Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 03, 2022

How did Calvin get his parents to pay for the subscription?

As kids, we obsessed over little things. I should know, I actually enjoyed gum back then.

I can’t wait for Bazooka Joe interview.

When I was Calvin’s age or a little older, I used to be of the Lego Club Magazine subscription. Think I stopped somewhere will into starting high school.

So this was back in 1992. Scarry how well it predicted what would be going on online now; just missed the fact that printed magazines are almost gone.

I had a Looney Tunes comic subscription in the 1940s.

In the 30 years since this strip, targeted advertising has advanced to new and unprecedented levels of intrusive!

And this was 1992! Now I could whisper “cockroach” and twelve ads for exterminators will pop up on my screen.

btw Chandler Bing reads Sit magazine.

I think I’ll pass on the ’92 spearmint. Bleh!

Kid, wait ‘till you grow up. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

OTOH, I surf the web quite a bit and I haven’t seen a targeted ad in years, if ever. I’m the Ghost of the Internet. Life on the web is good that way…

So Calvin is, what 38 years old or so now? Makes you think, huh.

I never knew that magazines could be THAT specialized.;-D

“Rad fashion kneepads for walking and chewing.”

For the people who can’t do both at the same time. Protects the knees from falls and blunt objects.

Now i really really want to know who Bazooka Joe is!

‘92 huh? Wow, I’d forgotten how long-ago Waterson did these strips. Now I feel REALLY old.

Remember this was published long before the google sent the ads after us. Pretty amazing predictions.

I remember the comic “Bazooka Joe and His Gang” that came with the bubble gum.

Just can’t remember the name of the character whose face was half-covered by his shirt.

@BE THIS GUY- I think it’s just a part of Calvin’s wacky imagination the same way he created hobbs.

Speaking of intrusive advertising, I’m waiting until the day where the “door open” chime on my car becomes a Liberty Mutual or State Farm jingle.

Years before the Internet, cookies and tracing ads… That was prescient.

I like to play with the bots. I look at ads for cars, farm equipment, psychiatrists, women’s clothing, power tools, computer equipment, fire extinguishers and just for good measure, sex toys. I also Google things like thong, salamander and back scratcher in the same query.

OK, so how many of you did Google thong, salamander and back scratcher?

Today, Calvin would be waiting for the latest online version of that magazine and downloading it!

‘92 was a good year.

If you thought advertising was intrusive back then… just wait

Advertisers were so limited back then. It’s surprising they sold anything. Snail mail spam was so last century.

‘92 was a good year for spearmints…I still have a few packs in the cellar that haven’t peaked yet…

Bazooka Joe!

The penny gum, in the wax wrapper, that was always stale. With a comic. Yum!

I can’t blow bubbles with gum. I have a recessive gene and can’t roll my tongue. I’ve only me one other person like that but she and I found other things to do with our tongues that were even more fun.

30 years and still fresh!

What is the real take-away is how relevant Calvin and Hobbs could remain after at least 30 years (’92 Spearmints in 2022)…

Wait until you see whats coming.

I love this marketing campaign.

Yet they still want me to extend the warranty & I haven’t had a car for a decade.

Proves that there is really nothing new in marketing, just ever changing platforms.

But they don’t say how the ’92 spearmint is different than the ’91.

And just check out the centerfold!

Targeted and focused advertising has only become more so and even more intrusive in the 30 years since this was first published.

For all you nonbelievers out there, panel one is proof Hobbes is real. How else could Calvin reach the mailbox?

Bazooka Joe is a real person? Who knew!

it was probably a free subscription… they make their money on sales advertised in the rag.

I always bought Doublemint instead of Spearmint. You know why? Because even though the packages were the exact same size and count, Doublemint meant “Double the pleasure! Double the funn!”

Reminds me of one of my jokes. I like to go out with intelligent women. I was out walking with a woman on a date. I offered her a stick of gum but she refused without interrupting our walk. I thought, “She has possibilities – a woman who can walk and eschew gum at the same time.”

I didn’t say it was a good joke. :)

It’s kind of funny that there’s nothing more terrifying to some people than to be advertised to. I guess they lack the self-control it takes to not buy everything they see.

Wow 30 years ago …

Violet Beauregarde certainly is a subscriber too.

I guess the ‘92 spearmint is vintage now

I used to get Mad Magazine when I was a kid. It later morphed into Playboy.

I once did tongue exercises, but it wasn’t for bigger bubbles

Try to convince kids today that not only would you buy physical magazines, you would subscribe to them and have them mailed to you.

This was the best way for Watterson to make fun of sports magazines.

Ahhh, the debut of Chewing Magazine!

at my peak (or nadir, depending on your point of view) i was getting on the order of 30 magazines a month. (it’s a curse to be interested in almost everything)

!!!READ THIS COMMENT IN THAT YOU TUBER ALLEN TSAI’S VOICE!!!

—————————————————————————————————————Did you know that in Calvin and Hobbes May 5th, 1992, Calvin’s “Chewing” magazine includes an interview from a character named Bazooka Joe. Bazooka Joe is a comic strip character from the 70s that was used to promote Bazooka Bubblegum. Because Calvin is also a comic strip character, in his universe, Bazooka Joe is a real person who can be interviewed!

Because Tony learns from his mistakes!—————————————————————————————————————

What life has in store for you

I should have kept the Beatles cards with gum, unopened! Can we still buy Chicklets?

I’d like to read that interview with Bazooka Joe.

If they thought advertising was targeted and intrusive in 1992, little could they have imagined it thirty years later.

I guess the targeting has evolved a bit since then …

There should still be some collector grade ’92 Spearmint on the wall at Pike Place Market