Spaceman Spiff first appears on page 10 of
Calvin and Hobbes .
He is on foot (no space ship yet), but as usual, he is threatened by
an alien whose skin bears the same polka dot pattern as
Miss Wormwood's dress.
As a side note, this is also the first appearance of
Principal Spittle, although we do not learn his name
yet.
On page 14, we see Spiff again, still no space ship, but we see his ray-gun, this time referred to first as a mertilizer (which he sets on "deep-fat-fry"), and then as an atomic napalm neutralizer. Spiff ducks into the Teacher's Lounge. First mention of planet Zorg.
Next we see Spiff on page 18. First appearance of Spiff's Spaceship! Spiff is pursued high above the planet Gloob by the Scum-Beings of planet Q-13. Spiff gets shot down and survives the first of many crash-landings.
Brief one panel appearance at the top of page 28, cooly drawing his death-ray blaster.
Brief one panel appearance at the bottom of page 32, facing a Zorg (Principal Spittle).
At the bottom of page 36, there's a good single panel of Spiff (with blaster in hand) nearby his wrecked space ship. I love the scene; well drawn as usual.
On Page 37, Spiff ejects just before a crash-landing.
On page 48, Spiff is cornered by a Zondarg.
Top of page 71, Spiff attempts to blast a Zarg.
On page 73, Spiff is pursued by a Scum Being, and attempts to scale the ladder to his hovering spaceship.
On page 79, Spiff is in hot pursuit of the Zargons.
On page 82, Spiff closes in on an alien vessel, but is foiled by a Gorkon Death Station.
On page 96, Spiff blasts into the fifth dimension, a world where time has no meaning.
On page 120, Spiff attempts to elude his alien enemies by shifting from forward to reverse and back.
In
Something Under The Bed Is Drooling
on page 17, our valiant hero Spiff is once again shot down on a distant alien world.
On page 33, Spiff is captured and tortured by the Zorkons (the gym instructor).
On page 53 Spiff, nearly crash-lands on planet Zog, but at the last second makes a perfect 3-point landing. I believe this is the first time Spiff lands safely.
On page 109, Spiff is marooned on the deserted planet Zok.
On the back cover is a full-color picture of Spaceman Spiff in his crashed spaceship.
In
Yukon Ho!, we see Spaceman Spiff at the bottom of page 6, being led through a dungeon
in chains.
On page 24, Spiff crash-lands again on another deserted, barren planet (fortunately, his Mom brings him lemonade and a sandwich).
On page 35, we find Spiff back on planet Zog, held prisoner by the evil Zog king (the doctor, Calvin is at the doctor's office).
On page 70, a dazed Spaceman Spiff crawls from the wreckage of his spaceship. He is captured by the hideous Zorgs of planet X-13.
On page 85, Spiff flees from the Despicable Scum Beings of planet Q-13 (not to be confused with the hideous Zorgs of planet X-13).
On page 116, Spiff regards a strange alien being that seems to be trying to communicate with him (Susie).
On page 119, our hero is about to be cooked alive (bath time).
In
Weirdos from Another Planet, on page 22, Spiff is shot down and Crash-lands on planet Mok, where he is tortured in the dungeon (actually, his mom is giving him a bath).
On page 57, Spiff makes a one panel appearance, attempting to escape from a Zog slave galley (his Dad has taken him fishing).
On page 68, Spiff explores an uncharted planet and ends up on top of a huge reclining alien (Dad is sleeping).
0n page 110 Spiff lands on a planet with lower gravity than Earth, and springs through the air (Calvin is jumping on his bed). Another rare instance where Spiff lands without crashing.
In
Revenge of the Baby-Sat
on page 7, Spiff is floating outside his spaceship making repairs (Mom is carrying Calvin out the front door to send him off to school).
Starting on page 26 and running through page 27, Spiff is captured by Zog Wargs, but makes an ingenious escape (Calvin is trying to avoid going to school, and is eventually caught by Mom).
On page 30, Spiff is captured and about to be debriefed (Calvin is at the dinner table).
On page 61, despite being shot by a Zok death sloop, Spiff manages to land his spaceship without crashing it. How rare is that?!!!!
On page 124, Spiff releases a cloud of smoke to lose his pursuers (Calvin is clapping the chalkbord erasers together).
On page 125, Spiff has engine trouble, and goes down over planet Gork. Amazingly, for the second time in the same book, Spiff lands his Spaceship unscathed. He must be getting better at this.
Spiff doesn't make an appearance until page 38 in
Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'. He tries to dodge asteroids in his spaceship, but is hit (Calvin is playing dodge ball in gym class).
On page 72, Spiff searches for signs of alien life on an un-named planet (Calvin is following footsteps in the snow).
On page 95, Spiff tries to avoid a flood of caustic sodium hydroxide (Calvin doesn't want to take his bath).
On page 100, Spiff is marooned on the most distant planet in the galaxy (Calvin is playing left field).
From page 111 - 112, Spiff tries to escape from hideous aliens (Calvin is trying to escape from school).
On page 114, Spiff decides to put an alien blob out of its misery.
In
Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons !, starting on page 38 and ending on 39, Spaceman Spiff adds six and five together by smashing two planets into each other (Calvin is doing a math test).
