Calvin, Hobbes, and Chirst...CHRIST!
 

Bill Watterson drew the amazing comic strip Calvin & Hobbes from 1985 to 1995. He resisted all efforts to merchandise the characters. There were no official Hobbes plush tiger toys, no Calvin-ball game sets and no Calvin stickers to affix to the back of your Pontiac Fiero.

Right about the time asinine the “baby on board” stickers moved off our cultural rear window, unofficial Calvin & Hobbes stickers affixed themselves instead. First it was just the happy kid and his tiger. But that quickly changed to a picture of Calvin urinating.

Calvin peed on everything – NASCAR numbers, Raiders logos, Chevy emblems, you name it. There was even a sticker with Calvin in a sombrero whizzing on “La Migra.” I doubt it occurred to anyone who thought a picture of Calvin peeing was a neat thing to have on their car, but they were ripping off Bill Watterson.

Mr. Watterson owned the copyright, and he didn’t make a dime for those stickers. And (to stick with the urine-theme) those stickers pissed him off.

As if defacing the mighty Calvin by making him a NASCAR fan wasn’t enough, now there is a new trend in these rip-off Calvin stickers – Calvin & Jesus. I see these things all over the backs of expensive SUVs and minivans: Calvin praying, Calvin kneeling at the cross, Calvin crying in front a crucifix, Calvin with a Bible…

Listen, people - just because you are Christians, doesn’t mean you get to steal. These unofficial stickers rip off Bill Watterson and pervert his creation just as badly as the stickers with Calvin peeing on a 49ers logo. The only difference is that you are using your stolen design to promote a religion which tells you not to steal in the first place.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to spray paint “Hypocrite” on your tailgate?

Am I the only one pissed off by this?

I always assumed Bill Watterson had gotten paid by those that used Calvin in their ads.

It seems like there is a lawsuit here if they desire one, especially if he owns the copyright, which he appears to.

People have certainly gone to court over lesser things in this country.. and won.

I've seen various "Frat guy" shirts with Calvin and Hobbes chugging from beer bongs and smoking pot... that always bothers me.
The problem is that these are always small-time things, some guy just prints the sticker/shirt on his own, or makes 5-10 and sells them. No one who you could sue that would actually impact what's going on.

Sticekrs on cars piss me off no matter what they are, but the Calvin pissing is right up there with "Type R" on every other Civic I see.

Yes, but you forget that each "Type R" sticker adds another 15-20 horsepower, depending on the size of the vehicles exhaust. ;)

Don't look at me, man.

And I suspect that when people buy pissing/praying/whatever Calvin, they don't know that the artist is stealing the image.

Also, why rag on Christians and not Red-Necks?

Because Religion is easy to make fun of, and everyone hates it! DUH

Let me try this out on you:
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Because Blacks are easy to make fun of, and everyone hates them! DUH

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Now how acceptable do you think this is?

religion is something you make a conscious decision about. It's not something you are born with, like skin color.

As they say in the new broadway play Avenue Q,"Everyone's a little bit racist..."

Ok, I can work with that.

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Because Jews are easy to make fun of, and everyone hates them! DUH

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Is that better?

I have never read anything written by Mr Watterson inducating he would dislike these. I do know he fought with his syndicate for years over merchandise (bascically they wanted merchandise he didn't) It would serve no point to him to sue them over it even if he could (which he can't there is just to many) Its not like he wanted Calvin and Hobbes merchandise and wanted to make money off it. He didn't want any merchandise period. He didn't care about the money. I think they look stupid,are cliche and are a good 10 years out of date. But I don't put them on the same level as stealing. Stealing from what or who? They take no money from Mr Watersons pocket. There are no offical Calvin stickers. At worse they just piss him off to see his creation cheapend. But that is still not stealing.

I can't believe nobody's said this. I just can't resist....

<b>Maybe they're Calvinists!</b>

&lt;/nerd humor&gt;

Personally, I find the Calvin pissing stickers to be a great service to society. They allow you to easily determine the less intelligent members of the human race without any expensive scientific studies.

Calvin peeing on something = complete idiot w/ zero class :rolleyes:

Those cheap ass stickers on the backs of everyone's car IS hurting Waterson. They're taking something he created and making money off it, which he doesn't see a dime of. Calvin and Hobbes came out of his brain, if anyone's making money off it, it should be him.

I think its more ignorance that anything.

"We have to pay royalties? What are royalties?"

Also, most consumers assume that the stickers have no legal issues. Do you look at items before you purchase them and ask yourself if the appropriate royalties have been paid?

You are also making an assumption that the producer of the stickers of Calvin praying are Christians. That may not be the case. It may just be someone who recognized that it might sell, and made them.

Why doesn't Waterson implement a scorched earth policy and sue all of them?

Like someone said earlier, they aren't taking anything out of Watterson's pocket. The sale of these bootleg stickers isn't lowering the amount of money he makes, because he isn't trying to sell anything.

It doesn't make it right, but it isn't financially hurting him.

Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe Mr. Watterson doesn't mind these stickers on cars and might actually find them amusing? Who knows maybe they HAVE made him more money. After all he can charge the papers more money to run his comic strip if it seems that more and more people are interested in his strip. What better free advertisement for his strip too, people that might just think that its a boy on a sticker and not realize who Calvin and Hobbes are might pick up a paper and inadvertantly see the comic strip and start to read because he/she thinks that the stickers are funny.

