Dilbert...even better than Calvin & Hobbes

[vivek]

Now the world is divided in three. Those who love Dilbert, those who adore Calivin and his often dumb crap and those who hate both. I believe Dilbert is the best...i have many reasons but heres inviting fellow Dilbert fans to kick start.

[Cool-Not-Cold]

I have read some of both and to me the comparison is pretty unfair. Its like comparing Apples and Oranges. Each of them are in a totally different league.



CnH is about an imaginative, irritating, hyperactive young kid who would do anything to avoid school and spend time with his tiger friend woods doing nothing and claim the "the days are just packed". You could prolly say his whole aim was to create artwork out of snow, run the G.R.O.S.S .club, have weird face competitions with Hobbes, hurl water balloons/snowballs at susie/hobbes, make excuses not to eat food, etc etc



Dilbert on the other hand is a dig at life in a cubicle. More often than not the jokes are on the Idiot Bosses, their over bearing attitudes, irritating co-workers, ridiculous office policies, evil HR directors, devious strategies, unintended management consequences et al.



The backdrops, styles, context are different. So what exactly is there debate about!! I find both of em very entertaining. But if asked to pick between to the two i would go with CnH.

[Kishore Kadiyala]

It is indeed comparing apples and oranges, but I find the following things more appealing about CnH:



1. Great illustration

2. Superb conceptualization and high creativity

3. Much easier to understand



Dilbert is sometimes like Peanuts or Garfield - you don't know if you've missed some great humor or if it's just unbelievably plain. It's like Peanuts and Garfield in illustrations, too - almost all frames carry the same looks and emotions on the faces of the characters. C'mon, it's a cartoon strip, and illustrations are as important as ideas in entertaining. You could perhaps argue that that is required for the effect being desired in Dilbert - I refuse to accept that .



Most importantly, of course, CnH almost never fails to entertain you with sheer creativity.

[vivek]

The character of Dilber by Scott Adams has started to fall apart. Its as if Scott has lost it. He ( and his team) is still cartooning cause the charater was a hit and many corporate intranets use the strip. The character portrayed virtually everyone in middle management. Dilbert is still more 'real' comparted to C&H. I agree with the Apples and Oranges part but the comparison was on the basis their popularity. However, the humor edge gotta go to Dilbert, they are silly and makes you smile. Calvin is mostly stupid and falls flat (flatter than that of Dilberts). And now that 'Asok' has come into Dilbert, my vote goes to Scott!

[vivek]

FYI : Catch Dilbert in Economic Times and Business Today. Calvin in The Hindu

[Cool-Not-Cold]

If you want to say the newspapers that publish the cartoons are indication of the popularity well let me tell you Bill Waterson has stopped creating new strips for CnH way back in mid-90s and they are published till date.



If you refuse to see any humour in CnH, well there is not much I can say except that even after reading them time and again they dont bore me. I have not tried to re-read Dilbert. I just gave Scott Adams a fair deal here bcoz I admire the risk he took. Imagine coming out of the corporate world and starting a comic strip. He based most of them on real-life experiences (his own and others') and maybe thats the reason the strips are so popular.



I do share similar opinions on Peanuts and Garfield, just that Bill Waterson says he is hugely influenced by Peanuts.

[Fiddler]

However, the humor edge gotta go to Dilbert, they are silly and makes you smile. Calvin is mostly stupid and falls flat (flatter than that of Dilberts).

I just HAD to reply to that, and it's taking tremendous effort not to say anything nasty Anyway, I appreciate both comic strips because I can relate to both on some level, but I've been into Calvin and Hobbes WAY too long to allow anything else to come close. What I like about the humour in CnH is that it can be very self-deprecatory at times and is almost always on two levels: the blatantly obvious, slapstick humour usually hides the more subtle, human angle of the strip in question and it's usually this angle that is the point, rather than the slapstick.



Dilbert, on the other hand, very rarely has this quality, the humour usually being very obvious. It's probably easier for someone in the corporate world to appreciate Dilbert but, being in the corporate world myself, I must say that I'd still go for Calvin and Hobbes because of the subtle humour and (paraphrasing Kishore) great illustration. I think the expressions on Clavin's face are PRICELESS when Susie exacts retribution!! )

[jethro]

i agree with fiddler here....



though i wonder what the whole debate is about coz ultimately they r both great strips and something that i look fwd to everyday........



more than anything else i believe that C&H hides a lot of life truths......these are simple things admittedly but poignant stuff....and the humour is there too......u just have to scratch the surface and u'll find it....



in that aspect i disagree with most of u here .....i think peanuts is pretty much in the same category as calvin......simple observations on life hidden behind what seems to be slapstick humour.......

[SpyGlass]

Ahem... i believe this thread was started in order to give a chance to the Dilbert fans to come forward and express their fondness of the strip ... think the discussion started off on wrong foot and we're kinda having a dilbert over throw .

Sombody pointed out the inherent blandness in Dilbert illustrations , my theory is.. its meant as a kinda take on the readers of Dilbert themselves ... another person mentioned this strip is being dished out now more for the corporates who put them up on their websites than anyone else ... so its for the ppl it is making fun of... and well if u like the blandness .. the monotonous expessions in each and every frame you are definately a corp. .

Looks like Scotts really hates the corps ... and every strip that he sells prilly gives him real malicious pleasure out of proving how stupid they really are .

then again this is just my theory ...

*dropped pills down the drain ...shrink's gonna kill me this time ! *

[Dilbert rocks]

How can you even compare Dilbert and Calvin-Hobbes? Dilbert is simply the geekiest cartoon strip in existence. Ofcourse, I read Dilbert daily, often understanding it(it's in my geekcode). Calvin and Hobbes is more comic...it's for times when you need a laugh or lighten your mood. Both rock but I like Dilbert compared to the other.