Miss Wormwood

Miss Wormwood
First appearance:	November 21, 1985
Last appearance:	in HELL!
Other characters

Miss Wormwood is Calvin's world-weary teacher, named after the apprentice devil in C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. She perpetually wears polka-dotted dresses, and is another character who serves as a foil to Calvin's mischief. Calvin as Spaceman Spiff sees Miss Wormwood as a slimy, often dictatorial alien.

Although there is a definite progression of time in the Calvin and Hobbes universe, mainly exhibited by the changing seasons, Calvin (and Susie) return to Miss Wormwood's first-grade class every fall.

History

Miss Wormwood appeared very early in the strip, as the first-grade teacher at Calvin's school. She didn't have many characteristics back then and it took a while for readers to learn her name. She rarely appeared early, but in the later strips, she began to appear more often. She is a dour, older woman and essentially thinks the opposite way of Calvin. In the beginning, she often tried to make Calvin do some work, but later she began simply sending him to the Principal Spittle's office.

As Spaceman Spiff, Calvin sees Miss Wormwood as a slimy, bug-eyed, tentacled alien that tries to kill him or as the Queen of Zogwargs. Interestingly, in one strip, Calvin also saw his mother as the Queen of Zogwargs.

Appearance and personality

Miss Wormwood usually wears a polka-dotted dress and seems overweight. She has gray hair and wears glasses.In the earlier comics, though, she resembles a thinner old woman with slightly bigger glasses. Miss Wormwood generally has a downcast or upset look on her face, mainly from the trouble of Calvin. When nothing wrong happens and Calvin is not interrupting (except in the case of his good side) then she can be found smiling more often.

Characteristics

Miss Wormwood is rarely sympathetic to the trouble Calvin has in school, and comes across as a rather strict, sour character. She is quick to send Calvin to the principal's office at the first sign of trouble. She is also a heavy smoker, mixes different stress-related medications, drinks Maalox straight from the bottle, and is waiting for retirement. She never mentions any family (possibly because she has none, considering the title "Miss" by which everyone refers to her).

Once, while Calvin's mother was in a supermarket (off-camera), she met Miss Wormwood. Miss Wormwood told Calvin's mother to say "hi", much to Calvin's surprise.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Secondary characters in Calvin and Hobbes. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.