20 supremely cozy books and movies for hibernation season

7. Calvin and Hobbes

How could anyone consider the Calvin and Hobbes comic to be anything other than cozy? Now, this isn’t to say that it’s an emotional or intellectual lightweight. Author and artist Bill Watterson created this comic strip without sacrificing the value of a good story or complex insight.

This daily comic strip ran from 1985 to 1995 and has since been collected in numerous editions. It follows Calvin, a six-year-old boy who is remarkable for his precocious understanding of the world, not to mention his creativity and adventurousness. He’s accompanied by Hobbes, who the adults see as a plain old stuffed tiger. Calvin, however, interacts with a Hobbes who is the real deal, though heavily anthropomorphized and pretty sarcastic to boot.

There are also Calvin’s unnamed parents, a mother and father who are kept plenty busy by their young son. Their sensible, middle-class behavior acts a foil to Calvin’s flights of fancy. That isn’t to say they have no personalities. Calvin’s father, for instance, isn’t above a sarcastic lie or two, such as when he claims that they bought Calvin as a Blue Light Special at K-Mart.

Calvin and Hobbes going on adventures that bump up against such large issues as philosophy, environmentalism, education and more. Oftentimes, they transform cardboard boxes into complex machines, such as a Transmogrifier that can turn its user into practically any animal or object.

Calvin himself takes on multiple personas. These include “Spaceman Spiff”, a spacefaring adventurer straight out of science fiction’s Golden Age. Or he might be “Stupendous Man,” a superhero with nemeses such as “Mom-Lady” and “Crab Teacher”. Calvin might even pretend to be “Tracer Bullet”, a grizzled private detective. Hobbes, meanwhile, can often be found at the ready with a sardonic remark.