Comic books

Calvin regularly reads a variety of different comic books, the most prominent being Captain Napalm and Captain Steroid. Such comic books may have inspired Calvin's Stupendous Man alter ego.

Hobbes also reads comic books. However, as he cannot buy his own, he either borrows or sneaks away Calvin's. As Hobbes takes poor care of them (folding back the covers, doodling on the panels...) Calvin usually forbids him from reading his comics.

Superhero comics

Calvin is regularly seen reading or mentioning the following superhero comic books:

• Captain Napalm (also a very minor alter ego)
• Captain Steroid
• Captain Nitro
• Captain Maim

Also, Calvin's comic books contain characters such as Amazon Girl , Nuke-Man , Maggot-Man and Amazon Babe which may or may not have their own comic line.

Calvin is most ardently a Captain Napalm and Captain Steroid fan, and owns all but two of the Captain Napalm bubblegum cards (#8 and #34) thanks to buying 20$ worth of gum. He has twice attempted to preserve his comics for sale at auction, anticipating thay they would become valuable collector's items; one of these times, Hobbes commented that the comic would not appreciate well given its very wide circulation.

Although the exact content of Calvin's comic books is rarely specified, they all seem to contain exceedingly violent content; one of them featured a male character brutally attacking an amazon; the latter responded by shooting an energy weapon, the "Hyper-Phase Distortion Blaster " which shattered the male character's spine. Hobbes also once read out loud that "Captain Steroid [was] getting his kidneys punched out with an I-beam". Calvin's comic books also seem to be design-by-committee products, as evidenced in a weekday strip.

Horror comics

The following comics appeared in the illustrated poem A Nauseous Nocturne, in which Calvin read horror-themed comics late at night:

• Scary Death
• Dripping Gore Comics
• Frightening Monster Tales