Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 12, 2021

I’m sure Dad would appreciate the shower.

As cold as it is, I’m surprised the water in the faucet isn’t frozen.

Sure Calvin. Give your parents more reasons to ground you…again.

Tell your dad you’re doing a "character building " exercise, Calvin.;-D

Can’t wait to see dad wet in icy water .

Well if Dad is hot, that will cool him off and then he can get hot all over again.

Dad… Snow Goon… hard to tell the difference!

With night scenes, Watterson likes to give relief from the blackness in the third frame by swapping the black background for white and putting the characters in silhouette.

The fear of lack of sugar and phones would stop my kids.

Or maybe you shouldn’t.

This is why outdoor faucets should be shut off inside the house when the temperatures dip. :D

Dad will be a Popsicle, too!

Maybe best to stop while you’re sort of ahead, Calvin.

With all that ice on the ground I’m guessing Dads in for a slippery time…

Dad’s icy glare will freeze the water as it leaves the hose.

Who will jack hammer the ice off the driveway?

The anticipation for the reaction is wonderful!

I’m surprised that there is running water from an outside hose bibb (aka “faucet”) in January – usually you turn off water to them in the winter to prevent it freezing up and splitting your pipes and flooding the house… :-)

(unless you have a frost-free, and even then you should put a cover over it and store the hose)

Right to the asylum, commit immediately

Time to retreat back into the house quickly, Calvin!

Clear evidence that the decision-making portion of the brain is not fully developed yet.

SURE.

I believe there is more to fear from Dad than the snow goons, so go for it Calvin. ;<))

I suspect Dad will be most understanding and forgiving about this, next summer when he is telling folks about this around the BBQ. For now, you’re in deep kimshi little dude.

The hose was drained so it would not freeze?

When we were kids we had snowball wars with the kids down the street. We would build forts and take turns attacking each other’s forts which culminated in a mad charge to smash the walls of their fort. Late one day after rebuilding our fort we got the brilliant idea (with my dad’s help turning on and turning off the outside faucet) to spray down our fort and let it firm up overnight. The next day we charged and smashed then retreated to our fort. They came for revenge. They charged and BOUNCED!

Hope Dad enjoys the shower.

Famous last words….

Well it worked on the snow goons, so victory for Calvin.

Bad idea Calvin listen to Hobbs

Ice goons!

Dad, just lock the door and go back to bed.

Today is my oldest nephew’s 42nd birthday. He was the same age as Calvin when the strip started.

I first discovered this wonderful strip in 1987 and bought a copy of Something Under The Bed Is Drooling in 1988. I lent it to my nephew who was then nine. He told me that he liked it but wasn’t sure how much was supposed to be real and how much was in Calvin’s imagination.

He later asked me if Hobbes was supposed to be real. I replied that that was Calvin’s imagination because I believed that at the time. My nephew replied “That’s what I thought but sometimes the things he does seem real.” I finally learned that Watterson didn’t see Hobbes as imaginary in 1992.

Today and tomorrow’s strips are examples of the contrasting evidence for and against Hobbes’s reality. Today Hobbes has noticed something before Calvin and tomorrow Calvin will be holding Hobbes in his hand but telling him to run.

Like I’ve said, if only Calvin stayed quiet throughout, he wouldn’t have waken up his parents… plus, he could’ve waken up the Snow Goons!

well after dad slips in the ice in tomorrow’s panel…..

You would think that would just turn them into Ice Goons.

The snow goons actually look more horrifying frozen.

Calvin, I’m not clear on how squirting your dad with the hose is going to make anything better. To the contrary…

After watching several Walking Dead episodes I always wondered why the survivors didn’t head north. Wait until it freezes then go out with bats and …you know. Dispatch the frozen zombies.

“Get a job by sundown or we’re shipping you off to military school like the Finkelstein sh*t kid!”

— Up in Smake, Cheech and Chong.

Where they snooze? After all that shouting?

“I too should get him with the hose.”

One of the few times Hobbes says Calvin’s name!

Poor Dad. Always the enforcer.

Definitely, Calvin.

Wow, Calvin. Just WOW.

Thats definitely Calvin