Just for the record,

No, I agree that it isn't right that other people are stealing Mr. Waterson's work and making a buck off of it.

Just in case that point was lost above.

(RIP Calvin & Hobbes :( )

As a few others had said, Unless Waterson makes the effort for the public to know he doesnt like it, try to sell his own, or anything at all to stop this.

Theres no issue at all.

You are just getting pissed over somthing that the person who should be pissed isnt. Just like any other activist, pissed for somthing that the ppl who should be pissed are not.

PETA anyone?

From http://www.alloftheabove.net/cahr/watterson.htm:

"Only thieves and vandals have made money on 'Calvin and Hobbes' merchandise."

(cached at http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8)

I think it's pretty clear that Bill Watterson doesn't think these stickers are funny.

I've always wanted to see one of Calvin pissing on a cross.

Well, when you say that, there is confusion about whether you refer to Jews as an ethnic group or the practioners of the Jewish faith. But I'm just being picky. :p
I understand what you're trying to say and I certainly don't condone blindly hating people for their beliefs, but there is a distinction between that and hating someone for what they are born with

Because "Thou shalt not steal" figures prominently in the Chirtian Top 10 list.

If the Rednecks had a Redneck Bible that said "Don't y'all steal," and we stuck a stolen image on our trucks to promote our Redneck philosophy then I'd rag on Rednecks too.

Its the hyprocracy more than the stealing that pisses me off.

BTW, Bill Waterson successfully sued some T-Shirt company for using his work on their shirts. But its not cost effective to sue the millions of little guys selling homemade stickers.

Personally, I find the Calvin pissing stickers to be a great service to society. They allow you to easily determine the less intelligent members of the human race without any expensive scientific studies.

Calvin peeing on something = complete idiot w/ zero class

BoCo--I agree with you, except for the Calvin pissing on Ford. Those should be on every pickup truck in America.

Ford

Fucked Over Rebuilt Dodge
Found On Road Dead
Fix Or Repair Daily

Woops, for got to hit the quote button. Sorry.

I understand too.

My only point was that to make fun of someone or to hate someone simply because they are a member of a certain group is bigotry, plain and simple.

I saw one the other day of Calvin pissing on the word Terrorism.


He's being patriotic now.

Ha! Execellent point. I often make judgments about people based on their bumper stickers, etc. What do people think about Jesus Fish? Or Darwin fish? Or Jesus fish eating Darwin fish? Or Darwin fish fucking Jesus Fish? Etc.

Damn, thats one thing that hasn't quite made it across the pond, yet. Don't see many bumper stickers in the UK. Think people are too reserved.

Although I wonder what Thomas Hobbes (Mathematicion and Philospher) and John Calvin (Protestant Reformer) would think of it. Mathematics and philosophy usually disagree with religion, and do the people with the sticker realise what Calvanism stands for. Given that it wasn't extensively covered in my high school education one would think not. Although I wouldn't dream of comparing their educational standards on my own, except I'm probably better off cause I don't believe except in myself.

Oh god, You just gave me a GREAT idea.
Thanks a bunch.
With love,
w3r7y

Off topic, but FORD

Fuckin
Old
Redneck
Drivin

Damn, should have started the Ford-hater's thread.

My little Mercury Cougar gets me around just fine thank you. Waste alot of gas though

So we'll tolerate the blacks, the jews, the dentists, but ... we won't tolerate the bigots?

What is wrong with this country? Anywhere else in the world it's OK to have irrational thoughts and feelings.

Time to watch PCU again...

this thread started off so nice and look where it ended up.... bumper stickers and bigots...nice, real nice. :(

Whoo Hoo!! Let's hear it for tangents!

Nothing like lowering the resale value of a car by bein' a dumbass.

Nope. The only thing you can't tolerate is intolerance (and Yanni's music).

It's okay to have these thoughts and feelings, but this is a privately owned internet forum with posted rules and regulations. We don't always NEED to give voice (subject others) to our inner thoughts.

I am going to go re-read my copy of the Essential Calvin and Hobbes now.
Maybe some of his boyish innocence should rub off on all of us.

i cant say we get any of that over in the UK, but i love calvin and hobbes, if only he still drew...:(

I am still waiting to see a car with a sticker of Calvin pissing on a sticker of Calvin pissing.

I once owned a shirt with Calvin's likeness on it. Then I read Watterson's intro to the C&H über-anniversary-book or whatever it was. I no longer have the shirt.

If it were one of the coffee mugs or t-shirts with Calvin and Hobbes dancing, I could understand why the consumer would mistakenly believe this was authorized merchandise, but with Calvin urinating it seems blatantly obvious that this is a ripoff that no mainstream comic artist would authorize.

Intellectual property is property. People producing Calvin and Hobbes merchandise are stealing from Bill Watterson. I agree with Clavus on this one. It's hypocrisy to advertise you religion using stolen merchandise.

I love the Calvin & Hobbes books, I have them all.
And the reason Bill Watterson gave for not doing more was because of all the counterfeit merchandise that is out there was ruining Calvin's image.
I agree with him, but it sure is gutting

Making fun of groups of people is the basis for most comedy routines.