Calvin and Hobbes: The 5 Best Spaceman Spiff Strips

Calvin and Hobbes was not Bill Watterson’s first comic strip pitch. Its protagonists began as side characters in his comic The Doghouse, before his original syndicate suggested making them the focus. “Marvin” became “Calvin,” and Watterson dropped the rest of the cast. United Feature Syndicate still rejected the resulting strip, but Universal Press Syndicate accepted it.

Watterson had also drawn cartoons about a spacefaring character as early as college. He later made that character the focus of a rejected comic, portraying him as a mustachioed, cigar-smoking parody of adventurers like Flash Gordon. Shortly after Calvin and Hobbes began, Watterson reworked “Mort” into Calvin’s fantasy alter ego, Spaceman Spiff.

Spiff became one of Calvin’s most frequent means of escape. When Calvin found himself bored or uncomfortable, he often retreated into the persona to pass the time or make a hasty getaway. The adventures also let Watterson take the strip beyond its everyday setting, filling it with gross aliens, impossible landscapes, and phrases like “eat hot electric death.”

Spaceman Spiff hit his stride in the comic’s final three years, when Watterson began creating his trademark “unbreakable” Sunday strips. Some of the most colorful and evocative Calvin and Hobbes comics are Spiff adventures from the mid-1990s, though the character also made memorable appearances earlier in the strip’s run. Here are some of the best.

July 30, 1987

When Calvin gets sick during summer vacation, he is annoyed. Sick days, as far as he is concerned, belong in the school year.

His mom takes him to the doctor for a checkup and an injection. Calvin retreats into his Spiff persona, imagining himself as a prisoner of aliens rather than a child stuck in an examination room.

Oct. 18, 1987

Calvin’s teacher, Mrs. Wormwood, often bears the brunt of his Spaceman Spiff fantasies. Most of her class appears to consist of ordinary children who do the reading and stay out of unusual amounts of trouble. Calvin, by contrast, creates as much chaos as a six-year-old can. Mrs. Wormwood and Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace would have plenty to discuss.

In this early strip, Calvin folds Mrs. Wormwood’s history question into his daydream. He imagines that the Hideous Zorgs of Planet X-13 are interrogating him. Their bug-like appearance makes “Hideous” a fitting part of the name.

May 23, 1990

One particularly extreme Spaceman Spiff adventure unfolds over a week, as Calvin gets so deeply into character that he breaks out of elementary school. Called to the board to answer a math problem, he instead shoots his way out with a rubber band and runs for the door.

Calvin makes it all the way home before his mom catches him. Spiff cannot help him escape the consequences.

Sept. 26, 1993

Watterson has cited George Herriman’s Golden Age newspaper comic Krazy Kat, which ran from 1913 to 1944, as a major influence on Calvin and Hobbes. By the 1980s, when Watterson’s strip was new, Krazy Kat was already a reference most familiar to historians, devoted fans, and other cartoonists. Historians and preservationists have helped keep collections in print, including Fantagraphics’ George Herriman Library hardcovers.

Herriman’s influence is especially clear in his color Sunday comics. His characters inhabited a cartoonish version of the Arizona desert, while Watterson often sent Spaceman Spiff to alien planets with similarly arid landscapes. This largely wordless 1993 strip offers a good example, devoting much of its space to Calvin’s imagined spaceship journey from an alien valley to home.

April 30, 1995

One of the best Spaceman Spiff strips appeared in the final year of Calvin and Hobbes. Without dialogue, it follows Calvin’s perspective as he entertains himself during another boring class by imagining himself at the controls of Spiff’s flying saucer.

Mrs. Wormwood interrupts the daydream and breaks his train of thought. Once she looks away, Calvin adopts a new fantasy: he is a dinosaur stalking prey.

Source: Polygon