Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 18, 2021

Fighting with the rats builds character.

LOL! Days like these when is feel for parents, in general. Bless you, brave souls.

you and your insane imagination, Calvin

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

“Chained in the basement”? Bet that that’s where Stephan King got his ideas. ;-D

That won’t work, Calvin. You know that nobody listens to what you tell them.

I don’t often get a LOL moment from ’toons. Much less reruns. But this one pulled it off!

He’s always looking to see how far he can push his boundaries!!

Why I didn’t have children.

That story was too unbelievable. Everybody knows the rats go for the bread first.

Calvin, you just may have reported on your future!

The future Corporal King?

Maybe an appointment with the school counselor/psychologist this time?

I expected a call from child services.

It has come to my attention that poster Charlie Farmer has been surreptitiously banned from talking on these pages for what appears to be no apparent reason as he is not one to make the kind of talk worth being shut out for. I am mounting a write in campaign for his release from the Phantom Zone.

If you wish to help send your letters to: moderator@gocomics.com  As always, be congenial. I believe Charlie’s dropout to have been done in error.

My letter to the company:

Good day, sir or madam. I hope winter isn’t too harsh to you as it has been here with minus zero temps but at least we have not had power outages.

I am writing you today concerning co poster, Charlie Farmer. He has informed me through emails that he has been blocked from the Comments groups at your institution. I am perplexed at this action as I have never known Charlie to make derogatory remarks to the other posters or to post off color material. He says he has sent two notes to you in the past two weeks or so but has not gotten a response. Regardless, it is my fervent hope that Mr. Farmer can be restored to the ranks of the living, to the groups he participates in before he whittles away to nothing from the deafening silence he is forced to endure as a result of having been banished to the Phantom Zone district of Gocomics. “Praise the company !” Thank you, Mr. Gordon Heavern.

For those wondering why Calvin has no siblings.

Does Miss Wormwood drink absinthe?

Personally, as a former teacher, I would give Calvin an “A” for creative writing. The whole idea of these themed assignments is to hone kids’ writing skills. Brownie points for thinking outside the box!

Dude! In today’s world, it sounds like breaking bad!

Didn’t have any chains (we were too poor for chains) but it was me and the rats in the coal bin every night. Our ‘nest’ kept getting shoveled into the furnace so by spring, there was lots of room for us to huddle in the corners.

Actually, it would explain a lot about Calvin.

Perhaps my favorite Calvin and Hobbes.

I remember the strangest parent/teacher conference I ever had. I believe it was my younger daughter’s first-grade one. My husband & I sat down, the teacher faced us…and just started laughing! Just thinking about our girl made her that happy, she explained.

What did people do when comics were only printed in newspapers? Are we so enamored of social media that we cannot imagine life without it?

“Everything builds character,” says Calvin’s father. eyeroll

His parents threw down meat, he’s lucky, all I got was gruel.

To be expected with how much Calvin gets in trouble…..

Well, I suppose there will be no meat for chained Calvin tonight. …tsk

Miss Wormwood wants to know what kind of chains and where to get them!

This was my fave C&H of all!!

Holy “Wake Up Little Susie” ship high in transit, huh?

The thing about the boy who cried wolf? He distracted from where an actual wolf may have been. Calvin could be drawing away attention from children who are actually being abused. Dark for a Thursday, I know.

He needs to watch “Willard” and learn how to control the rats!

WOW! He get’s meat! All I got was a bowl of gruel and it went everywhere when they through it down.

If “chaining in the basement” was an option for Calvin’s parents, he probably wouldn’t be in school.

OK, true story of very young ‘banjo gordy’ in Chatham NJ grade school. Was given a shot for measles & arm very sore. Teacher asked if I was OK, & I said I was bitten by a black Widow spider. All manner of excitement & rushed to school nurse who called my mother…all down hill from there on.

You know, becoming an author would be a good career for Calvin.

How else is a mom supposed to get any housecleaning done?!?

The conference with the school will likely go something like this:

Counselor: Calvin’s at it again

Mom: What did he do this time?

Counselor: He wrote this (shows paper)

Mom: Sigh…..I’ll talk to him.

Counselor: Yes, please do so. Abuse is a serious issue, and he has to understand that pretending about it is not funny.

Note that the school is very much aware of his extreme fantasizing.

I wanna hear the rest of his essay!

And the rats also have the advantage of not being chained.

It never ends with Calvin.

This is one of my favorite Calvin strips of all time

i would just have them attend the next time he reads an essay in front of the class; they can hide in the cloak room.

Maybe he will get points for creativity.

What doesn’t kill ya, makes you stronger.Right?

If you want to see a more serious thread about child abuse, hop on over to For Better or For Worse. Nobody is yelling at anybody else but it is pretty raw.

This is a prime example of why I read Calvin and Hobbes.

such a creative comic strip, YABBA DABBA DOO!

Of course, with the raw meat, the rats turn away from chewing on his stuffed tiger…

That is absolutely wonderful opening sentence for a short story. Calvin is destined to be a writer.

Our X Box is in the basement, so that explains everything…

Calvin’s parents could make a lot of money selling their firewood in Texas right now.