List of Calvin and Hobbes characters

Calvin, named after the 16th-century theologian John Calvin, is a six-year-old boy with spiky blond hair and a distinctive red-and-black striped shirt, black pants and sneakers. Despite his poor grades in school, Calvin demonstrates his intelligence through a sophisticated vocabulary, philosophical mind and creative/artistic talent. Watterson described Calvin as having "not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth", a "little too intelligent for his age", lacking in restraint and not yet having the experience to "know the things that you shouldn't do." The comic strip largely revolves around Calvin's imaginative inner world and his largely antagonistic experiences with those outside of it (fellow students, authority figures and his parents). Watterson said that Calvin was not based on his own childhood, stating that he (Watterson) was "a quiet obedient kid (...) almost Calvin's opposite". Many authors have linked Calvin's erratic behavior to ADHD. ==Hobbes==

From Calvin's point of view, Hobbes is an anthropomorphic tiger much larger than Calvin and full of independent attitudes and ideas. When a scene includes any other human, Hobbes appears as a stuffed animal, usually seated at an off-kilter angle with a blank facial expression. The true nature of the character is never resolved, instead as Watterson describes, a 'grown-up' version of reality is juxtaposed against Calvin's, with the reader left to "decide which is truer". Watterson stated that unlike most imaginary friends that children have, Hobbes has the ability to argue with Calvin, which means that "Hobbes is more real than [he suspects] any kid would dream up." Hobbes is based on a cat Watterson owned, a grey tabby named Sprite. Sprite inspired the length of Hobbes's body as well as his personality. Although Hobbes's humor stems from acting like a human, Watterson maintained Sprite's feline attitude. Hobbes is named after 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who held what Watterson describes as "a dim view of human nature." He typically exhibits a greater understanding of consequences than Calvin, but rarely intervenes in Calvin's activities beyond a few oblique warnings. He often likes to sneak up and pounce on Calvin, especially at the front door when Calvin is returning home from school. The friendship between the two characters provides the core dynamic of the strip. ==Calvin's family==

Mom and Dad }} Watterson has never given Calvin's parents' names "because as far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." Like Hobbes, they serve as counterpoints to Calvin's attitude and view of the world. However, Watterson sometimes uses them to explore situations adults can relate to, such as the desire to enjoy leisure time as opposed to the need to work, or bad customer service and frustrations when grocery shopping. Also, occasionally Watterson takes the time to flesh out the two parental characters. One example is a storyline in which the family returns from a wedding to find their house has been broken into and ransacked. For several strips, Calvin and Hobbes fade into the background as Mom and Dad reflect on the impact of the event. Calvin's father is particularly shaken, admitting to his wife that when he was growing up, he looked up to his own father as an adult able to automatically handle any situation that comes his way, then says, "I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed." Calvin's father is a white-collar office worker, specifically a patent attorney, as Watterson's own father was. Watterson has said that much of Calvin's dad's personality is based off his own father as well. Watterson has said he regrets the fact that the strip mostly shows her impatient side. In another strip, she voices a wish that Calvin will one day have a child like himself, so he can understand what he puts her through, and Calvin retorts that her own mother used to say the same thing about her. She also usually seems sympathetic towards her son's relationship with Hobbes, and a few times has found herself speaking to Hobbes as well, though this embarrasses her. Early on in the strip, Watterson says, the parent characters were criticized by readers for being overly sarcastic and insufficiently patient, especially Calvin's father, who has several times reminded his wife that he at first wanted a dog instead of a son. Watterson has defended their parenting methods, saying that "when it comes to parenting a kid like Calvin, I think they do a better job than I would." Other relatives Uncle Max Calvin's Uncle Max appeared in a series of strips in 1988, visiting the family. ==Susie Derkins==

