Secondary Characters in Calvin and Hobbes - Susie Derkins

Susie Derkins is a classmate of Calvin who lives in his neighborhood. She is the only recurring character in the comic strip to have both a forename and a surname revealed. The only other characters in the whole strip to have be given both a given name and family name are some of Calvin's classmates, although each student is only seen or mentioned once. This is why Susie cannot be defined as the only character to have a first and second name. She is also the only character who aged in the strip. Named after Watterson's in-laws' family beagle, she first appeared early in the strip as a new student in Calvin's class, but in later strips acts as if she has lived in Calvin's neighborhood for her entire life. In contrast to Calvin, she is polite and diligent in her studies, and her imagination usually seems mild-mannered and civilized, consisting of games such as playing "house" or having tea parties with her stuffed animals; Calvin considers them boring and dull. On one occasion, she played with a doll named Binky Betsy. Her parents have spoken in the strip several times but it is never confirmed that they appear in the panels, although her mom from the waist-down is seen in one strip.

During the strip's first years, Susie was seen wearing a skirt or overalls, and was drawn with a large round elliptical head, much like Charlie Brown's. Her appearance slightly changed over the years as Watterson's art evolved.

Susie and Calvin's relationship is a constant source of tension; she is frequently the victim of Calvin's derision and plots, and is also often willing to retaliate when provoked. Most commonly, Susie will be the target of Calvin's water balloons or snowballs. Calvin often goes to great lengths to disgust or annoy Susie, founding his and Hobbes' secret club, G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) as a general anti-girl organization; but, almost invariably, Susie becomes the target of their harassment (either because of Calvin's rivalry with her or because of the more practical aspect that no other young-girl characters appear in the strip). Unfortunately for Calvin, Susie is his equal (and often superior) in cunning, often turning his plans into ignominious defeats. However, during a storyline where Calvin was debating over whether or not to join a baseball team, the two mildly spoke to each other over Calvin's dilemma while on a seesaw. Hobbes has a crush on Susie and can sometimes pressure Calvin into playing with her. Susie has a short temper, which is shown in several strips in which she beats up Calvin for simply throwing a single snowball or water balloon at her. She also possesses strength, as in one strip she picked up Calvin and carried him over to a giant snowball to dunk him in after he threw a snowball at her, and is apparently on the school's lacrosse team, as shown in one strip where Calvin throws a pine cone at her, only to have her return it at higher speed.

Watterson admits that Calvin and Susie have a bit of a crush on each other, and that Susie is inspired by the type of women he himself finds attractive. This love/hate relationship is most obvious early in the strip's evolution, particularly a Valentine's Day strip in which Susie seems to appreciate a rather juvenile gift Calvin gives her (a hate mail valentine and a bunch of dead flowers), and he rejoices inwardly when she acknowledges his efforts (albeit by throwing a snowball at him). Watterson, in retrospect, decided this was a bit heavy-handed, and resolved to simply let the two characters bounce off each other in future, to the point of practically removing any romantic subtext. During one series of strips Calvin modifies his "duplicator" to copy only his good side; this well-dressed, polite and very-intelligent version of Calvin soon becomes besotted with Susie, writing her love letters, and is mystified by her hostile reaction. Calvin once referenced their love/hate relationship in one strip after the two had just finished exchanging a barrage of insults, saying how it was "shameless the way we flirt." More than one strip indicates that Susie and Calvin are at least interested in being friends and playing with each other, these efforts usually started by Susie herself, though their interchanges usually end with Calvin breaking off character in exasperation; in one strip Susie has even expressed delight when Calvin invites her to his home to play, though it was only a ruse to infect her with his chicken pox (Calvin in turn, has played with Susie in her house more than once).

The two sometimes speak at their bus stop, with the usual result being that they both become exasperated with each other. Susie and Calvin also interact at the lunch table, where Calvin takes the opportunity to repulse her with disgusting descriptions of what his lunch contains (for example, a "cow pie" for dessert). One such strip, according to the Tenth-Anniversary retrospective, resulted in a newspaper canceling their subscription when Calvin pulled out his dessert: "Look, a thermos full of phlegm!" Another instance involves Calvin implementing a "great idea in action" by stuffing his entire lunch (a jelly sandwich and a banana) into his thermos of milk, shaking it up to form a rudimentary smoothie, and preparing to "choke it down" while Susie turns away in disgust. Once Calvin took the joke a bit too far, pouring his manicotti down his shirt and actually scaring her away from the table by pretending that they were his intestines falling out, then saying, "I should get some more and see if I can get out of math class."

At one point, she and Calvin were assigned to do a project on Mercury in which she writes about the planet and he writes about the mythology of Mercury. At the beginning of the story, Calvin complained about Susie's habit of eating each ingredient in her sandwich separately and concluded "It certifies you as a grade-A nimrod." Also, Susie was aggravated by Calvin's constant bouts of goofing off when he should have been getting research, including when he was drawing Martians which aggravated Susie to the point that she exclaims "It's no use! I'll have to go to a second-rate college because my idiot partner spent the study period drawing Martians!" to which Calvin attempts to cheer her up with a flip book in which a Martian eats an astronaut. Calvin also proclaimed that, when he gave his half of the report, that "a funny thing happened to him on the way to the library yesterday" to which Susie exclaims that it wasn't her fault. This was most likely an excuse for the low quality of Calvin's half of the report. It might or might not have been one of Calvin's bouts of mischief in which Susie was present, although he could have said that just to waste the time for the presentation of the report.

On some occasions, Susie does not take Calvin's attempting to hide from and alerting Susie about things (i.e., his bicycle and the snow goons) that were "out to get him" seriously. One time she remarked "Our class voted Calvin 'Most likely to be seen on the news someday'."