A late 1992 Calvin & Hobbes Sunday strip. Notice the detail and liberal use of space.
11/24/85: The first Calvin and Hobbes Sunday comic. Notice the rigidity of the layout
Sunday Comics, featured in the thicker Sunday newspapers, have more room, permit the use of color and lack the same rigidity in structure. Bill Watterson insists on taking advantage of all available space, but has been known to forgo or restrict the use of color in Sunday comics.
In Calvin and Hobbes, Sunday comics often feature more outlandish scenarios than their weekday counterparts, and are less reliant on punchlines and gags than the expression of artistic license. This is consistent with Bill Watterson's insistence that syndicated comics should be treated as a serious art form as opposed to vapid, pandering commercial hackwork.
In the strip's later years, particularly starting with the first sabbatical and subsequent change in format, Sunday comics upstaged story arcs. As the latter dwindled in frequency, the focus on Sunday strips became narrower. Spaceman Spiff's appearances were relegated almost exclusively to the larger Sunday format from 1991 onward. Moreover, the comparatively stiff, small-paneled structure of the earlier Sunday strips was dropped in order to make way for more unorthodox designs.
See Also
"It'll build character!"
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