Chapter 197: Calvin and Hobbes III
May 1, 1985. Wednesday. Calvin and Hobbes' Day 14.
A babysitter is talking to her boyfriend on the phone and is mostly negligent of her responsibilities to Calvin.
This publication mostly revolves around tackling a dangerous perk of babysitting with that Calvin and Hobbes spin to it.
By now, every reader had pretty much gotten the simplicity of the comic strip and the implicit real world issues it wants to tackle from an adult-ish boy's perspective
Calvin and Hobbes follow the humorous antics of the title characters.
Calvin is a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy. While Hobbes is his sardonic stuffed tiger.
Set in the contemporary suburban United States, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and friendship with Hobbes.
It also examines Calvin's relationships with his long-suffering parents and with his classmates, especially his neighbor Susie Derkins.
Hobbes' dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger, while all the other characters see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy.
Though the series does not frequently mention specific political figures or contemporary events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, philosophical quandaries, and the flaws of opinion polls.
Readings on its depth or enjoying its surface humor, everyone has their own perception of things.
Someone's takeaway from reading this comic strip may just be too absurder than the rest though
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An example of an absurd Calvin and Hobbes influence just happen to work out in a certain family's favor.
For a family of three somewhere in Washington, it was the same usual day that they would go through. Breakfasts, talks, and all that. The mom prepares food, the daughter waits, while the father reads the morning paper.
However, what was different from that usual scenario is the fact that it was the daughter this time around that has buried herself along with him in the newspaper.
"Papa, read this? Papa, what's that?" The daughter's attention was now not on food but to urge his father to read quick and teach her some bits on the side.
The father could only smile wryly because her little 4-year-old daughter was now haranguing him during his reading time.
Shouldn't it be only the dad that flips the news in a Hollywood breakfast setting? How come his daughter is clinging to him and eagerly waiting for him to flip the pages?
"What's up with this little daughter of ours?" The mother asked in surprise and worry. She remembered her little daughter's first encounter with the newspaper and attributed things to that. "Maybe I shouldn't have read that Calvin and Hobbes to her?"
"That comic is just part of her favorites to go through though. Now she's asking me to teach her some words and she may or may not already understand some of it." The father listed some abnormalities out. Since he has a background in the sciences, it would be weird for him not to notice his daughter's quirk.
Toddlers just want their own fun and do not care about how things should be read. Perhaps it was only their daughter around her age group that want to be able to read the newspaper or perhaps anything at all.
"Haha! Do you think that our daughter is some sort of genius?" The father made some happy guesses while the mother's eyes seem to be sparkling. After all, parents want their children to be better than the rest.
Oblivious to her parents' realization, the four-year-old girl just ordered her dad to flip the page. "Papa, next page! I want tiger Hobs!"
Of course, the father could only comply but his inner thoughts simulated on other things. The mother had her thoughts as well but it sure wasn't that far off from her husband.
Although the duo was mostly thinking about their daughter's prospects. It can't be denied that Calvin and Hobbes might have some credit for making them realize their little girl's peculiarities.
Anyways, perhaps they should thank Calvin and Hobbes for being a catalyst that made them realize things at a much earlier time.
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That isolated family situation aside, it can be seen that Alexander's comic strip was having obscure and growing influences on their own.
Eventually, 'Calvin and Hobbes' grew into popularity and has the same Creed phenomenon that most Creed releases have.
It is hard to say that it would become an important newspaper staple though as nothing is guaranteed yet. However, things were already on a good track with Old Sullivan getting many contacts from newspaper companies that want to get on the Calvin and Hobbes train.
In a way, everything about the Creed had grown intangibly whilst their weakness in print media had become a hidden and growing strength.
Anyways, the reach of the comic strip became much wider and its reaching channels were way better than the Creed Comics titles and Volume Books could achieve.
Not everything could be loved by everybody and it goes to show that not everybody loves comic books.
At least, with a comic strip embedded in newspapers that are read by society, Alexander's efforts could be noted and his influence had gotten a new medium for it to practice on.
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Of course, as the society settled and adjusted as they can at the start of May, the Creed proprietors had a discussion on the Calvin and Hobbes matter on their own.
"Haha! One could say that everything is a resounding success." Old Sullivan, who had been quite busy coordinating the entire thing, knew the entire story and was proud of his grandson as always.
"Not quite." Opposite his old bones is Alexander, someone who just wants to downplay celebrations with seriousness... business seriousness. "We still have to coordinate with Creed Toys about Hobbes stuff toys that realistically depict Calvin's Hobbes stuffy to stake our test on comic strip merchandising."
The old Creed was already familiar with his grandson's way of doing things, so he had to respond accordingly with business thinking. "Those toys can be arranged but what do you plan to do with another half of the titular character. Having no Calvin toys means halving things up."
"We could go for the plasticized version of things but I wanted to prioritize the Hobbes stuff toy to take the realism further. With kids owning a Hobbes tiger stuffy, they can be Calvin's of their own." Alexander really got a knack for exploiting kids' psychologies now. "As for the girl demographic, Susie Derkins' Mr. Bun would be introduced at the next publications, so everything should balance out.
"What could one expect from a business-minded boy?" Old Creed sighed at his grandson's layering of things while Alexander kept to himself lest his grandfather goes on with another praise train that he felt cringey to hear.
'Calvin and Hobbes' started out as a fiction part of another fiction in Ace Attorney. Then, it became realified to everyone's shock in true blue newspaper publications. Now, the boy planned to make 'Calvin and Hobbes' more real by making the experience much closer to every kid's life by making Hobbes toys.
If that wasn't by design, then Old Creed could only say bullshit to coincidence. Little Alex had melded his creativity and business to astonishing levels that it couldn't be denied.
The old man could say that he was business meticulous but his grandson is truly something else.
Whatever the case was, Old Sullivan was looking forward to spectate and support whatever his grandson's next endeavor is.
Calvin and Hobbes wasn't the first and it wouldn't be the last.