Comic Strips

I don’t want to say that I had a low view of newspaper comics, I never did, but I admittedly didn’t read much of them or thought that they could be more than simple few panel stories compared to other types of comics. Whenever I looked at newspapers and saw the comics as a kid, I was more interested in the art and characters than the actual words (then again, I don’t think I saw many in newspapers I saw at stands that had jokes that could be understood by all ages).

Since I had lived in Japan for 6 years of my childhood, I didn’t have much exposure to newspaper comic strips. We just didn’t get any news from the US back then until What I do remember is being entertained by one of the Calvin and Hobbes books that would be in my classroom.  I found the art and stories very cute, and prior to reading various strips from the Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Edition, I didn’t remember much aside from those.

The strip could wrongly give the impression that it very simple and limited, but it’s far from the truth. The panels of Calvin’s imagination are vibrant and are more creative with its paneling layout. The real world of Calvin and Hobbes is evenly divided, while the imaginary is varied and gives the impression of how a child would view the world.

Comic strips definitely aren’t an “easy way” to success nor do they require no skill. When revisiting Calvin and Hobbes, I found myself surprised and amused by how expressive the characters were, how detailed the backgrounds of Calvin’s imagination were, and the many clever jokes. A simple art style doesn’t mean that the creator isn’t talented and hasn’t worked hard, or that it doesn’t have a deeper meaning. Little Nemo in Slumberland, for example, is filled with greatly detailed backgrounds and varied panels while it holds a simple story. Both Calvin and Hobbes and Little Nemo were comics that frequently appeared as strips in newspapers. There’s a reason that they remain well known, along with other longtime comics, despite how simplistic and childish they might seem to general audiences. They’ve made their impact through many things far from being a simple story, even I knew about various characters and series because of how widespread they were. These stories have made their way to being iconic, and the comic strips definitely deserve the appreciation for the art they are.