Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a highly precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. At its height, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide; as of January 2010, reruns of the strip still appear in more than 50 countries. Nearly 45 million copies of the 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been sold.
Set in the contemporary Midwestern United States in an unspecified suburban community, the broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin's flights of fantasy and his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, his unique views on a diverse range of political and cultural issues and his relationships with the people in his life, especially his parents. The dual nature of Hobbes is also a recurring motif: Calvin sees Hobbes as a live anthropomorphic tiger, while other characters see him as a stuffed toy. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, and the flaws of opinion polls.
The United States Postal Service announced on December 30, 2009 that a Calvin & Hobbes ...
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