10 Funniest Calvin and Hobbes Comics That Just Turned 30

Summary Calvin and Hobbes didn't rely on pop culture references, making its humor and themes timeless and enjoyable for readers 30 years later.

Bill Watterson's detailed images and storytelling created comics that felt fresh and funny, even decades after their original publication.

The series tackled big subjects like friendship, life's pleasures, and childhood whimsy, offering laughs and insightful moments for readers of all ages.

The classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes ran for 10 glorious years, from 1985 to 1995. The series was one of the most popular newspaper comics in the world at its height, appealing to readers of all ages. Even 40 years later, its legacy of humor and pathos makes it popular for nostalgic adults, and a new generation of young readers.

Common knowledge suggests that comedy ages the fastest of any genre, and often ages poorly. However, as Calvin and Hobbes didn't depend on a lot of pop culture references, and dealt more with childhood questions and adventures, it feels like any of these comics below that just turned 30 could be released today. However, in 2024, Calvin might ask for a smartphone so he could record his stunts for TikTok, which is a truly horrifying concept. Keep reading below for the top 10 best Calvin and Hobbes strips from way back in April 1994.

10 Calvin Hunts for His Dream Dinosaur

April 3, 1994

Bill Watterson loved to play with expectations, crafting detailed images without letting the audience know what was happening until the punchline. Like many 6-year-olds, Calvin is obsessed with dinosaurs, pretending they could come eat his school, that he could travel back in time to meet them, or that he is one while eating his meals, much to his parents' chagrin. This post-Jurassic Park comic shows Calvin taking initiative to become an amateur paleontologist. And, of course, Calvin imagines that he'd find the biggest, meanest, scariest dinosaur anyone has ever seen. Don’t worry - as Hobbes suggests, he has still caused some chaos by digging where he shouldn’t.

Related 10 Most Surreal Calvin and Hobbes Comics About Dinosaurs Prepare for a trip to the wild world of Calvin and Hobbes, where dinosaurs take center stage in ten of the most fantastically surreal comic strips.

9 Stupendous Man First Takes On His Nemesis

April 19, 1994

When Calvin's mother sewed him a cape and cowl, she probably thought she was just giving her creative, rambunctious son a new outlet for his imagination. Unfortunately, Calvin creates an alter ego that allows him to fight injustice wherever he sees it - and he sees it in babysitters, vegetables, schoolwork, and the like. While Rosalyn was already a recurring character at this point, the only babysitter in town who is willing to watch Calvin, this weekslong plot introduces her to Stupendous Man, who Calvin insists is a totally different person and a true hero, fighting his greatest nemesis, Babysitter Girl.

Related 10 Calvin and Hobbes Comics That Showcase Bill Watterson's Incredible Artistic Talent Calvin and Hobbes is insightful, funny and constantly creative - but it's Bill Watterson's art that really makes it one of the best comics ever made.

8 Calvin Thinks Superhero Comic Logic Translates to the Real World

April 25, 1994

Stupendous Man leads his babysitter on a wild goose chase, with Rosalyn believing Calvin is hiding in the backyard. When he sneaks back in, he thinks he’s completed his foolproof plan to torture her while not getting in trouble; after all, it was a masked man who she chased outside, and “mild-mannered Calvin” is in bed and in pajamas, clearly a different person. This sort of thing works for Clark Kent and Superman all the time (or rather, Captain Napalm, one of the in-universe comics Calvin loves reading). In the mind of a child, a mask creates an airtight alibi.

Related Calvin & Hobbes Combines with DC's Shazam in Adorable Bill Watterson Tribute Acclaimed artist Kerry Callen has created the perfect tribute to Bill Watterson by combining his iconic Calvin and Hobbes with Shazam.

7 Calvin Loves Life's Little Pleasures

April 24, 1994

While Calvin is incredibly creative (and destructive), he’s still just a little kid with his imaginary friend, taking in life’s simple pleasures, as this comic shows. Another experiment of Watterson’s was using minimal dialogue in strips, letting Calvin and Hobbes’s actions speak for themselves. Anyone who’s grown up in a cold climate with a warm home fireplace quickly gets their cycle of warming up, getting too hot, and cooling off elsewhere before running back to warm up again. The punchline here gives the reader nostalgia for childhood, but also reminds them that there’s plenty of happiness to be found everywhere.

Calvin and Hobbes appealed to adults as well as kids, by tackling big subjects like death and the meaning of life. While this specific comic doesn’t seem too deep, it brings the same energy that Watterson brought to those stories by reminding us that, beyond all the chores and responsibilities that come with being an adult, we need to take time to enjoy life and be a little silly with friends, even if they’re imaginary. Calvin and Hobbes aren’t reading or watching TV here; their only task is to enjoy an idle Sunday afternoon together, appreciating the fireplace and the cold house.

Related 10 Calvin and Hobbes Comics To Make Every Grown-Up Feel Nostalgic Calvin and Hobbes is one of the most iconic comics in history, and these hilarious strips show how it's also one of the most nostalgic series as well.

6 Calvin Still Hates Playing Baseball

April 1, 1994

In one 1990 storyline, Calvin is bullied by his classmates into playing baseball, only to be harassed off the team when he’s not good at it, and called a “quitter” by the gym coach. His dislike for America’s favorite pastime, and organized sports in general, continues years later throughout the strip. That's at the heart of this comic, where he imagines the ball cutting straight through him, causing him to miss the catch. Don’t think too hard about Calvin playing baseball with his imaginary friend and then imagining on top of that that his stuffed tiger throws too hard; Calvin and Hobbes is a comic about childhood and whimsy, not physics.

