on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Brian VanHooker Published Sep 16, 2026, 12:00 AM EDT Polygon Lists “I think we’d better get that kid to a psychologist” — Calvin’s Dad
Image: Bill Watterson Sign in to your Polygon.com account Add Us Add on Google Preferred Source Google News Summary Generate a summary of this story Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Generally, when people think of Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes , they think of fun, innocent adventures with a little boy and his plush tiger, oftentimes exploring the woods or riding on a sled in the snow. They may also recall the thoughtful comic strips where Calvin and Hobbes talk about life’s biggest questions . They might even think about the strips where Calvin was falling asleep in school and dreaming about being Spaceman Spiff. But every Winter, Bill Watterson would offer up much darker fare.
Calvin and Hobbes began on Nov. 18, 1985. While Watterson drew comic strips featuring snowmen in the first few years, on Feb. 28, 1988, he took a noticeably darker turn when he depicted a crowd of snowmen around the family car, as though there’d been a car accident. The beauty of the comic is the slow-burn, with Calvin seemingly-innocently making snowmen. Finally, in the last panel, the gruesome scene is revealed with his parents observing the scene, with Calvin’s dad saying, “I think we’d better get that kid to a psychologist.”
Image: Bill Waterson It would be almost a year before Watterson would go similarly dark with Calvin’s snowman sculptures, which is when it became a regular recurring series until the comic strip ended in 1995. Many of the strips featured death and destruction, even disturbing jokes about suicide that make you wonder how Calvin knew about this stuff. Some of the images were likely shocking, especially when juxtaposed against lighter comics like Peanuts or The Family Circus , but thanks to the multi-faceted personality Watterson crafted for Calvin, the dark jokes suited the character perfectly.
Here are the 10 darkest snowman gags that ever appeared in Calvin and Hobbes .
Image: Bill Watterson While most Calvin and Hobbes comics had a classic setup and punchline in its multi-panel strips, many of Watterson’s snowman gags centered around one really funny image which didn’t require any setup (other than you knowing Calvin’s personality). This strip, featuring snow sharks about to kill a swimming snowman is a great example of Watterson using just one big panel to give his funny visual the maximum impact.
Image: Bill Watterson Another single-panel strip with just one funny image is this one where Calvin shares his disturbed sense of humor with his neighbor Susie. It’s especially funny how far along Calvin is into sawing.
Image: Bill Watterson Beginning on Dec. 31, 1990, Bill Watterson began a series of comic strips spanning nearly three weeks where Calvin builds a snowman, then imagines it as a “Snow Goon” coming to life and terrorizing him. While it’s not quite as dark as the ones here, the series is really funny and one of Watterson’s best long-form stories told with Calvin and Hobbes.
The comic above falls in the middle of that series, where Calvin and Hobbes are trying to figure out how to kill the Snow Goon. It doesn’t include a snowman, but I include…