Susie Derkins is a classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. She is the only recurring character in the comic strip to have both a forename and a surname (other characters are mentioned briefly). Named after Watterson's in-laws' family beagle, Mr. Bun Mr. Bun is Susie's stuffed rabbit, which frequents her tea parties as a guest. Unlike Hobbes, Mr. Bun is never shown as a living character, and Hobbes once described Mr. Bun as "comatose". This is used for comedic effect occasionally, as when Susie, playing "House" with Calvin, attempts to use Mr. Bun as their baby child, only to have Calvin refuse to recognize him as a human infant—with the entire strip, including the rabbit, drawn in a realistic style à la Rex Morgan, M.D.. ==Miss Wormwood== Miss Wormwood is Calvin's schoolteacher. Watterson commented that a few astute fans of the strip have correctly asked him if Miss Wormwood was named after the apprentice demon in C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. She is quick to send Calvin to the principal's office at the first sign of trouble. Calvin apparently takes joy in being the reason why Miss Wormwood mixes different stress-related medications (she "drinks Maalox straight from the bottle") and heavily smokes cigarettes ("Rumor has it she's up to two packs a day, unfiltered.") Calvin's antics leave Miss Wormwood anxious for retirement (one strip has her chanting in her head, "Five years until retirement, five years until retirement, five years until retirement..."). Regarding the difficulties of reining in rambunctious students, she once commented that "it's not enough that we have to be disciplinarians. Now we need to be psychologists." However, she does praise Calvin whenever he does apply himself or get an answer right, as her main concern is education and not putting Calvin down (though Calvin believes otherwise). ==Moe==

Moe is a bully in Calvin's school. His frequently monosyllabic dialogue is shown in crude, lower-case letters. Watterson describes Moe as "every jerk I've ever known". Rosalyn is perhaps the only character in the strip whom Calvin really fears (other than Moe, the school bully). Introduced in an early strip, meant to only be a one-time character, Watterson found her ferocity and intimidation of Calvin surprising, and he brought her back periodically in increasingly elaborate story-lines. She was also seen as a swim instructor when Calvin was conscripted into swimming lessons, which Watterson had done to have at least one story arc with Rosalyn that did not have to do with babysitting. Watterson described their relationship as "one-dimensional", although in her final appearance Rosalyn agrees to play a game of Calvinball, and in so doing, becoming the only character in the strip, other than Hobbes, to truly engage with Calvin on his own terms. Despite the limited storylines with Rosalyn, Watterson has said that for a late addition to the strip, "she's worked very well." Calvin is often terrified of her, calling her a "sadistic kid-hater" and a "barracuda in a high-school-senior suit"; but in the final Rosalyn story, their opposition is averted by a game of Calvinball, which Rosalyn wins. In nearly all the "Rosalyn stories", Rosalyn is shown demanding advance payment and raises in wage from Calvin's parents, supposedly to pay for college or for the hard work necessary to control Calvin. When Calvin throws a tantrum at the swim school, Rosalyn says to herself "What I put up with to pay for college". In at least four stories, Rosalyn telephones her boyfriend, Charlie, to cancel prearranged meetings which she cannot fulfill. (Charlie remains an unseen character, although Calvin yells at a barber named Charlie, not known if it is the same one.) Calvin sometimes urges Charlie to stop courting Rosalyn, on grounds that Rosalyn is sadistic and/or insane. The collection Revenge of the Baby-Sat took its name from a storyline in which Calvin steals her study notes and threatens to flush them down the toilet bowl. Rosalyn's demands for higher pay to baby-sit Calvin have often been met with a small discussion, usually with Calvin's father protesting Rosalyn's pay demands, to which Calvin's mother quietly tells him, "Just pay what it takes to get us out of here." In the last cell of the Revenge of the Baby-Sat storyline, after Rosalyn apparently demands so much money for what she went through that she empties Calvin's father's wallet, he asks, "Are you sure there's nobody else in this town willing to babysit Calvin?" To which Calvin's mother says, "Maybe you would like to spend a week on the phone?" Rosalyn is also occasionally mentioned as one of the many babysitters Calvin's parents have hired, the only one whose name recurs twice is Amy, who has apparently "purged [Calvin] from her memory". ==Other characters==

