Cartoons Outrage the Reformed
MONROE—LA Protests are spreading across the Reformed world over the publication of cartoons by Bill Waterston depicting the great 16th century reformer as an impulsive, imaginative, energetic, curious, intelligent, and often selfish six-year-old boy.
Andrews McMeel Publishing in New York has been set ablaze by Reformed protestors - the third Calvin & Hobbes book publisher to be attacked over the weekend.
The cartoon’s author Bill Watterson, who has gone into hiding, first published his strip on November 18, 1985 and the series quickly became a hit. Within a year of syndication, the strip was published in roughly 250 newspapers. At its height Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. To date, more than 30 million copies of 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed
Reformed traditions ban depictions John Calvin and other famous protestant saints such as John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, and generally anyone named John—a popular name among Reformed believers like that of Mohammed among Muslims.
New York security forces fired tear gas into the raging crowd, but it wasn’t enough to stop them. Thousands of Reformed protestors moved through the streets of Manhattan, hurling stones and overturning cars. The ringleaders then stormed the publishing company, ransacking the building before setting it on fire.
After the publisher was torched, the 40 employees living in New York were advised by the police to leave.
This is the latest protest about the controversial cartoons which first appeared more than 20 years ago that reprinted in a number American newspapers and books. A spokesperson for the OPC said that the Reformed community was unaware of the comics strips, because they forbid any contact with the secular media calling it “worldly” and the “musings of the goats.”
The publisher was not available for comment Sunday evening, but sources say that they are wondering how anyone could react so violently to a cartoon.
February 6th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
All of this violencce distracts everyone that the Reformed tradition is a tradition of peace sometimes. John Calvin sometimes spoke of peace.
February 6th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Jim Davis is toast.
February 6th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
We will accept nothing less than the severed head of Bill Watterson!
Admin’s note: This is not the real John Piper.
February 7th, 2006 at 8:42 am
What role did the massive hardbound collection that was released late last year have? They were clearly mocking the look of large old hardcover Bibles and theology books…
February 7th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I’m sure that I should be able to come up with something very witty in response to this, but for some reason, I just can’t.
Suffice to say that I laughed very hard when I read this! Thanks for the humor (and thanks to Tim Challies for pointing us to it)
steve
February 7th, 2006 at 9:02 am
This is very clever and goes to show just how crazy the violent reaction over the muslim cartoons is! I’ve been reading a lot of works by Jonathan(!) Swift and some of the other 18th century Scriblarians for school…they loved to comment on what was going on in their world (or Great Britain:) through satire. They would have liked this piece!
February 7th, 2006 at 9:35 am
One word — OK, one acronym — ROTFLMArmO !
Ditto the thanks to Tim Challies !
February 7th, 2006 at 9:39 am
[…] s, humor (arr, arr), media Ochuk conjectures that others might be offended by cartoons too. I’d put down that coffee. Spit-takes on monitors can be gross. HT to Tim Challies fo […]
February 7th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
[…] t with the secular media calling it “worldly” and the “musings of the goats.” Read more here… And finally, I am not much of a computer gamer. Sometimes I will pull out my edition Tiger Woods Gol […]
February 7th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
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Roundup 2/7:
Roundup 2/7: Ochuk provides a humorous take on the cartoon outrage. This time it’s the reformers up in arms about Calvin � […]
February 7th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
And don’t forget about the droves of fanatic Thomas Hobbes fans who are decrying this blasphemous caricature of the revered political philosopher. Storming the publisher’s offices, raised copies of Leviathan in hand, they are calling for a public apology from Watterson.
February 7th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Great stuff!
February 7th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Jesus Akbar!
February 8th, 2006 at 3:46 am
[…] d February 8th, 2006 in General Via Ochuk’s blog: MONROE—LA Protests are spreading across the Reformed world over the publication of cartoons by Bill Waterston […]
February 8th, 2006 at 6:20 am
Cartoon outrage continues
This time in Reformed circles over the depiction of reformer John Calvin in cartoon form [via TC]:
Protests are spreading across the Reformed world over the publication of cartoons by Bill Waterston depicting the great 16th century reformer as an imp…
February 8th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Oh well, I have always been more of a Hobbist anyway. Ooops, I may have just offended the stuffed tiger crowd, shame on me.
February 8th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
This was predestined to happen!
February 11th, 2006 at 2:19 am
[…] Filed under: Goofy Culture Faith — Carmon @ 11:18 pm
This only proves the superiority of western civilization and Christendom in particular, though rather […]