false 24812 1 By the 1980s the once glorious newspaper comics section had become a wasteland, ravaged by shrinking space, editorial timidity and other ills. The real excitement in my medium had moved to the fertile margins of the alternative press. Bill Watterson, as uninterested in underground comix as I was in the mass media's bland concoctions, marched directly into the wasteland and made the comatose syndicated strip form kick up its heels and dance. From 1985 until Watterson abandoned it at the height of its popularity 10 years later, <i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> echoed the classic strips the artist most admired. Stirring the richly conceived characters and efficient drawing of <i>Peanuts</i> with the visual virtuosity and linguistic playfulness of <i>Pogo</i> and <i>Krazy Kat,</i> he applied his intelligence and supple cartoon skills to come up with a creation beloved by the millions who still mourn its passing. Now, a decade after his demise, six-year-old Calvin has a fitting monument—a lavishly produced three-volume boxed collection of all the strips, which weighs as much as a tombstone. Following in the wake of Gary Larson's <i>The Complete Far Side,</i> and with a 250,000-copy "limited edition" first printing, the publisher realistically predicts that this book will be "the heaviest and most expensive book ever to hit the <i>New York Times</i> best seller list." While not as exquisitely wrought as Walt and Skeezix, the recently launched reprinting of Frank King's epic run of <i>Gasoline Alley,</i> or as intimate and dignified as Fantagraphics' ongoing republication of all 50 years of <i>Peanuts,</i> this luxurious set is dressed for success and deserves an honored spot on the happily expanding shelves of strip reprints. <i>The Complete Calvin and Hobbes</i> offers two intertwined narratives. One details the friendship between Calvin—the egotistical, feverishly imaginative, wised-up young tyke with the vocabulary of a Yale lit major—and his animal familiar, Hobbes. Hobbes is seen by Calvin's parents as a nondescript plush toy and by Calvin and the reader as a pouncing and amiable "real" tiger—Calvin's slightly-more-sensible better half. The crosscutting between private and shared reality gives the strip its vitality.The autobiographical introduction by the notoriously reclusive Watterson kicks off another tale about the collision of private and shared realities: the story of an ornery artist's battle to explore his craft within the claustrophobic confines of a few inches of newsprint space. The beleaguered Watterson fights the strictures of brutal daily deadlines, skirmishes with editors to win more space for his often graceful Sunday pages, slugs it out with his syndicate to keep his creation from being reduced to a stuffed doll. The later strips begin to dwell obsessively on the horrors of our dumbed-down commodity culture, and there's something poignant about the artist's hopeless struggle to work within the confines of mass culture while simultaneously critiquing it. These books offer a testament to Watterson's dedication and to the medium's ability to keep reinventing itself against all odds. (Oct.)Art Spiegelman is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 25599 book 4 10 2005 The Complete Calvin and Hobbes total:2059|5:1838|4:185|3:27|2:4|1:5| 2059 10024 2395 257 5 2 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1992 Mon Sep 17 15:34:56 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 28 16:50:19 -0700 2007
these stretched my brain as a kid. never pandered to his audience. i learned so many words and references from these. i specifically remember looking up transmogrify, kafka and phleg...more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Mar 10 07:54:18 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 19 08:44:14 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 14:40:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Jan 13 11:40:37 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 13 11:42:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 04:54:06 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 05:29:11 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 10 20:13:26 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 20:19:13 -0700 2007
But by the last few years, Volume III, he was making art.

I've noticed a recurrent theme in the latter Calvin strips, particularly the Sunday panels. ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Sep 13 07:41:24 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 07:52:01 -0700 2007 5 1 false false Sun Oct 12 23:09:55 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 12 23:11:59 -0700 2008 5 1 false false Mon Apr 30 00:22:34 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 30 00:23:48 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Apr 01 20:52:26 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 20:57:16 -0700 2009
My all time favorite and most beloved comic in a gorgeous 3 book collection that contains every single Calvin and Hobbes strip ever printed, along with a wonderful little introduction/reflection from the very elusive Bill Watterso...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 15 12:01:20 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 12:02:44 -0800 2008 5 1 false false Sun Jul 27 22:17:59 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 18:24:11 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 1990 Sun Jun 15 21:39:21 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 21:39:21 -0700 2008 Complete Calvin and Hobbes, nor have I ever seen it, though I would love it as a present; all I know is that every Calvin & Hobbes book just adds to its status as my favorite cartoon of all time. Bill Watterson is an observant genius. He gets the fact that mischievous little ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 12:28:47 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 12:39:06 -0700 2008 There is no comic like Calvin and Hobbes. It is the apogee. The zenith. That is it.
And Bill Watterson did something that I think is very ad...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 14 11:59:53 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 14 12:11:53 -0700 2008 This book is totally the book that anyone with a sense of humor would enjoy.

I remember a time when I read Calvin so much that I knew some of the strips by heart. There's only one sad thing about calvin & Hobbes..... That i...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 19 22:31:42 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 22:40:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 10:51:45 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 26 10:51:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 12:44:06 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 12:53:08 -0700 2009
It's scary to me how much I can relate to Bill Watterson's point of view. Did I become who I am because I received a new Calvin and Hobbes book every Christmas throughout my f...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun May 03 13:50:11 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 13:53:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 22 14:02:32 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 13:43:06 -0800 2008 5 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Mar 16 19:49:10 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 19:52:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=24812