Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 18, 2023

The North Korean military has nothing on Calvin when it comes to handing out medals.

Yeah, but nothing really to boast about if you can’t even fight right.

You can tell it’s a great club because even failures and fights are considered successes.

It’s so amusing to see Calvin contradict himself. Yesterday he was adamant in saying that the Susie defeat “never happened”. Now he wants to give himself a medal for his nonexistent courage in the face of the nonexistent thing.

I’m not particularly interested in getting rid of girls, but I’d like bottle caps of valor.

Isn’t it though?

ohhhhhh now i remember we would take bottle caps, that had cork inserts, to keep the seal tight, and we would pry out the cork insert and then put the bottle cap on our shirt and press the cork insert back into the cap From The Back of the Shirt!!!!

To cap it all…………

Remember when I was maybe eight years old. Had a bottlecap collection carefully assembled from the area’s vending machines.

Psychosis can be fun.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

As usual, Calvin fails to learn his lesson. “This afternoon, we ’ll devise a bigger, better and more complicated scheme.” Hobbes’s suggestion that they just throw the water balloons at Susie rather than lure her into a complicated trap was much better but Calvin still doesn’t realize this. I remember a reader saying to Calvin later on, “She’s right in front of you! Hit her with the water balloons!”

Medals pump up many flattened egos.

What Calvin doesn’t realize is that this club will be defunct by the time he hits puberty

Love Hobbes’ look in the last panel!

Well, I hope you’ve learned your lesson about underestimating girls. Next time you se Susie chilling on the sidewalk and there’s ample cover nearby, just chuck water balloons right then and there! Just make sure you have a quick escape plan and convincing alibi ready!

As a pretty young kid, perhaps 4 or 5, I wanted to be a sheriff as I saw in the westerns. I had a cap gun and holster but no “badge.” My mother took the bottle cap from a Coke bottle and sanded off the logo with an emory board, peeled the cork from the underneath side and put the bottle cap on my shirt and pressed the cork back into the cap, affixing it to my shirt. I was thrilled I had a “badge” and my mother was happy I was out playing and she was left in relative peace.

The military does a good job with what I call “tinsel and paper.” You don’t get bonuses in the military service. This is something industry can learn from. No all recognition has to be monetary. You can do a lot with tinsel and paper. I does help if you can back it up with money in the long run, but you can make the in between times better with simpler, daily recognition.

Well, since Calvin took a full face of enemy fire, maybe he deserves the grape purple heart. …nah. He got what was comin to him.

Wow! Hobbes got the coveted Order of the Shasta Diet Grape Medal of Valor!

Like a maga meeting. Another plan foiled and another indictment? I have a better plan to own the libs!

Reminds of the Pentagon after Afghanistan

More complicated always leads to success…

Maybe come up with a bigger, better, less complicated scheme? Although to be fair I guess this one wasn’t that complicated. Maybe if it had been Susie wouldn’t have seen right through it and turned the tables on him.

Face it Calvin, your water balloons are no match for the garden hose. You’ll need a bigger, more powerful and fiendish way of soaking the enemy

“I would like to award you the highest honour I can bestow.”

LOL…I love the smug look on Hobbes’ face in the last panel. Too funny.

Calvin in jail soon! With Trump!

The losers always award themselves medals.

It’s nice to see Calvin actually be a good sport after Susie’s brutal sneak attack, compared to when she beat him at the traffic safety poster contest.

Does it come with a great big L on it?

those were the days

“10:16 – Forgot what fight was about; Medals of bravery awarded to all parties.”

I love the way Hobbes is drawn in panel 4.