Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?

I'd always enjoyed the comics more, and felt that as long as I was unemployed it would be a good chance to pursue that and see what response I could get from asyndicate, as I didn't have anything to lose at that point. So I drew up a comic strip - this was in 1980 - and sent it off and got rejected. I continued that for five years with different comic strip examples 'til finally Calvin and Hobbes came together. But it's been a long road.

Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure.

The only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can never play it the same way twice! (Calvin)

Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.

Everybody I know fails the acid test of friendship.

Even if lives did hang in the balance, it would depend on whose they were.