US town, Calvin’s sense of impatience and need for self-validation is emphasised throughout the comic. Calvin has no work ethic, yet he is busy round the clock with his head full of schemes and plans and dreams that, more often than not, have a tendency of being perpetually out of sync with reality. Calvin’s sense of having the need to live life the way he wantsto, much in vein of the American dream, is underscored by Watterson on several counts. Firstly, Calvin’s difference of opinion and subsequent disdain to its criticism by his father; and secondly, Calvin’s constant need of vying for a non-conformist life – yet, he is constantly thwarted time and again by the deeply conformist nature of society. In the context of the American cultural convention of being successful and setting oneself apart from the crowd, Calvin harbours those very aspirations, which is evened out by his apparent apathy in the face of American consumerism. The persona of Calvin is brought out by comics varying in tone. Snarky, wry observations of the real world by Calvin, for