Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 21, 2022

Calvin, do you want to know where you rate on Susie’s bizarrotron?

Oh, you girls are all alike…..

They are weird.

Cooties

Should we listen to the one who has been called “Weirdo” who also says things like “ZOUNDS!”?

“ugly” now, but wait a few years…

Great moons of Neptune!

Wait until he is a teenager and he moves in for a closer look.

“Weirdness is Nature’s way of adapting to its environment.” It’s certainly been weird in the last few years! BTW, I knew it was gonna be Susie Derkins!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Great art, Bill!!

“Gurl”, means something quite different now, the comic has a whole new twist :D

I think all comics should clearly display their weirdness levels.

Love Cal’s fantasy trips. A real break from the usual. Also love the art.

The Bizarrotron needs intermittent field recalibrations. There is a pack of DVDs in the console. Start with “Rocky Horror” and “Tremors”.

Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars. Both very inhospitable planets. Make of that what you will……

3.7 weirdness level. Somehow I knew it would be Suzie.

We humans are very prejudiced towards other lifeforms. The further the lifeform is from us, the less we like it.

Mammals are generally accepted: kittens and puppies are cute. However the further away you go on the life tree, the less likely it is that humans will accept an organism.

Even reptiles who are quite closely related to us are seldom accepted. Snakes get a bad rap, and not too many people cuddle up with iguanas.

Go further afield and you will find very few people who think cockroaches are cute. Insects, in general don’t rate high on the likability scale.

So it is quite possible that we would perceive an alien creature as hideous. Hollywood and Ancient Alien enthusiasts always portray them as humanoid.

I believe that in the oceans of alien planets, there are fish-like creatures. That’s because a torpedo-shaped body is so superior in that environment that any time evolution takes a blind step in that direction, it is reinforced. So we have sharks and dolphins and the extinct reptile, ichthyosaur, with the same general body shape even though they last had a common ancestor hundreds of millions of years ago.

Some things work so well, evolution keeps re-inventing them.

The human form works well enough on this planet, but I don’t see it as a compelling design. It would be totally coincidental if alien creatures even had four limbs.

Susie has a great deal of restraint. She was well positioned to pop Calvin in the eye.

Fascinating.

Reading this comic got me spaced out.

Also, SPIFF is technically the ‘alien’ in this scenario.

I love the art in this one. Zounds!!

Seems odd indeed. Has anyone here actually married a person they grew up with. No one in Alabama need answer.

I love the Spaceman Spiff stories.

Weird is a matter of opinion. And for some kids this may just be a phase.

Watterson must have had some strange nightmares as a kid.

Where is Hobbes when we need him the most. Mom must have forgotten Calvin’s morning meds… LOL

Worse case of girl cooties I ever saw.

Calvin must live in Southern California.

oh Calvin…. puberty will come as a really big surprise….

There’s a reason I keep C&H on my main comics page, even though it only ran for ten years and I’ve seen every strip many times. This one is well-written and beautifully drawn — not to mention just plain funny!

Zounds, hilarious!

Is she really a 5.6?

In all fairness, we all look strange when examined under a microscope.

Heh, the “gurl” looks more like Calvin staring at Susie!

Soon enough Spiff will start to find those odd protuberances on the creature’s chest strangely attractive and alluring…even, he might say, irresistible…

I wonder if the bizarrotron works with smells. Surely boys will rate lower than gurls.

Isn’t the artwork amazing? I can’t think of any other cartoonist who comes anywhere close to Waterson.

Fortunately, at a certain age, they begin generating pheromones and everything changes. :)

I knew a woman whom I secretly referred to as “The Shadow”, because she had “the power to cloud men’s minds.” Like the hero of the 1930s radio series.

Just wait a few years and that creature will become one of the most desirable in the Universe.

Man, I remember when the Calvin & Hobbes Sunday comic would take up half the page in a real newspaper. Even gocomics shrinks their comic pages, it seems…..

At least this was one of the few times Spiff didn’t deem an alien worth attacking.

Spiff’s Field Guide may need revision.

What threat could a gurl be to the universe, Spiff?

Calvin would crush the “weirdness scale”!

I’m with Spiffy on that one! Gurls? Ewwwwwwwwww!

Vive l’ wierdness!!!

“Gurl” means something else today, but still weird and hideous.