The cast of principal, recurring characters in Calvin and Hobbes is limited; for example, in the Yukon Ho! collection, only five regular characters appear. Other characters who make infrequent or one-off appearances include the following. • Living food: Calvin often imagines that an oatmeal-like food comes to life, sometimes attacking him (or, in one case, reciting Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy). Bill Watterson has said that his inspiration for this came from a cartoon drawn by himself in childhood, which featured living oatmeal, plus his own admitted "fussy eating habits" from when he was a child. • Extraterrestrial life forms: Calvin encounters many extraterrestrial life-forms in the course of the strip, usually during adventures as his alter-ego, Spaceman Spiff. Most of these aliens are non-humanoid, bizarre monsters, but represent Calvin's imaginative perception of Susie, his parents, and teachers. During the story which gave the name to the Weirdos from Another Planet! collection, Calvin and Hobbes encounter a native Martian, who is a small creature with tentacles and eye-stalks. In the strip's final year, Watterson drew two stories involving recurring alien characters, Galaxoid and Nebular, to whom Calvin "sold" the Earth for 50 alien leaves to use for his science project, which he failed when his teacher rejected the leaves' origin. The donors returned in the final two weeks of strips, angry at Calvin for failing to reveal the changing seasons. When Hobbes suggests to Calvin that he returns the 50 leaves to them, Calvin angrily admits he threw them away because he got such a bad grade; both were placated when Hobbes clad them in Christmas stockings. • Doctor: Calvin occasionally visits his pediatrician, who appears to be a mild-mannered physician with a friendly demeanor. Calvin, however, sees him as a vicious, sadistic interrogator, sometimes imagining him as an alien or overreacting to playful diagnoses. The doctor made his final appearance when he diagnosed Calvin with chicken pox. • Barber: Calvin once goes to a barber named Pete, and barbers are mentioned throughout the series, including one named Charlie. • Principal Spittle: Calvin's school principal usually makes his appearance when Calvin has upset Miss Wormwood; typically, he is seen looking over his desk as Calvin tries to explain his latest mishap, with an apathetic or infuriated expression in his face. He is seldom shown speaking except in his first appearance. He is depicted thinking to himself that he hates his job. • Mr. Lockjaw: Mr. Lockjaw is the gym teacher and coach of the baseball team at Calvin's school. He is a squat, burly man with little patience, and no sympathy for Calvin whenever Moe gets violent with him in gym class, with Calvin commenting that Lockjaw thinks "violence is aerobic." He does not stop Calvin's baseball teammates from abusing and teasing him, and when Calvin leaves the team, Lockjaw calls him a "quitter". This emotional trauma leads Calvin to create Calvinball, supposedly the least organized sport. • Scouts: Early in the strip, Watterson shows Calvin participating with other children in Cub Scout activities in the woods. Watterson thought at the time that Scouting might offer some potential for interesting adventures, but eventually abandoned the idea, considering it uncharacteristic of Calvin to join an organization. • '''Susie's mom''': She is shown from the waist down in a foiled attempt to pester Susie, and is also seen having a brief dialogue during Susie's first experience with Calvin's alter-ego, Stupendous Man. • Substitute teachers: Occasionally, Calvin's class will have a substitute teacher. Only one, Mr. Kneecapper, was named; Calvin tricked Susie into believing that Mr. Kneecapper cooked rowdy students into the cafeteria meatloaf. In one set of strips, an unnamed woman is substituting; she looks through some notes Miss Wormwood left and inquires which child Calvin is. Later, Hobbes asks Calvin what he thought of her, Calvin replies he is unsure as "she went home at noon." • The monsters under the bed: the primary villains of the comic strip, along with Moe: a diverse set of bizarre-looking photophobic creatures, who live under Calvin's bed and periodically plan to eat Calvin, but are outwitted by him on each occasion. Only two of the monsters have names; one is Maurice, and another Winslow. Another monster from the comic-poem A Nauseous Nocturne comes to eat Calvin, only to be deterred by Hobbes. This shows that the monsters are more than a little afraid of Calvin's best buddy, a reference to the fact that sleeping with a stuffed animal can relief stress and reduce nightmares. • '''Calvin's bicycle''': A supporting villain, it will frequently chase (and even sometimes run over) Calvin, destroying household items or injuring Calvin himself. • Other students: Calvin's classmates, like his teacher, are assumed to be the same every year as no time appears to pass in the comic strip. Some of the students who do have names are - Tommy Chestnutt, whom Calvin claims Hobbes ate when he made fun of him, Filthy Rich, who Calvin claims some bullies got by grabbing him at the drinking fountain, Candace, who has the desk nearest Susie, Ronald, whom Calvin uses as the butt of his "invisible Cretinizer" joke, Jessica, whom in one story arc Susie passes gossip notes to via Calvin, and another student named Tommy whom Calvin claims had milk go up his nose while telling a funny story. Most of these are only mentioned by name in conversation. Apart from Candace and Ronald, those who do physically appear in the strip remain unnamed. This includes Calvin's baseball teammates, who bully him off the team after he makes a rookie mistake, and kids on the playground who usually are antagonistic to Calvin as well. ==References==