Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 21, 2023

I hope it hurts less.

Well Moe sure hits like a truck, so why not?

His parents should buy him some karate classes!!

At least you got the first jab in

I love it how the mean boy’s words in the balloons even look mean.

Remember when Calvin put a sign on Moe’s back saying “Heave a rock at me”? (You may not: it wasn’t a strip episode but an illustration in one of the reprints…)

I’ve spoken my peace regarding bullies. It still all holds true.

I[‘m thinking that if Moe’s parents were confronted about this, they’d scoff and say "their little angel’ wouldn’t hurt a fly. ;/

And if Calvin complains the bully will say that Calvin hurt his feelings and insulted his mother and bla bla, essentially Calvin would get the blame and be required to have therapy or the lobotomy that the actual bully needed. The biggest bullies I have had the misfortune to come across in life are masters at playing the victim when they see the need.

Truck driver misses the bully and plows over the (anti) hero. I got hit by a truck last November. He was speeding and going 55 in a 45 zone. Oh, one more thing… I was a pedestrian.

Poor Cal looks like roadkill.

To bad Calvin didn’t check the note on his back before leaving home.

Encouraging yourself to get hit, Calvin? Seriously?

You dummy! You should’ve ran and hide when he looked behind him!

Calvin: Think of Moe as penitence for all the times that you an obnoxious, self-centered little “B” word.

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.” Bill Shakespear

How kind of Calvin to read the note to illiterate Joe.

Yeah, what’s the fun in getting pounded if you can’t get in a verbal jab beforehand?

If you know you’re on the way to the gallows, spit on the sidewalk. What the heck.

Medal of Honor idiot there Calvin.

Yeah, I can see why he’d feel that way.

Perfection! Chef’s kiss!

In the neighborhood I grew up in, most kids would’ve jumped Moe when had his back turned.

Unlike Watterson’s comments on technology or environmental issues or consumerism, I feel his strips about bullying haven’t aged as well. I still find the concept stupid myself. But I will just problems my nephew is having with other kids in school, on account of what he has had to go through in his short life, make Calvin taunting Moe less amusing.

It bought him a little bit of time.

Not funny.

You just had to read it. Didn’t you Calvin?

The note Moe’s mother really put was: “This side is the back”.

You have earned it, Calvin. The sutures can take its own time to heal.

Good thing Calvin doesn’t live in the big city. His “street” etiquette would get him killed before he turned 9!