![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
100 days of enemy recs: 5. Calvin and Hobbes
For anyone who wasn't familiar, Calvin & Hobbes was an American newspaper comic than ran through most of the 80s and 90s about an imaginative little boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. Susie Derkins was the girl next door. I would say she and Calvin were nemeses except Calvin had a lot of nemeses. The babysitter. His first-grade teacher. That tree in the middle of the good sledding hill. The aliens who were trying to eat him when he went exploring space. Hobbes, when Hobbes decided to pounce on him the middle of the hallway. His mom, on casserole night. And so on.
Calvin was definitely Susie's nemesis though, because Susie didn't actively make nemeses out of everyone else in her life. Susie and Hobbes the Tiger, however, got along fine - Hobbes was a charmer and Susie treated him like the fine gentleman he was. This greatly annoyed Calvin, who did not believe Hobbes should ever be a gentleman, and in particular did not appreciate that Susie liked Hobbes better than him and Hobbes would happily throw him over for a tea party with Susie every time. Honestly the Hobbes & Susie dynamic was my favorite thing in the strip! Not only was it fun to see Calvin completely helpless before Susie's power (of not being a small rude gremlin) but also because it did a great job of capturing that childhood experience when other kids played with your toys and you almost though they understood about your toys? But not quite, because they weren't quite themselves when the other kids had them. Just like you were never quite sure whether Susie could hear Hobbes talk the way Calvin did, or if they were both just pretending, and you got just as frustrated as Calvin did.
Anyway this is the first pair to come up on the list where I'm not really all that interested in them as a romantic 'ship - the stories where Calvin and Susie grow up and have kids just like their parents and Hobbes moves on to a new generation aren't really my thing? But I do love stories where Calvin and Susie stay each other's Important Person - even if they move away and haven't seen each other for years, the influence they had over each other as kids, and Hobbes linking them, are still so important to who they are.
So here's some recs for that. More or less.
Calvin was definitely Susie's nemesis though, because Susie didn't actively make nemeses out of everyone else in her life. Susie and Hobbes the Tiger, however, got along fine - Hobbes was a charmer and Susie treated him like the fine gentleman he was. This greatly annoyed Calvin, who did not believe Hobbes should ever be a gentleman, and in particular did not appreciate that Susie liked Hobbes better than him and Hobbes would happily throw him over for a tea party with Susie every time. Honestly the Hobbes & Susie dynamic was my favorite thing in the strip! Not only was it fun to see Calvin completely helpless before Susie's power (of not being a small rude gremlin) but also because it did a great job of capturing that childhood experience when other kids played with your toys and you almost though they understood about your toys? But not quite, because they weren't quite themselves when the other kids had them. Just like you were never quite sure whether Susie could hear Hobbes talk the way Calvin did, or if they were both just pretending, and you got just as frustrated as Calvin did.
Anyway this is the first pair to come up on the list where I'm not really all that interested in them as a romantic 'ship - the stories where Calvin and Susie grow up and have kids just like their parents and Hobbes moves on to a new generation aren't really my thing? But I do love stories where Calvin and Susie stay each other's Important Person - even if they move away and haven't seen each other for years, the influence they had over each other as kids, and Hobbes linking them, are still so important to who they are.
So here's some recs for that. More or less.
- Hello Operator, Please Give Me Number Nine (3066 words) by Starlingthefool
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Susie Derkins, Death - Character
Additional Tags: Nerdiness, Deus Ex Machina, Calvinball, Ingmar Bergman references, This is creepier than I intended it to be, Death as a character
Susie Derkins plays Calvinball with Death.
(Also read the related Stargate Atlantis crossover linked at the end, it's great.) - The Lengthy Dimly Lit Coffee Break of the Psyche (2728 words) by dotfic
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes), Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes), Susie Derkins
Susie and Calvin, grown up together. Sort of. - Spaceman Spiff and The Redoubtable Scientist (1656 words) by redsnake05
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes), Susie Derkins
Additional Tags: Imagination
Spaceman Spiff isn't the only person who has adventures. The Redoubtable Scientist is more subtle, but no less enthusiastic in her imaginings.
no subject
Berkeley Breathed FB page
no subject
It is annoying that it looks like it's only facebook (and viewing the comics without being logged in to facebook was very annyoing.)
no subject
The idea that anyone might not be familiar with Calvin & Hobbes is making me contemplate age and mortality in a way I'm not sure I like. :)
no subject
(I have a coworker who does storytime programs for toddlers who I learned this week had never heard of the song "Daisy Daisy/Bicycle Built for Two" before. *That* one made me contemplate morality.)