Chapter 195: Calvin and Hobbes I

With their plans settled, it was just a matter of making quick work of it. Since none of the Creed grandfather-grandson duo were considered to be slackers and procrastinators, the commencing was done as soon as they can.

Alexander's side of things was the preparation of the comic strip content and making it fit to whatever requirements that the newspaper publications impose or have Calvin and Hobbes' adventure fit what is relevant to the time it is published.

Creativity, humor, and connective social relevance matter here and Alexander just had to accomplish it with the tools he had in his arsenals.

As for Old Sullivan's side, contacts and connections were what mattered on that. The contacting of publications willing to allocate space for a new comic strip would take some bits of time and some bits of resistance as well.

Just like the comic book industry, the comic strip industry is all about panels, sketches, and speech bubbles. This also meant that there were other seniors already established in that field as well.

Comics may be considered as one of the simplistic parts of newspapers but they did have their complexities as well.

Anyways, the Creeds were newcomers in every undeniable sense and they just had to power through whatever the newspaper and comic strip community had to offer.

Fortunately, the old and young Creed just set easier standards to start with and hoped that everything would just pick up steam from there.

There was no need to push themselves by trying to harangue super-major publications such as subsidiaries of News of the World and whatnot.

Of course, since some few publications did publish an article or two about the Creed Comics case of multi-pronged lawsuits, they were acquainted with some Creed-related stuff and were attracted by a comic strip that was born out of that conflict.

Some of the editors also read about Ace Attorney and how such a comic book had effectively quieted down attackers and brought about a silent truce that came out of nowhere.

To think that there was still something within that Ace Attorney comic book and it just so happened to heavily relate to some of their newsprint industry.

Like Old Sullivan, they were surprised that a supposedly dismissable 'Calvin and Hobbes' detail could still have the potential to grow.

There was no denying that a lot of decision-makers were intrigued with the novelty and explosiveness of a comic book fictional concept coming to life.

They thought that the Marvella and Marvel parallelism was already associative enough to real life. Perhaps only the mysterious Alexander Creed could come up with making the Aleksei story be even more realistic with the plagiarized comic strip coming to life?

Calvin and Hobbes already had a relative debut to the masses and it is made by the best story concept selling Alexander Creed. Although they had no idea how that would translate into comics, however, its popularity factor of it was semi-guaranteed.

With an established following that they knew is bound to grow, 'Calvin and Hobbes' is a must for their publications to have.

It had to be said that they were "paid" by the said 'silenced attackers' to keep media silence about everything Creed-related but they also had ways to go around it. It's a comic strip and not attention-garnering articles, so why not.

Anyways, comic book publishers and toymakers weren't the bosses of them. Newspaper companies don't want to miss out on the chance to make their pages more intriguing for the readers.

If an Alexander Creed comic could do that, then why not?

Unfortunately, not a lot of Creed-knowing newspapers employed comics publishing but at least 'Calvin and Hobbes' secured 30 newspapers that gave a green light for a pilot.

With Alexander, Old Sullivan, and 30 comics-suited newspaper publishers finding their agreements and procedures, the print process and distribution of newsprints with 'Calvin and Hobbes' was already on its last legs.

It took quite a bit of up and downs but everything did eventually get to where Alexander wanted it.

The comics debut was set in stone and like his comic books, it was only a matter of leaving things to fate. Whether it was a success or a loss, Alexander just had to brace for it as he can.

------

April 22, 1985. It was a usual newspaper day with newspapers being thrown into suburban yards by specialized newspaper cyclists.

Some suited-up fellows went up to their favored newsstands and bought whatever newsprint they favored.

Either way, the scope and numerosity of newspapers could be guaranteed to be far-reaching in 1980s America.

One way or another, people would eventually encounter what they could encounter in that wide net of content.

In a clash of numerous readers and varying content, a new comic strip called 'Calvin and Hobbes' appeared and they would inadvertently read what it had to offer.

A father could be seen wiping his car clean while his son said, "SO LONG POP. I'M OFF TO CHECK MY TIGER TRAP!"

"I RIGGED A TUNA FISH SANDWICH YESTERDAY, SO I'M SURE TO HAVE A TIGER BY NOW." The son explained.

"THEY LIKE TUNA FISH HUH?" Asked the dad with ease.

"TIGERS WILL DO ANYTHING FOR A TUNA FISH SANDWICH." The little son said as a fact.

Everyone who read the comic panels at this point would assume that it was a scene of a father chiding his son's wild imaginations.

How could a kid even rig a tiger trap? How can a tuna sandwich even attract any type of tiger?

This was everyone's thought but that was quickly subverted by the last panel as it turns out that there was truly a tiger hung upside down by a rope and munching the supposed tuna sandwich bait.

Echoing the father and son conversation, the tiger didn't even know shame and admitted. "WE'RE KIND OF STUPID THAT WAY."

In simple 80s time, the people who understood the sandwich and tiger trapping bout can't help but chuckle.

With what looks to be a boy, his father, and a tiger, everyone who came across it in certain newspapers was introduced to Calvin and Hobbes.

The novelty of something new is always intriguing, so a new comic strip did get people's attention.

Even though it was as simple as that, at least it was finally introduced and debuted.

-----

Of course, Alexander kept track of things but he was mostly blind guessing as his market research team don't have reach in the newspaper field.

Although he wasn't too satisfied with this first output as he found it lacking in many things, he had to keep the spirit of the original for safe and good measure.

Since it worked for Bill Waterson for the most part, it was good enough for him to build things up from that.

Besides, he had already kitted the drawings to the final Calvin and Hobbes design to keep the continued synchronicity and appeal to his penchant for balanced coherence.

As far as Alexander could guess, this first 'Calvin and Hobbes' wasn't anything special or as exciting as his comic book titles. However, that didn't mean that it would pick up and achieve the same pull as the rest of his plundered projects.

The Monday comics was just the start as there was still Tuesday and onwards to come. There was the next week and the month. There were even the months turning into years.

Audiences would inadvertently acquaint themselves with the story and make it just as much of a habit as reading the daily news.

'Calvin and Hobbes' would linger in the comics section for as long as it could and it would surely be as great and even more amazing than Alexander hoped it would be.