The Intrepid Spaceman Spiff

Many of you may have seen this young man before. Perhaps you've seen him on a bumper sticker, pissing on a Ford logo, smoking a big fat doobie, or praying for the victims of 9/11. (For some reason, the idea of Calvin finding religion offends me the most.) Before bootleggers had their way with him time and time again, this was one of the titular characters of Calvin and Hobbes, one of the greatest comic strips of the late 20th century. Back when I was a lad, this was among my personal "Big 3," along with Bloom County and The Far Side. (Sorry, Garfield.)

Spaceman Spiff was one of Calvin's alter egos (see also: Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man). You could always count on there being (purposely) overwrought narration in a Spaceman Spiff comic, and you could almost always count on the strip starting with him being shot down by a much bigger ship. C&H being a huge part of my childhood and one of my biggest inspirations, I thought I'd take a crack at aping Bill Watterson's style. Because I'm too cheap/lazy to acquire even the most inexpensive of real art tools, a slightly flattened Sharpie had to fill in for a brush /crow quill.

I probably should have drawn him gritting his teeth. I don't know why I didn't do that.

Spaceman Spiff © Bill Watterson