Calvin and Hobbes vs The Far Side

[Tituscrow]

Watterson vs Larson. I can't decide.

Spent the last few weeks revisiting the old annuals I'd forgotten I had. Sheer, unadulterated feel-good joy from start to finish. Just when I thought Larson has shaded it with talking ameobas, I see a T-Rex in an F-14

Unputdownable.

[Darth Handsome]

Originally Posted by Tituscrow

Watterson vs Larson. I can't decide.

Spent the last few weeks revisiting the old annuals I'd forgotten I had. Sheer, unadulterated feel-good joy from start to finish. Just when I thought Larson has shaded it with talking ameobas, I see a T-Rex in an F-14

Unputdownable.

"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

"For crying out loud, I was hibernating! Don't you guys ever take a pulse??"

"Vince! Just trample him! He's trying to draw you into his kind of fight!"

[MatticusMania]

I loved Calvin & Hobbes more as a youngin, but grew to like the Far Side more as I got older.

Both very well done strips.

[Tituscrow]

Originally Posted by Darth Handsome

"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

"For crying out loud, I was hibernating! Don't you guys ever take a pulse??"

"Vince! Just trample him! He's trying to draw you into his kind of fight!"

Oh, so it's a quote-off you want, huh?

"Quick Hide! Cover slip!"

School For The Gifted

"Late at night, Reuben would creep in an conduct experiments on static electricity"

Different Mating Calls

Larson winning!

[Stinsok]

The Far Side is probably the only cartoon that makes me laugh, even when nobody else is around.

[Darth Handsome]

I also remember shooting milk through my nose at the sight of Hobbes in his Mickey Mouse pants declaring, "I'll be 'cool' in these, boy. Just look at these big yellow buttons...."

[Tituscrow]

Haha yes sir! I found the 'duplicator/transmogrifier' story highly chucklesome. Very cleverly written, and bang on for different reasons than The Far Side.

I wish I had a friend like Hobbes.

[EricF]

Some from Column A. Some from Column B. They both are funny as hell in their own way.

[Darth Handsome]

Calvin's good, but Far Side takes it. It's the work of a true genius.

[ksandvik]

With both authors of both cartoons should start making them again.

[Darth Handsome]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

With both authors of both cartoons should start making them again.

I'm sure at some point both have already jumped their respective sharks.

[Tituscrow]

Originally Posted by Darth Handsome

Calvin's good, but Far Side takes it. It's the work of a true genius.

Yeah, I'm leaning that way...but I feel kinda guilty conceding it. Like trying to choose a favourite puppy. And I always thought Rosalyn looked kinda hot

[Blind Rat]

Far Side,by far

[dmonroe]

My two favorites!

[colcifer]

Far Side! Larson's humor is top tier. Larson's style of sketching is top tier.

[nortonrider]

[Jeff K]

C&H was very good, but for me, The Far Side was the ultimate. For many years, my family got me a Far Side tear-off desk calendar every Christmas for my office. It always brightened my day. It also provided plenty of fodder for jabbing my co-workers. I'd write their names on the characters' shirts...

[DblG]

I like both, but my vote is for Far Side. Some people get it, some dont. I used to go to the bookstore w/ my bookworm buddy and he'd be off somewhere while I'd be snickering to myself in the comedy aisle. I'd be showing him some of the really funny ones, with tears in my eyes, and he'd just look at it with a blank stare & say "I don't get it??". Anyways...

[Tituscrow]

C&H always resonates on an deep, emotional level, reminding us of the joy and innocence of being a kid and the way we once saw the world, but never will again.

TFS is just whacked out comic genius, generating laugh-out-loud reactions in a full range of situations, from the most insanely bizarre to the most inanely banal.

Both are winners. Impossible to choose, I've decided.

[Roscoe East]

Originally Posted by EricF

Some from Column A. Some from Column B. They both are funny as hell in their own way.

Indeed. C&H probably tended towards the more sublimely subtle, versus Far Side's more overt cleverness, but they both made you laugh out loud and think simultaneously.

True story: My band used to "play" a particular 4-panel Calvin & Hobbes strip as if it were graphic notation a la Cage, Crumb, Feldman, Stockhausen, etc.