My favorite C & H strip was one of the earliest ones. I don’t know what it was about it, but there’s one where Calvin has brought Hobbes in for Show & Tell. And now that that is over, Calvin is asked by his teacher (Miss Wormwood, I think) to, please, put his stuffed tiger back in his bag.

Calvin objects, claiming that Hobbes would surely suffrocate!

Miss Wormwood says, then at least put him under your desk.

Calvin agrees.

The second last to last panel is Calvin telling Hobbes something like, “That was a close one.”

And Hobbes replying, “I’ll say.”

But the payoff, Ms. Jodi, is in the final panel. Calvin is obviously doing some math homework, or maybe taking a math test. And there is a question with an answer that he just doesn’t get.

So he whispers to Hobbes for help. If I remember right, he says “Seven plus five.”

The payoff comes in Hobbes reply.

He says, “Seventy-five.”

Which, for whatever reason, just had me rolling. Because it makes so much sense, you know? If you’re a little kid, and you’d been told that adding meant that you put two numbers together, it completely stands to reason:

7 + 5 = 75!

That killed me.

And whenever Calvin’s Dad lied to him about how the world works. And whenever he told Calvin that whatever horrible thing he had to do would, “build character.”

I miss Calvin & Hobbes. It was good times! 🙂