Calvin, your babysitter is coming
Dec. 23rd, 2009 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI already had a fair number of Calvin and Hobbes collections, and with the addition of the ones gifted as presents it appears, from what I can figure out on the innertubes, that this pile covers the complete dailies of the strip's history, and almost all the Sundays.
Calvin and Hobbes is worth collecting in full, because it was always good. Near the end of the strip, a certain amount of sentimentality and preachiness began creeping in, but when Watterson realized this was happening, he quit. Would that Charles Schulz had done the same thing!
I found it worthwhile paging through the whole run of dailies to look for the long-running storylines. Here are all the transmogrifier and duplicator stories. Here are all the stories about Calvin's school assignments, including the classic "Bats aren't bugs!" Here's the camping trips (three of them), and here's my favorite of the recurrences, Rosalyn the babysitter. She first appeared in a Sunday strip, and made eight attempts to babysit Calvin in the dailies, usually something less than a year between each. The first two were fairly tame: she just laid down the rules and terrified Calvin. Then he started to fight back: first he escaped out the window, then he left her waiting outside, and then things really started to escalate: he stole her study notes, then locked her out of the house. After the epic encounter between Stupendous Man and Babysitter Girl, though, Rosalyn disappeared for about five years. I'd forgotten about her last appearance, just before the strip ended. In this one, they make a deal: in exchange for Calvin doing his homework promptly, she'll let him stay up late and she'll play a game with him. Whatever he wants.
He wants to play Calvinball. The only time, I think, he plays it with anyone but Hobbes. Rosalyn wonders nervously what she's gotten into, but proves highly proficient at it. They have a great time. Calvin's parents are stunned when they get home and Rosalyn reports a pleasant evening for once. After everything that's happened before, Watterson has faked his readers out one more time, but that's got to be the last one.
Calvin and Hobbes is worth collecting in full, because it was always good. Near the end of the strip, a certain amount of sentimentality and preachiness began creeping in, but when Watterson realized this was happening, he quit. Would that Charles Schulz had done the same thing!
I found it worthwhile paging through the whole run of dailies to look for the long-running storylines. Here are all the transmogrifier and duplicator stories. Here are all the stories about Calvin's school assignments, including the classic "Bats aren't bugs!" Here's the camping trips (three of them), and here's my favorite of the recurrences, Rosalyn the babysitter. She first appeared in a Sunday strip, and made eight attempts to babysit Calvin in the dailies, usually something less than a year between each. The first two were fairly tame: she just laid down the rules and terrified Calvin. Then he started to fight back: first he escaped out the window, then he left her waiting outside, and then things really started to escalate: he stole her study notes, then locked her out of the house. After the epic encounter between Stupendous Man and Babysitter Girl, though, Rosalyn disappeared for about five years. I'd forgotten about her last appearance, just before the strip ended. In this one, they make a deal: in exchange for Calvin doing his homework promptly, she'll let him stay up late and she'll play a game with him. Whatever he wants.
He wants to play Calvinball. The only time, I think, he plays it with anyone but Hobbes. Rosalyn wonders nervously what she's gotten into, but proves highly proficient at it. They have a great time. Calvin's parents are stunned when they get home and Rosalyn reports a pleasant evening for once. After everything that's happened before, Watterson has faked his readers out one more time, but that's got to be the last one.
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Date: 2009-12-24 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 07:53 pm (UTC)