Daily Comics › Calvin and Hobbes characters guide
🐯 Read today's Calvin and HobbesCalvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson, ran in newspapers from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. The cast is small on purpose: most strips are just a boy, his tiger and the few adults and kids who have to put up with them. Here's who's who. Text on this page is original; read the strips themselves in the daily comics archive.
Calvin
A six-year-old with a huge vocabulary, a short attention span and endless schemes. He hates school, baths and bedtime, loves snowmen, wagons and sleds, and is the founder (and self-appointed "Dictator for Life") of G.R.O.S.S., his "Get Rid Of Slimy girlS" club. Watterson named him after the theologian John Calvin.
Hobbes
Calvin's tiger. To everyone else he's a stuffed animal; when the two are alone, he's a living, talking tiger who is calmer, more sensible and a lot more charming than Calvin. The strip never says which version is "real", and that ambiguity is the heart of the comic. He's named after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
Calvin's Mom and Dad
Never named in the strip. Dad, a patent attorney, loves bike commutes and camping and insists that miserable experiences "build character". Mom handles Calvin's daily chaos with dry humor and, sometimes, visible exhaustion. Both are drawn as loving, if often outmaneuvered, parents.
Susie Derkins
Calvin's classmate and neighbor. Smart, imaginative and serious about school, she's the frequent target of snowballs and water balloons and gives as good as she gets. She has her own stuffed rabbit, Mr. Bun, and her tea parties are one of the few things Calvin can be talked into.
Miss Wormwood
Calvin's long-suffering teacher, who mostly sees him daydreaming. Her name is a nod to a demon in C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
Moe
The school bully: big, dim and fond of shoving Calvin around for his lunch money. He's one of the few problems Calvin can't talk his way out of.
Rosalyn
The teenage babysitter, and the only person Calvin truly fears. Their battles are legendary, and one late strip ends with them playing Calvinball together.
Principal Spittle
The principal who gets Calvin when Miss Wormwood runs out of patience.
Calvin's alter egos
- Spaceman Spiff: an intrepid space explorer battling aliens who look suspiciously like teachers and parents.
- Tracer Bullet: a hard-boiled private eye narrating in noir style.
- Stupendous Man: a caped "defender of liberty" (and opponent of Mom and Rosalyn).
Running gags worth knowing
Calvinball (a game with no fixed rules except that you can't play it the same way twice), the cardboard-box Transmogrifier and time machine, the duplicator, increasingly macabre snowmen, and the wagon or sled rides where the two talk philosophy. For where to start reading, see the best Calvin and Hobbes strips.
FAQ
Who are the main characters in Calvin and Hobbes?
Calvin, a six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his tiger, plus Calvin's Mom and Dad, Susie Derkins, Miss Wormwood, Moe, Rosalyn and Principal Spittle.
Is Hobbes real?
The strip deliberately never decides. Other characters see a stuffed tiger, while Calvin sees a living one, and Watterson left that open.
What are the names of Calvin's parents?
They're never named. They're just Mom and Dad.
Who is Calvin afraid of?
Rosalyn, his teenage babysitter.
What are Calvin's alter egos?
Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet and Stupendous Man.
When did Calvin and Hobbes run?
From November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995.
Fan guide. Calvin and Hobbes is © Bill Watterson, distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication. No strip art is reproduced on this page. Last updated November 3, 2026.