"Oh, blood-red eyes and tentacles! / Throbbing, pulsing ventricles!"

July 18, 2016 10:21 AM

Why Calvin and Hobbes is Great Literature: On the ontology of a stuffed tiger and finding the whole world in a comic
posted by holmesian (7 comments total)

Thanks for this! These "C&H is great" pieces pop up periodically, and I don't think I ever get tired of them. If you haven't seen Stripped, a 2014 documentary about comics, I recommend checking it out -- both because it has the first recorded interview with Watterson and lots more discussion about comics as an art form.
posted by cubby at 11:10 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

A think piece about a comic strip. Self-aware, personal, insightful. High art.

A Metafilter post about a think piece about a comic strip. Derivative, self-indulgent. Low art.

(A comment on a Metafilter post about a think piece about a comic strip...)
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:09 PM on July 18, 2016 [16 favorites]

^ I was going to comment, but this comment already says more about the wonderful depth and insightfulness of C&H much more pithily than I could.
posted by LooseFilter at 12:25 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I RSS subscribe to a feed of C&H reruns... occasionally, near the end of the run, Watterson would do a comic focusing on Calvin's Dad... this one just came up and OH MY...
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:05 PM on July 18, 2016 [11 favorites]

A comment on a Metafilter post about a think piece about a comic strip. High art.
posted by porpoise at 1:29 PM on July 18, 2016

Hi, Art!
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:37 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The final Calvin and Hobbes strip makes me cry. It's a perfect ending to an amazing comic, and there's something really hopeful about it and it just overwhelms me. Today I learned that even brief references to the final strip can make me tear up a little.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:16 PM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]