Published Nov 14, 2026, 7:00 PM EST

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Bill Watterson’s lost protagonist became Calvin and Hobbes’ spacefaring hero

Send this article to your favorite space crustacean

Source: Bill Watterson / Andrews & McMeel

Calvin and Hobbes wasn't Bill Watterson's first pitch for a comic strip. C&H 's protagonists began as side characters in Watterson's comic The Doghouse before his original syndicate suggested that they ought to be the focus. "Marvin" became "Calvin," the rest of The Doghouse 's cast was dropped, and while United Feature Syndicate still didn't take the resulting comic, Universal Press Syndicate did.

Before then, Watterson had drawn cartoons about a spacefaring character as early as college. Watterson went on to make that character the focus of one of his rejected comics: a mustachioed, cigar-smoking parody of adventurers like Flash Gordon.…