After 37 Years, One Calvin & Hobbes Comic Is Still The Strip's Most Emotional Storyline

Published Aug 21, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT Derek is the Training Lead for ScreenRant. Before his current position, he spent 20 years working in games, TV, and film while also writing for several entertainment sites. Derek is also the co-host of three pop culture podcasts: Across the Omniverse, The Bad Batch, and Watch Men. Sign in to your ScreenRant account In the grand lexicon of newspaper comics, few have had the sustained popularity of Calvin and Hobbes. Despite ending over 30 years ago, Bill Watterson's creation is still finding new fans every year, and it isn't hard to see why. Calvin and Hobbes is a perfect comic strip: it is funny, the art is fantastic, and the characters are eternally endearing, even — or perhaps especially — when Calvin is driving his parents up the wall. The series is overflowing with great jokes, wonderful moments of honesty, plenty of philosophy, and some of the most inventive visuals to appear in a Sunday paper since the golden age of the medium. It wasn't often that Watterson put his characters in serious situations, but when he did, he knew how to mix the drama with humor. He knew that his readers were fully invested in the lives of the anarchistic Calvin, his stuffed tiger Hobbes, and Calvin's unnamed parents, and used that knowledge to make us all feel for them when tragedy struck. And he also knew that, above all else, there was one thing we all feared: that a day would come where Calvin no longer had Hobbes by his side. Which is part of what made one storyline in the strip so devastating. It All Started When Calvin Left Hobbes At Home On April 24, 1989, Calvin and Hobbes fans woke up to find that Bill Watterson was starting what would become an 18-day epic that would shake poor Calvin and his father to their bones. Already late for an overnight trip to a wedding, Calvin inadvertently leaves Hobbes at home alone, buried under a pile of blankets on his bed. As soon as he realizes what he's done, he tries to convince his dad to turn the car around so they can retrieve Hobbes. His pleas go unanswered and, for the next four days, readers are presented with strips showing Calvin's concern about his best friend, but we never see what Hobbes is doing. When the family finally returns home, the horror begins in earnest. The house had been burgled while they were away. A window has been smashed, and their valuables, including the TV, are gone. As his father calls the police, Calvin begins a frantic search for his pal, but is unable to find him. His mother, who is clearly shaken by what has happened to the home, tries her best to comfort her son, but Calvin worries that Hobbes has decided to go off with the criminals because, as Calvin points out, "Hobbes is so trusting." As his parents deal with their own shock, Calvin continues to search the house, looking in closets and under couches, but Hobbes is nowhere to be found. Guilt sets in as Calvin realizes that if he hadn't forgotten Hobbes, he would have his buddy with him and that, while his mom has promised him that Hobbes isn't valuable enough to steal, Calvin can't help but cry, "I think he's valuable." But, finally, after keeping readers on the edge of their seats for nine days, Hobbes is found right where Calvin left him: under the covers. Calvin happily hugs his best friend who, later in the night, claims to have scared the burglars away, "After they took the TV and jewelry." But the journey isn't over yet. And the most heartbreaking moment is still to come. Calvin's Mom Is Shaken, And His Dad Feels Like A Failure Considering Calvin and Hobbes ran for a decade, Bill Watterson reveals very little about Calvin's parents. No one even knows what their names are. When it comes to Calvin's dad, fans know he has a job of some sort, and that while he tries to keep up a sense of authority, it's pretty clear that Calvin gets his wit from him. We also know that he loves his family, and, in the final six strips of the storyline, that he fears he can't take care of them the way he thinks he should be able to. After Calvin has fallen asleep, his parents lay in bed, discussing the events. Mom is understandably shaken, and, in his own way, Dad tries to comfort her. But after she falls asleep, Dad sits up in the dark, listening to every sound and worrying the burglars may return. He laments the loss of the sense of security he had just 48 hours earlier, and, when Mom wakes up, opens up to her... It's funny... When I was a kid, I thought grown-ups never worried about anything. I trusted my parents to take care of everything, and it never occurred to me that they might not know how. I figured that once you grew up, you automatically knew what to do in any given scenario. I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known the whole thing was going to be ad-libbed. After Dad finally falls asleep, it's Mom's turn to sit up and worry. But, ever the realist of the family, she is quick to put things in perspective, cuddling up to her sleeping husband... Well, at least we weren't home when our house was broken into. No one was hurt, We're all together and OK. We lost a few of our nice things, but things don't matter much really. It's hard to believe how often we forget that. Watterson, knowing that he can't end the story on too much of a touching moment, then concludes the adventure showing the next day, with Calvin realizing that without a TV, there's nothing to do. Or, as Hobbes puts it, "A pointless existence, huh?" The Story Reminds Us That, Above All Else, What Matters Is Each Other The burglary storyline is filled with more emotion and worry than is usually found in a newspaper comic, but Bill Watterson knows how to dish it out in pieces. Still, seeing Calvin so distraught when he believes Hobbes is gone forever, and seeing his parents trying to hold their own emotions together until after he goes to bed, is heartbreaking. For younger readers, there's a good chance that they would have come across this storyline before they had experienced any sort of loss themselves, and seeing just the idea that things - and loved ones - will vanish from your life would be jarring. Add in that, being presented with the idea that your parents are not, in fact, always ready to handle anything that comes, would be eye-opening to say the least. And for adults reading the strip, it isn't often that a comic gives you a moment to realize that all of your concerns are shared by the world at large. That you aren't alone in wondering if you're doing enough to keep your family safe, or if you have left them open to tragedy, even when you know that there is no escaping it. For a comic strip about a boy and his doll playing around, this Calvin and Hobbes story hits at the heart of what so many of us spend our sleepless nights tossing and turning over. And while it can bring a person to tears to see Calvin so frightened, it can also fill them with the security that they are not alone with their thoughts. Cal Writer Bill Watterson Colorist Bill Watterson Publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing