Comic Strip Analysis: The essence of Calvin and Hobbes

© 1995 Bill Watterson

In “Calvin and Hobbes,” Bill Watterson uses Calvin’s innocent naivety to make statements on human behavior. This is a running theme in successful comic strips: using simple situations to parallel real life dilemmas. We will be analyzing the above comic strip to demonstrate this point. The generic three-panel comic strip is usually structured like so: premise, conflict, and resolution or twist. This comic strip is no exception.

ACT I - The Setup
Hobbes starts the conversation by asking, “why are you digging a hole?” To which Calvin replies, “I’m looking for buried treasure” by digging a hole in the ground. This sets up the location, motivation, and plot of the strip. “Looking for buried treasure” often a phrase used to metaphorically describe entrepreneurs and inventors looking for the next big thing, in a similar way to a diamond in the rough.

ACT II - The Conflict
Calvin goes on to explain his findings - “a few dirty rocks, a weird root, and disgusting grubs.” These are objects that are easily found while digging, so the reader is made to assume not finding anything relatively valuable to be the conflict and not the result.

ACT III - The Twist
In the final panel, Hobbes exclaims, “on your first try??” In surprise, as if the grubs and dirt was valuable treasure. Finally, we arrive at the twist. Calvin reciprocates Hobbes’ excitement, stating that “there’s treasure everywhere!” Like the saying goes: “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” While to the reader, the dirt and grubs may not be of much value, in a child’s eye, it is an adventure like no other. In addition, this fits into the "entrepreneur/inventor" metaphor as well: while entrepreneurs and inventors rack their brain coming up with new ideas, they often overlook the obvious, which might be the treasure they seek hiding in plain sight.

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This comic strip captures the essence of Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips. While on the surface, the comic strip depicts nothing more than a child playing in his backyard, when you take a deeper look, you will find themes that almost everyone can relate to.