text: However, those that believe this John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes allusion may be the victims of a bit of a prank at the hands of Watterson: "'That's not true,' Rich West told me. 'The linking of the two names wasn't natural. The strip did not come from the idea that both characters would be named after philosophical thinkers. However, Hobbes was definitely a tip of the hat--and perhaps a little bit of a smirk at--his political science degree from Kenyon. Calvin was just a coincidence.'" At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide; as of January 2010, reruns of the strip still appear in more than 50 countries.