It’s highly unlikely that a penny on a railroad track will derail a train. It’s simply too small and light to affect something that heavy. Also, a penny dropped from top of the Empire State would be unlikely to kill someone standing on the ground.
The Count has an uncontrollable urge to go put a penny on a railroad track like The Count did a few times as a young whippersnapper. Not to derail a train, but the flat penny was pretty cool.
Thought at first that Calvin had a bad day at school and was acting out his frustrations, but there’s nobody familiar among the panels. So, guess he’s just having a Calvin Day.
I simply love the Sunday art work. I linger over each panel. I have probably have 4-5 of his C&H books laying around all worn around the edges. I miss this strip and I can just imagine what more could have been. I am grateful for what we have here!Thank you Bill W. for sharing your art and thanks to Gocomics for keeping it alive?
I think the year was 1965: A man in his home in New Jersey, was looking out of a window toward the Hudson River and Manhattan. He turned off a light switch and saw all of Manhattan go dark.
I used to entertain my younger brothers with such stories. The giant teddy bear was opposed by hundreds of plastic toy soldiers but it wasn’t until we built a massive Lego corral that we were able to contain the beast.
Great artwork from Bill Watterson, as usual! I love the detail with the freight train being hauled by then-modern GE diesel locomotives. I can also picture that engineer/fireman/conductor in that panel making a Wilhelm Scream! … And yeah, it’s a little unsettling when one of my eyes twitches involuntarily.
We lived with the railroad behind our backyard. We would regularly put pennies on the tracks to see them get smooshed. We never derailed a train. Out of dozens of pennies we laid out, we only found one, now in a flat oval shape. Of course, these were COPPER pennies. I don’t know what would happen to modern multi-metal pennies.
I just remembered, we also tried putting rocks on the tracks – the same rocks used in the railway bed, about 2 inches across. They were smashed into dust with no derailment.
Normal day on the farm. Replace the train with bankers, plane with politicians, tectonic plates with supermarkets, and the gas leak with the big food corporations.
BE THIS GUY over 1 year ago
Should get an electric stove.
dadthedawg Premium Member over 1 year ago
Just a tiny coincidence…..
codycab over 1 year ago
Another idea for Calvin: Directing a disaster movie!
Templo S.U.D. over 1 year ago
what do you propose, Hobbes? Calvinball?
Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus Premium Member over 1 year ago
For sure farmer Brown is really out of luck.
JudasPeckerwood over 1 year ago
Farmer Brown’s Very, Very Bad Day
The Calvinosaurus That Calvin Wanted To Discover over 1 year ago
What’s next, a tornado?
Ivy Valory Premium Member over 1 year ago
This is an absolutely stunningly drawn comic today. Every frame is so full of pizazz!
minty_Joe over 1 year ago
The whole thing is starting to resemble a math problem. “Train A leaves the station at 9:30am going 50 mph…”
I’m also imagining this is how Gomez Addams plays with his trains and planes.
Bilan over 1 year ago
Will Farmer Brown be saved from this predicament?
Stay tuned next week!
Same Calvin channel. Same Calvin time.
Imagine over 1 year ago
This is a job for Stupendous Man. You can call him “Stu”.
Jesy Bertz Premium Member over 1 year ago
The NTSB is going to have its hands full on this one!
BigDaveGlass over 1 year ago
Gives new meaning to going out with a bang……
Scorpio Premium Member over 1 year ago
This sounds like Final Destination and all the sequels in one movie sequence.
hariseldon59 over 1 year ago
It’s highly unlikely that a penny on a railroad track will derail a train. It’s simply too small and light to affect something that heavy. Also, a penny dropped from top of the Empire State would be unlikely to kill someone standing on the ground.
Halmyre over 1 year ago
Do you think Roland Emmerich read this strip as a young boy?
nosirrom over 1 year ago
And now a PSA on transportation safety, brought to you by Norfolk Southern Railway.
Guybrush Threepwood over 1 year ago
This is fantastic.
The Reader Premium Member over 1 year ago
Am I going to have to wait an entire week to find out what happens next!!!?
starfighter441 over 1 year ago
Plane nerd alert… That looks like a Lockheed L1011, which was a much more elegant design than it’s rival the DC-10 by McDonnell-Douglas imo.
Count Olaf Premium Member over 1 year ago
The Count has an uncontrollable urge to go put a penny on a railroad track like The Count did a few times as a young whippersnapper. Not to derail a train, but the flat penny was pretty cool.
gokarDun over 1 year ago
Cal’s imagination is delightful
brick10 over 1 year ago
Just a regular d@y in the US of A.
sandpiper over 1 year ago
Thought at first that Calvin had a bad day at school and was acting out his frustrations, but there’s nobody familiar among the panels. So, guess he’s just having a Calvin Day.
I'm Sad over 1 year ago
How about today’s Big Nate Comic Strip! A nod to Calvin and Hobbes!
flemmingo over 1 year ago
Farmer Brown has my luck. Get one catastrophe over and another comes along. Oh well!
Happy Jack Hill over 1 year ago
This will make a great episode for Smithsonian’s “Air Disasters”
oakie817 over 1 year ago
i got a bang out of this one
Redd Panda over 1 year ago
Calvin left out the truck, the one carrying Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas.
I know, another song cue … sigh … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGldNpngDws
Diat60 over 1 year ago
So, just an average day then?
mckeonfuneralhomebx over 1 year ago
Wasnt all this in Superman Movies? and What 6 year old talks tectonic plates?
KEA over 1 year ago
Surprised H’Wood hasn’t filmed this.
SchipLvr over 1 year ago
Hmmm, a young Michael Bay!
