Why is Calvin always six years old, despite the strip running over a ten-year time frame?
Most cartoon characters do little or no aging, since they dont have to the way filmed sitcoms do, and their characters would often become a torture to both the reader and writer to deal with changing. The way there are occasionally references to time (the Acme of Evolution in 1988, a new decade in a new years resolution strip, 94 toboggan models, etc.) could give rise to questionable continuity, but first of all, you have to take a good deal of things Calvin says with a grain of salt (he cant add, so why could he figure out linear time?! One of his own test answers is a clever joke on linear time, as well.) Secondly, you could largely see the year references as symbolic of the real world. Nor can you assume that Calvin is always exactly six years old; if he doesnt say so (and even if he does!) he might be five or seven, and unless hes actually in the first grade classroom with Susie, Miss Wormwood, etc, you cant assume hes even in first grade at the time of a strip, either! One can arg