On page 50, Spiff discovers a tiny race inhabiting a newly discovered planet. Spiff lands without crashing (Calvin is watching an ant colony).
On page 95, Spiff crash-lands on a strange unexplored planet, having been zorched by zarches. Spiff loses his pursuers on foot, by running backwards, so his footprints point in the other direction (Calvin is evading his parents in the snow).
On page 109, Spiff journeys to the distant (well, distant to everyone but Spiff) planet Z-12 (Calvin is sneaking up on his slumbering Dad).
On page 50 of
The Days Are Just Packed, Spiff flees from his bloatoid captors (Calvin cuts out of school early).
On page 138, Spiff observes a bizarre lifeform known as a "GurL". Spiff notes that the bizarrotron is reading a little on the low side (Calvin is looking at Susie).
There are only two Spaceman Spiff stories in this collection, and amazingly Spiff does not crash his spaceship in either one!
On page 28 of
Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, Spiff bravely pilots his craft at never before attained speeds, discovers galxies and planets never before charted, and bravely confronts space species never before encountered, but Calvin refuses to eat his dinner.
On page 76, Spiff is pursued by hostile aliens, and narrowly dodges a bolt of explode-o-ray (Calvin is trying to avoid his Mom who wants him to go to bed).
On page 101, Spiff faces a creature that speaks an unintelligible language (Calvin cannot understand the teacher).
On page 139, (after a safe landing!) Spiff's bizarrotron detects an alien presence (Mom and Dad have company over, and Calvin interrupts with his dart gun). Great alien landscape as usual.
On page 155, Spiff is stranded on a hot desert planet. He crawls across the sun-baked land (until Mom shows up and gives Calvin a ball cap and some sunscreen.
In chronological order of publishing year,
The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book comes next, but it is a retrospective collection, and mostly reprints stories already published earlier.
On page 68, is a very good bio of Spaceman Spiff, which explains his origins and development. The Spiff character evolved from an earlier strip that pre-dates Calvin and Hobbes altogether.
Page 69 reprints the Spiff story from page 24 of Yukon Ho!, where his Mom brings him lemonade and a sandwich.
Page 72 reprints the strip from page 116 of Yukon Ho!, where Susie is yelling at Calvin, as Spiff tries to understand what the strange alien being is saying.
Page 126 reprints the scene from the baseball story in Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'.
On page 20 of
There's Treasure Everywhere, Spiff blasts off after a final countdown (as Clavin watches the clock at school) and makes a smooth landing in Calvin's front yard. A little blurring of the two realities in the landing scene.
On page 48, while Spiff doesn't actually make an appearance, I think we see a one-panel Spiff's-eye-view-from-the-cockpit of Mysterious planet Zartok-3.
On page 84, Spiff crash-lands on an ocean-world of water! (Calvin has to take a bath)
On page 124, Spiff is tortured by the horrible Yukbarf, who makes him sit through a calm discussion of wholesome principles (Calvin's Dad is talking to him).
On page 164, Spiff is in an impenetrable fog (Calvin has been called on to answer a question in math at school).
On page 25 of
It's a Magical World, we get a Spiff's-eye-view-from the cockpit again.
On page 45 Spiff searches for weirdness on a dull boring planet (Calvin and Hobbes are off to make their own weirdness in the last frame).
On page 93, Spiff has trouble with his non-user-friendly on-board computer.
On page 112, Spiff searches for food on a barren desert planet. He is saved when he finds ice-cream sandwiches (Calvin is in the school lunch room).
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes : A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury
reprints all the stories from
Calvin and Hobbes and
Something Under The Bed Is Drooling and so there are no new Spiff stories in it, but all the Sunday Spiffs from those two books are in color in this book. Add about 13 pages to the page number in
Calvin and Hobbes to find the same story. Add about 145 pages to the page number in
Something Under The Bed Is Drooling to find the same story. These numbers are approximate, because the stories are not all in the same order.
The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book : A Collection of Sunday Calvin and Hobbes Cartoons
is a collection of Sunday Strips reprinted in large format and in full color. But more importantly, it is the only place you will find the story Spaceman Spiff Interplanetary Explorer Extraordinaire!. It is the lead story, runs for 10 pages, and is in large format. It's great! Check it out. This story alone is worth the price of the book. The drawings are excellent!
Spiff also appears on pages 22 (the Spiff story from page 24 of Yukon Ho!, where his Mom brings him lemonade and a sandwich), 35 (from page 70 of Yukon Ho!), 50 (from page 119 of Yukon Ho!), 57 (from page 22 of Weirdos from Another Planet), 71 (from page 68 of Weirdos from Another Planet), 85 (from page 110 of Weirdos from Another Planet), 100 (from page 30 of Revenge of the Baby-Sat), and 109 (from page 61 of Revenge of the Baby-Sat).
Neither
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes nor
The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes contain any new Spiff stories not previously published, although they have the Sunday strips from Yukon Ho through Scientific Progress Goes Boink in full - color. The back cover of
The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes is a full page color Spaceman Spiff scene.
These are all the Spaceman Spiff appearances I have found. If you know of any I have left out, or if you have any corrections or comments, please email me or sign the guestbook. I hope you enjoy looking up all your favorite Spiff adventures! Check out the rest of my Calvin and Hobbes pages at the Compendium.
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