Batman has the Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor, Captain America has the Red Skull, and for six-year-old Calvin, his avowed arch-nemesis is Rosalyn, the diabolical babysitter who makes him go to bed at 6:30.
In Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, there weren’t many recurring characters beyond Calvin, his tiger Hobbes, and Calvin’s parents, but there were a few others in Calvin’s orbit. And while Calvin was often at odds with his neighbor Susie, that was nothing compared to his rivalry with Rosalyn the babysitter, a character deserving of a bit more appreciation and whose best-ever quote in the series ranks among the funniest stuff in the history of Calvin and Hobbes.
Rosalyn’s introduction
Rosalyn was first introduced in May, 1986 with a a weekday panel on Thursday May 15, and a storyline that continued on through Friday and Saturday. Rosalyn was also featured in that Sunday’s longer, color comic strip and it appears as though she’s babysitting Calvin for the first time, whereas she seems to already know him in the weekday comics from the preceding days. Most likely, the Sunday strip was written first, as Sunday comics had to be prepared weeks before the daily ones did.
In the earliest comic strips with Rosalyn, she’s a much harsher character. In that first three-day weekday storyline, Rosalyn locks Calvin in the basement for hours, not wanting to put up with his nonsense. Meanwhile, Calvin was a more passive victim of Rosalyn’s cruelty. Eventually, the dynamic would switch where Calvin would constantly misbehave and torture Rosalyn, while Rosalyn was more of a victim. In this layer dynamic, her harshness really doesn’t extend beyond her putting Calvin to bed at the extra-early time of 6:30. Why the change? Well, I can speculate that Calvin is just a heck of a lot funnier when he is horrible to someone that doesn’t really seem to deserve it.
But while their comedy dynamic would evolve, the fact that Rosalyn’s first weekday appearance lasted for three days straight points to something that would become essential to her future appearances. Rosalyn was almost always featured in stories that spanned multiple days. Ever since the beginning of Calvin and Hobbes, Watterson alternated between standalone jokes and multi-day storylines. Those longer storylines allowed Watterson to illustrate his prowess as a longer-form storyteller, and Calvin’s rivalry with Rosalyn made for some great stories.
Rosalyn’s best story
The best multi-day babysitter story in Calvin and Hobbes is probably the time Calvin managed to trick Rosalyn by locking her out of the house. Having been sent to bed at an early time, Calvin gets up and tells Rosalyn he heard something outside. When she ventures out to find out what it is, he slams the door behind her, locks it, and proceeds to taunt her from the upstairs windows. He also plops himself down on the couch, watches hours of TV, and consumes a whole package of Oreos. Showing off Watterson’s proficiency at long-form storytelling, this series spanned two whole weeks in the fall of 1989.
Rosalyn’s best quote
Another two-week storyline appeared earlier in 1989 and it happened to feature the title of a future Calvin and Hobbes collected book — Calvin and Hobbes: The Revenge of the Baby-Sat — as well as Rosalyn’s best-ever quote from the series.
In “Revenge of the Baby-Sat,” Calvin realizes that his parents are going out, but that he’s not going with them. Then Rosalyn arrives, and Calvin’s Mom says that Calvin is hiding so maybe Rosalyn will have an easier time babysitting tonight. Rosalyn seems hopeful, and mentions that she’s got a science test to study for. Meanwhile, Calvin overhears this and decides to declare tonight “The Revenge of the Baby Sat.”
In the next day’s panel, after Calvin’s parents have left and Rosalyn has gotten to studying, Calvin puts on an innocent act and inquires what Rosalyn is up to. Then he snatches her science notes and runs off.
In the next day’s panel, Calvin runs to the bathroom with the notes and locks the door behind him. He threatens to flush Rosalyn’s science notes and Rosalyn shouts her best line that Watterson ever wrote for her:
“Calvin! Open this door, or your parents will never find your remains!”
Over the next few days’ strips, Rosalyn is shouting through the door while Calvin seems to be flushing the notes. Rosalyn eventually tricks Calvin into reopening the door by staying silent for a while. Once Calvin peeks his head out to see why she’s so quiet, Rosalyn pounces on Calvin and gets her notes back. This is when Calvin reveals that he didn’t really flush anything.
Rosalyn’s final appearance
Calvin’s relationship with Roslyn is remembered for the antagonism, but they weren’t always at odds. In Rosalyn’s last appearance in Calvin and Hobbes, Rosalyn tries a new tactic to get Calvin to behave: kindness. Rather than send him straight to bed as she usually did — which always resulted in disaster — Rosalyn proposes a deal where she will play a game of Calvin’s choosing and he’ll get to stay up a half-hour past his bedtime, as long as he behaves.
Calvin proposes they play “Calvinball,” a game he made up where the rules are constantly changing. Rosalyn momentarily regrets her decision, but once she figures out that she can shift the rules too, she gets into it. In the end, Rosalyn invents the “Babysitter flag” to declare an end to the game and Calvin goes to bed peacefully.
These comics ran in September of 1995, just three months before Watterson concluded Calvin and Hobbes and it seems clear that, for Rosalyn’s last story, he wanted to give a bit more dimension to the character. For the first time in their nine-year rivalry, Calvin and Rosalyn actually got along and, as he always did with Rosalyn, Watterson got to share just how good he was at telling those longer-format stories.