Bill Watterson created Calvin and Hobbes as a newspaper comic strip to capture the magic of childhood imagination and friendship. Initially, while working in an advertising job he disliked, Watterson developed characters that evolved into Calvin, a mischievous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger who appears alive to Calvin. The strip was encouraged and picked up by Universal Press Syndicate in 1985 after United Features Syndicate had rejected it. Watterson named the characters after the theologian John Calvin and philosopher Thomas Hobbes to embody contrasting worldviews, adding a subtle philosophical layer to the humor and charm. Ultimately, Watterson wanted to create a strip about private realities and the specialness of certain friendships, resisting merchandising to preserve the purity of the strip's spirit.