Recreating the Awesomeness that is Calvin and Hobbes

I love Calvin and Hobbes. It was the best comic strip ever! I was very disappointed when Bill Watterson decided to stop making them back in 1995. There really has been nothing since that I've liked quite as much. I like just about any Calvin and Hobbes strip, but one of my favorite types are the strips where Calvin is making snowmen. I decided to pay homage to Bill Watterson and Calvin and Hobbes and the snowmen in my own way.

I figured, the best way to pay homage to a boy and his tiger and his incredible snowman-making skills was to recreate some of those scenes in one of my favorite mediums. Cookies! Yes. That's right. I said cookies! I decided to bake cookies to try to recreate the awesomeness that is Calvin and Hobbes.

What? Did you think I was going to leave my nice warm kitchen and go out into the snow and make a snowman sculpture like this one? Awesome idea, but no, you were wrong.

First I had to do my research and find some of my favorite comics that I thought would recreate well in cookie form. Once I found the ones I liked, I blew them up to cookie size and printed them out. Originally I was going to try doing it all freehand, but let's not get crazy. I decided it would be more accurate to use the actual comics as a tracing template (not to mention easier).

After my research I made some cookie dough. I used my old standby butter cookie recipe. It's almost a shortbread recipe, but with a few extra ingredients like eggs and baking powder. It makes a tasty cookie that holds its shape wonderfully and isn't too terribly fragile. (For a cookie, that is).

I cut out my template shapes from the enlarged, printed comics, laid them on the dough and cut around them.

As I was doing the tracing and cutting, both Snickers and Sweet Pea, at separate times, without being aware that the other had said it, both said, "Mom! You're weird!" In exactly the same tone of voice. What? Me? Weird? For recreating old comics out of cookie dough and frosting? Nah!

Then I baked those little suckers until they were done. Once they were cool, it was time to make frosting. I made a simple confectioner’s sugar frosting in a variety of colors and went to town. While the kids were busy frosting some heart-shaped cookies, I set to work on my creations.

Click here to see the original comic that I decided to start with. The last panel with the snowmen and the car is the one I recreated.

And this is my finished cookie recreation:

This is just the first of many Calvin and Hobbes cookie recreations I plan on doing. I had a lot of fun with this and hardly swore at all. There were a few mishaps. Of course there were. But it's all fun. And tasty too!

I have some others planned, and if you have any favorites that you'd like to see cookiefied, let me know in the comments!

Stay tuned!

Quack!