Calvin and Hobbes is a
syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American
cartoonist Bill Watterson, and
syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of
Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and
Hobbes, his
sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after
John Calvin, a 16th-century French
Reformation theologian, and
Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English
political philosopher.
At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide; as of January 2010, reruns of the strip still appear in more than 50 countries. Nearly 45 million copies of the
18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been sold.