M2MM over 1 year ago
This strip is brilliant! :D
DatsunMan over 1 year ago
I got a Lincoln Log set for xmas back in the 50s. I remember making that same cabin that Hobbes is holding. Same color roof.
Will_Scarlet over 1 year ago
Eat your heart out, Pugsley Addams.
g04922 over 1 year ago
Calvin may have a a future in writing disaster movies…
g04922 over 1 year ago
Note the old 727 jet aircraft..
makinen6602 over 1 year ago
gas stoves will be the end for man kind
nyscotsman1 over 1 year ago
I thought this was going to be a news worthy math problem. So much better than “when train 1 leaves station one at x-mph…”
rshive over 1 year ago
And that’s just the better of the news.
gantech over 1 year ago
That kid needs serious therapy.
BeniHanna6 Premium Member over 1 year ago
Loved the Lockheed L1011. Got to fly in several during the 1970s.
Stocky One over 1 year ago
Thank heavens for Calvin and Hobbes and Sunday mornings!
ChessPirate over 1 year ago
Farmer Brown, whose pants now match his last name…
ridenslide65 over 1 year ago
Sounds like something that’s happening right now…..
hornacek over 1 year ago
I love when Watterson messes with the standard Sunday strip format just to mess with the newspapers.
Tetonbil over 1 year ago
I simply love the Sunday art work. I linger over each panel. I have probably have 4-5 of his C&H books laying around all worn around the edges. I miss this strip and I can just imagine what more could have been. I am grateful for what we have here!Thank you Bill W. for sharing your art and thanks to Gocomics for keeping it alive?
hooglah over 1 year ago
Sounds like a typical day in the current …..joke for a government.
R Ball Premium Member over 1 year ago
I think the year was 1965: A man in his home in New Jersey, was looking out of a window toward the Hudson River and Manhattan. He turned off a light switch and saw all of Manhattan go dark.
hagarthehorrible over 1 year ago
The farmer Brown will be roasted, sunken deep and flung high due to the threesome catastrophes prophesized by Calvin.
ChrisGibson1 over 1 year ago
FOR NO REASON
txmystic over 1 year ago
Involuntary eye twitches are so annoying…
dv over 1 year ago
It’s a day too early for Farmer Smith to be having a case of the Mondays
GKBOWOOD Premium Member over 1 year ago
Amen to that Hobbs- this is getting too real actually…
jmcenanly over 1 year ago
The good old days, when this was in the comics, rather than on the front page
snowedin, now known as Missy's mom over 1 year ago
This cartoon is rather morbid; no wonder Hobbes wants to play something else.
mistercatworks over 1 year ago
I used to entertain my younger brothers with such stories. The giant teddy bear was opposed by hundreds of plastic toy soldiers but it wasn’t until we built a massive Lego corral that we were able to contain the beast.
Drbarb71 Premium Member over 1 year ago
Gomez Addams would love this kid.
wiley207 over 1 year ago
Great artwork from Bill Watterson, as usual! I love the detail with the freight train being hauled by then-modern GE diesel locomotives. I can also picture that engineer/fireman/conductor in that panel making a Wilhelm Scream! … And yeah, it’s a little unsettling when one of my eyes twitches involuntarily.
mindjob over 1 year ago
Good thing that plane wasn’t carrying a nuclear warhead
kathleenhicks62 over 1 year ago
He is into death and destruction today.
ST Joe River Premium Member over 1 year ago
So much for reading the comics for some fun and away from the bad news of real life. No use reading this doom and gloom..
Doctor Go over 1 year ago
Farmer Brown is gonna have a bad day…
ArcticFox Premium Member over 1 year ago
A brilliant conceptualization of MY imagination!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Otis Rufus Driftwood over 1 year ago
Calvin may have grown up to become VFX coordinator for Michael Bay or another similar.
David Rickard Premium Member over 1 year ago
Somewhere in the afterlife, Irwin Allen is giving this strip two thumbs up.
rodgerjacobsen Premium Member over 1 year ago
As bad as it gets, even worse…
cosman over 1 year ago
I don’t know about you, but I’m mat framing this one..
Ka`ōnōhi`ula`okahōkūmiomio`ehiku Premium Member over 1 year ago
We lived with the railroad behind our backyard. We would regularly put pennies on the tracks to see them get smooshed. We never derailed a train. Out of dozens of pennies we laid out, we only found one, now in a flat oval shape. Of course, these were COPPER pennies. I don’t know what would happen to modern multi-metal pennies.
I just remembered, we also tried putting rocks on the tracks – the same rocks used in the railway bed, about 2 inches across. They were smashed into dust with no derailment.
cmxx over 1 year ago
I love Watterson’s art. For this strip he even figured in the slope of the railroad embankment when he drew the train’s shadow. Bravo.
Angry Indeed Premium Member over 1 year ago
I wish they would incorporate this in Smithsonian Channel’s Air Disasters , a fave of my wife.
Curiosity Premium Member over 1 year ago
Looks plausible to me….
Murray's Hill over 1 year ago
I read the conclusion and farmer Brown does make it.
einarbt over 1 year ago
Normal day on the farm. Replace the train with bankers, plane with politicians, tectonic plates with supermarkets, and the gas leak with the big food corporations.
Komix Lover over 1 year ago
Airplane issue, train derailment, gas stove…How did Bill Watterson know the future in 1993?
SavannahJim Premium Member over 1 year ago
Poor, sweet-natured Hobbs. For a tiger he has almost no appetite for destruction.
josh_bisbee over 1 year ago
Watterson refers to this strip as “one of Calvin’s better build ups”.
But looks like old Farmer Brown is going out with a boom.