Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 04, 2024

That’ll teach him…..

If only dad thought of that sooner. Think of all the peace and quiet they could’ve gotten over the years.

Having fun against your own will builds character.

I do not know how people can run around in the brutal heat

That’s the spirit, sport

For old people, are swings as good as crunches?

Dad is going to feel really guilty while he relaxes without Calvin around.

at least he didn’t tell him to play in traffic

Can’t help but wonder how much the insurance policy Dad took out on Calvin’s life will pay for “accidental” death.

Holding on to your beliefs, no matter the price, builds character. You’re playing right into his trap, Calvin.

That’ll show him, I wonder what susie’s doing?

I never stayed in the house as a kid during summer. I used to go riding bikes with my friends back in the 1970’s. We’d get a kitchen trash bag and scour the neighborhood of bottles and cans to redeem. Then we’d pool our resources and buy candy. Fun times… until we met the Demogorgon. We were prepared. All of us had read, from cover to cover, the dreaded Necronomicon written by the mad Abdul Alhazred. We simply called upon Yog-Sothoth. Then a Shoggoth was summoned and ate up the Demogorgon. It was a great summer and we learned a lot! But mostly… about ourselves.

Happy Independence Day to all Americans from here in Britain. Calvin and Hobbes is my favourite strip and beats Britain’s Andy Capp into my SECOND FAVOURITE place.

I like that Hobbes was reading one of Calvin’s comics again. If Mom saw it when she went to answer the phone, she probably saw it as an open comic lying on top of a stuffed doll. She definitely saw Hobbes as a stuffed doll and probably saw an open comic on top of him.

“Works consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” ~Mark Twain ref Tom Sawyer and the whitewashing the fence episode.

Here’s a better idea! How about throw water balloons at Susie?

Even though TV was a newfangled invention when I was a kid (most families had one). There was more of a thrill being “out” than “in” in the summertime. As a small kid, the only thing interesting on TV to me were the cartoons and they were limited to Saturday mornings. Many were from the silent film era and featured classical music in the background. They got better when I learned how to read the caption "slides’ that came up.

Forced to play outside on a nice day with no responsibilities. Sheesh, I wish life was so unfair to me as it is to Calvin!

We were told to get outside and not EVER come home!!

After a few swings and some running around Cal will have forgotten why he didn’t want to do it. Reverse psychology, even if not actually intended.

Two hours later…

Dad: “Calvin, time to come in, now…it’s getting dark!”

Calvin: “Aw, do I have to??”

Refusing to have fun builds character, Calvin.

How can you ‘refuse’ to have fun when you are going to be on a swing, Calvin ? Being on a swing is the most fun you can have by yourself ! ! ! !

That was back when TV was the ruination of our children. Then it was computer games. Now it’s the cell phone, social media and, coming to a playground near you, Artificial Intelligence. Before TV it was radio, and before that it was the automobile replacing the horse. conservatives have always opposed progress and used fear peddling to do it.

LOL…I love Hobbes’ subtle and oblique humor…

As a kid, I wanted to be outside playing until called in for supper.

My dad used to tell me to run around the house 7 times. I never did.

That’s how kids, TODAY, are. They act like its a punishment, to go outdoors!

There’s a reason why summer is re-run season, Calvin.

Brilliant thinking, Calvin. As Wyle E. Coyote would say: “ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!”

Hobbes will help you have fun.

We knew all the kids on our street, so there was always something to do. My favorites were water balloon fights and running through the sprinklers

I’m a kid of the early 60s. We DID have a TV and we WERE allowed to watch it with no restrictions. That said, nobody came home from school and plopped in front of the TV. We raced out of the house to play until dinnertime. And summer? From dawn til dark ……..and many times still in the dark if we were in the yard. It was hard to get us to come inside. But rainy days….yeah, lots of TV. But we also played more imaginative and interactive things indoors, too. Twister, blocks, dolls, army men, board games, cards. Painting, drawing. Yes, even reading. My best memory? I loved nights when my parents played bingo or cards with us.

I grew up in the South in about six different States. We were lucky to live places where we could literally run through the woods to the point of exhaustion, hide among the trees playing our games and climbing the trees for marvelous, secret views.

Everywhere today, I see trees being cut down and not replaced. Virtual woodland is going to make virtual adults of our children.

You’ll have fun, whether you like it or not!

Says Calvin for the first thirty seconds.

Classic hypocritical Calvin in the last panel.

Poor thing ◑﹏◐

Now that I celebrated my 60th birthday in May, I can say I wish that I had spent more time outside back in the 1970’s. I should have put more dents and scratches on my bicycle. I pity the fictional character Arthur Bo Radley from the book To Kill a Mockingbird.

ah… the good old days when kids were encouraged to be kids

That’s what I’m talking about Calvin. That’s what I’m talking about! You show ’em!

Dad, please don’t make me have fun.

- Stephanie from Full House.