"Pearls Before Swine" is growing on me, though it's a little angry.
(speaking of angry, did you get the impression from the strip that Calvin's parents weren't too wild about each other -- or about him?)
There did to be something of a distance between them all. I often found CALVIN AND HOBBES to be a bittersweet strip, for Calvin was ultimately a very lonely kid.... no real friends except for an imaginary (?) tiger, and parents whose love for him was rarely overtly displayed.
Calvin actually had a great deal in common with Charlie Brown. Both were wise beyond their years; both were confused and frustrated by the world around them. It was also painfully clear that neither Charlie nor Calvin were equipped to survive in that world as the grown-ups they were doomed to become. Calvin merely came up with far more imaginative and hilarious means of dealing with life; his was an eternal childhood, and we always got the sense that was for the best.
-Dan
Agnes. I really am coming to enjoy Agnes in the Trib each day. Maybe because she is just a little cranky too.