Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 17, 2023

Calvin should have built a giant slingshot first. Then the biggest snowball in the slingshot.

I doubt even Hobbes can lift that.

And we all thank reality for this.

Bill is so good at drawing expressions. Calvin’s face in the third panel will make me laugh no matter what.

(Still can’t believe he’s coming back to work on a graphic novel after nearly three decades.)

but, Hobbes, how do you propose Calvin put it somewhere for someone to walk into?

Trebuchet

Make the driveway extra icy and put it at the end of the driveway.

Yup! Reality can snowball uncontrollably…

Gotta build the giant snowball at the top of a hill so that you can roll it down onto your unsuspecting target.

Roll it up a hill…..

Reality will do that, Calvin.

Cheer up, Cal. Lots more reality ahead

Perfection is spoiled again.

Maybe you could tie a big balloon to it and see if it gets shot down by a $200 million F-22 Raptor.

If Calvin had made it today then Hobbes would be right. Someone with their nose buried in their smart phone would definitely walk right into it.

or build a catapult. ;)

Hang around for about 30 or 40 years, Calvin. Reality won’t mean anything then.

Had an epic snowball fight with a buddy many years ago. It ranged all over, fields, forest paths, trees hills and rocks. I finally got ahead of him long enough to run through a gap in a huge split boulder, with him following my tracks in the snow. Got through the gap and scrambled up onto the boulder, out of his sight for a moment or two, and made an enormous snow ball of, fortunately, soft damp snow. Rolled it off the edge as he crept up the gap below hunting me. Landed square on his shoulders and sent him sliding back down the gap. He surrendered.

And that’s why, you always big a colossal snowball, at the top of a slope.

You can make an attack snowman, Calvin!

Good ol’ Hobbes – always dragging Calvin back to reality, even though HE is not real.

Reality. The most frustrating thing in life.

Catapult?

Calvin’s snow ball was like the first US H-bomb. It would work, and did at Bikini atoll but at 80 tons it was far too heavy to transport on anything smaller than a ship.

Tactically, totally impractical and only a change of materials would make it fit on an aeroplane.

“Reality continues to ruin my life.” Love it!

Time to go uphill.

At that size they are considered snow boulders

Roll it in front of someone’s front door, then ring the bell and run. If you really want to be a jerk, try to set off their smoke alarm or something.

This could be a silent comic and you could still tell what the characters are thinking and planning with the expressions alone!

About six of us spent an afternoon one winter rolling a snowball around our backyard. It must have been four feet in diameter before we couldn’t move it any farther.

Reality is also an unknown concept to the Illinois government

Yeah, reality tends to do that. Which is why so many people deny reality I guess.

Gotta love when reality sinks into Calvin, often with an explosion or something appearing over his head.

And what’s more, this is far from the biggest snowball in the world. Even Calvin himself has made much bigger.

Calvin’s face in panel 3 is hilarious! I can’t stop laughing. And his punchline is great too

Build a catapult. Geez

Calvin experiences real remorse.

Calvin is so literal.

dang gravity

Guess he’ll have to resort to plan B. Which would be to make one of his trademark disturbing snowmen…

Calvin is definitely not the engineering-type!

I would eat that snowball.