Related Indiana Jones Meets Calvin & Hobbes in Genius Recreation of Bill Watterson's Art Style Brilliant crossover art unites Indiana Jones and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, capturing the adventurous spirit ingrained in both fandoms.

5 "A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted"

April 10, 1994

One of the charming things about Calvin and Hobbes’s relationship is that it’s not always friendly. With both characters named after philosophers, it makes sense that their conversations are both witty and make you think. Here, they turn the phrase, “Penny for your thoughts,” on its head, taking it literally and arguing the value of their ideas. The first two panels provide an additional relatable gag, with Calvin experiencing the Sunday Scaries decades before anyone gave them a name. While Watterson loved changing up the Sunday comic formats, here he’s playing by the rules, letting the dialogue tell the story.

Related "Horrendous Space Kablooie": Calvin and Hobbes' Name for the Big Bang was Embraced by Real Scientists A Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that suggested renaming the Big Bang to the "Horrendous Space Kablooie" proved very popular among real scientists.

4 Dissent in the Ranks of G.R.O.S.S (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS)

April 17, 1994

Calvin’s version of the old Our Gang “He-Man Woman Hater’s Club” is the awkwardly named G.R.O.S.S., which holds its meetings in his treehouse. A recurring female classmate of Calvin’s, Susie Derkins, serves as both the focus of his ire, and a crush (though these feelings are usually channeled through Hobbes). While Calvin enjoys grossing her out, Hobbes often suggests that they spend time with her, letting her play Calvinball or joining their club. These warring feelings come to a head here, as Calvin tries to demote Hobbes for suggesting she be allowed to join, but Hobbes won’t go down without a fight.

Another example of their friendship not always being friendly, Calvin and Hobbes ultimately think the fight is fun and a success, wondering why their little club doesn’t have more members. Hobbes has learned nothing from the altercation, suggesting again that they ask Susie to join them. While Susie does occasionally enjoy playing with Calvin and Hobbes, it is usually on her terms: playing house or having a tea party. It doesn’t seem like she would be first in line to join Get Rid Of Slimy girlS: her initial reaction to hearing the club’s name is yelling at Calvin, “Girls aren’t slimy!”

Related Calvin And Hobbes: 10 Funniest Strips About Susie Susie is Calvin's mortal enemy, but still is a source for a lot of laughs in the panels of Calvin and Hobbes.

3 Calvin the Daredevil Never Gets a Break

April 30, 1994

Calvin has never shied away from a crazy stunt, though they usually just involve Hobbes, a red wagon, and a steep hill. When he tries to wrangle his mom into his latest death-defying scheme, she rightfully turns him down. Bill Watterson did a great job balancing the humor in Calvin and Hobbes with moments like these - Calvin can have very adult moments of philosophizing and can show boundless creativity, but sometimes he’s also just a little kid who wants to do crazy things with no regard for consequences. His mother’s deadpan expression is a very reasonable reaction for a responsible adult.

This isn’t Calvin’s first run-in trying to do something crazy with his parents’ car. In an earlier storyline, he and Hobbes put the car in neutral to push it out of the garage, but the car keeps rolling and lands in a ravine. While his parents are rightfully upset, they don’t have the reaction Calvin is expecting, which is that they would want to kill him. Again, the charm is that while sometimes Calvin has fantastical ideas and antics, his reaction to messing up the car is in line with how a real kid would feel: remorseful, mixed with the fear of getting in trouble.

Related Calvin and Hobbes: The Real Reason The Parents Don't Have Names Calvin's parents in Calvin and Hobbes are never given names in the comic as Bill Watterson explained the specific reason why they remain nameless.

2 True Friendship Is About Grossing Each Other Out

April 2, 1994

You haven’t known true friendship until you’ve found something disgusting, then turned to a friend and said, “Here, this is gross. Try it.” As Calvin and Hobbes watch the circle of life take its course with one bug eating another, their faces and body language cover the gamut of human reactions of disgust. Watterson had a reverence for nature throughout Calvin and Hobbes, and that included its less-than-beautiful moments. This is perfectly seen in the story where Calvin finds an injured raccoon kit, and another where Calvin and Hobbes find a dead bird. There’s beauty everywhere, and the darker side of that beauty makes it that much more worthwhile.

Related This Calvin & Hobbes Comic Would NEVER Be Published Today Calvin and Hobbes is usually a family friendly comic, but Bill Watterson couldn't have known how this 1994 comic would be read today.

1 Calvin's Brilliant Disguise Makes His Bathtime That Much Harder

April 5, 1994

Bill Watterson clearly knows how to set up and execute a joke. Calvin has always hated bathtime, doing everything he can to avoid it. Rather than letting the reader see Calvin's brilliant plan this time, he starts with Calvin's mother, on her nightly quest to find her son. While Calvin's parents are often upset at his antics, they do love him, so her frustration here shows that she's been searching for a while. For the joke's final setup beat, she's completely horrified when she does find him. This way, the punchline of what Calvin has done hits at peak comedy.

Calvin and Hobbes was a mainstay of the newspaper comic pages for the decade that it ran, and its ending in December 1995 took it out on a high note. These comics from April 1994 reveal that, even as the strip was in its final years, creator Bill Watterson was still knocking out classic, hilarious escapades of everyone's favorite 6-year-old and his tiger best friend. Though Watterson never licensed his characters to turn into an animated series or movie, his comic strips have a timeless comedy that proves Calvin and Hobbes will be funny just as they are.