Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 23, 2021

I’m willing to believe Calvin knows the word phrenologist, but not Tracer Bullet

Sorry “Trace”, but no detective is needed for this " case".

The tall brunette seems a little bit furious.

So, who is the culprit?

Sounds like a “Johnny Dollar” episode!

When I was Calvin’s age I wouldn’t have understood a single thing he said, let alone be able to come up with it myself

Apparently the dame did some snooping and figured it out on her own. This can’t be good.

I love these “noir” panels from the past couple of days. Great drawings and dialogue right out of Mickey Spillane.

I get the impression that he’s reading a detective comic and it’s taken over his imagination.

Was Susie a real life friend of Calvin’s

This is like a normal day with my youngest daughter. I believe she is trying to kill me.

Looks like the dame is doing her own investigation of the “lamp incident.”

Mum’s face….

I know those Bills

I wonder if Tracer Bullet could have solved the Noodle Incident?

I love this kid!

I imagine any (of us) brunettes would be “tall” to Calvin… :-P

I have to love that he knows about “Magnums”… both for firearms, and boozin’ ;-)

Given Mom’s expression, Tracer Bullet’s phrenologist will be busy for a while studying the new bumps.

Gotta love that kid’s imagination. Tracer Bullet is one of the many greats in Watterson’s repertoire.

“The dame was not happy with the lamp that the detective broke”

Smoking, guns, alcohol, violence…impending violence. This strip’s got it all! Classic!

Who here had to look up phrenologist? (raises hand)

You have to have some smarts to be a Private Eye, but not so much to pretend to be a Private Eye.

Watterson’s a genius with pen and paper.

I love Tracer Bullet! Some of the best noir writing ever!

Brilliant.

I love the Tracer Bullet persona….

my life changed after that accident where my head went through the windshield leaving exciting new bumps in my skull.

I absolutely adore the “hard-boiled detective word play” here.

“Especially Bill, my bookie, and Bill, my probation officer.” (wheeze)

Mad respect for Watterson’s artwork here.

Private Dick. My nickname in college.

“What was the job? Well, what with the phrases the brunette was using, I deduced it was for the Snoop on the case to very quickly head out to look for clues in another city…”

He knows he has to outwork his competition “Trench Coat”.

I wondering is he gonna use a gun but i’m not his partner to tell what to do, Let alone Tracer Bullet.

I usually picture if these story arcs were animated or whatever, the Tracer Bullet sequences would be in black-and-white (for the noir look) while the real world (i.e. the last panel here) would be in color!

Calvin’s name is Tracer Bullet because he traces bullets.

Here comes the slap part.

he is funny yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk

This six year old spy has tons of vocabulary to boot.

Best comic strip EVER!

Or. it’s the" job" that got you ?

yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk corny joke yuk yuk

Tracer used to have a third Magnum in his desk, but that one ran away to Hawaii.

Ruben Bolling should do a Tracer Bullet/Sam Roland (The Detective Who Dies) crossover.

I believe reality is about to give his fantasy a rude awakening.

I don’t know how you come up with these great lines for calvin and your art work is the best, with out a doubt my favorite comic strip always has been, Thanks Bill !

Mom looks like she has the classic Seinfeld episode’s Man hands!

look at that expression on his moms face in panel 4