Parenting & Family Quote by Bill Griffith

A cartoonist calling Calvin and Hobbes a “big re-hash” isn’t just picking a fight with a beloved strip; it’s policing status inside a medium that’s always anxious about its own legitimacy. Bill Griffith comes out swinging with “I hate,” a deliberately blunt opener that reads less like calm criticism than a flare shot over the comics page: this isn’t about taste, it’s about territory. The phrase “formula kid strips” is the real knife. It frames Bill Watterson’s work not as singular literary invention but as a slick product category, filed alongside legacy newspaper fare built on cute precocity, predictable punchlines, and a safe domestic loop.

The subtext is professional and generational. Griffith, associated with alt-comics and countercultural sensibilities, built his credibility on idiosyncrasy, abrasion, and the refusal of mainstream comfort. Calvin and Hobbes, however formally elegant and philosophically nimble, became a mass phenomenon: syndicated, widely merchandised (even if Watterson resisted licensing), absorbed into the cultural wallpaper. Calling it “re-hash” is a way to demystify that success, to suggest the industry rewards the familiar - that the “smart kid” routine is an old engine with fresh ink.

Context matters: newspaper strips were a shrinking, tightly gatekept ecosystem where a breakout hit could feel like both miracle and threat. Griffith’s jab functions as critique and as self-definition. By rejecting the consensus masterpiece, he stakes a claim for comics that don’t soothe, don’t loop, and don’t ask to be loved.