Week 3:The Comic Strip

I've always been an avid reader of newspaper comic strips since I was a kid. Sunday was my favorite in terms of running over to my grandparent's house to grab the paper to read one of the many comic strips featuring my favorite artists and series. While I've read comic strips from Foxtrot to Snoopy , one of my favorites, especially in terms of comic strip styling, is Bill Watterson's is masterpiece Calvin and Hobbes. 

From its gorgeous line-work to it's witty and endearing humor, Calvin and Hobbes is truly a wonderful example of how well the comic strip has progressed as a visual form of quick storytelling. Like most typical comic strips Calvin and Hobbes follows the basic formula of using 1-4 panels to show a situation that young Calvin and his friend Hobbes gets into. The dialogue is usually funny and childish, but Watterson manages to layer some deeply insightful ideas into his work that any adult would be able to catch when they read his comics.

Besides the dialogue the line-work done for Calvin and Hobbes is one of my favorite among the older comics. The style is incredibly energetic and has a lot of personality. Calvin and his rambunctious and clever personality is shown through how he's drawn. I'm also a sucker for line-work that shows varying weight so of course Watterson's comic caught my eye when I first saw it as a child. The panel work is one of my favorites as well due to how easy it is to read and quickly figure out what’s going on. That’s how most comics are drawn but the content within each panel is what makes it work so well, which is why I think Calvin and Hobbes uses it so well to show Calvin and Hobbes’s various adventures.