This is the first Calvin & Hobbes book I’ve purchased since elementary school. Back then, my parents would give me an allowance whenever the Scholastic Book Catalog was passed around the classroom and I would almost always buy a Calvin & Hobbes collection. My parents encouraged me to read something of value when I could, so they’d talk me out of sticker books and lesser kid titles like Captain Poopbutt & His Wacky Goof Smile Crew or some shit. This was fine, since I always tried to read at a higher level. For instance, I read a bunch of Michael Chrichton in junior high. Guess what happens when you’re some barely-teenage spaz launching his way through puberty and reading techno-thrillers without understanding basic science? It messes up your brain and you start wanting to only talk about time travel in biology class.
But, when I read Calvin & Hobbes, it was sort of this weird hybrid piece of childhood and adulthood. It wasn’t some coming-of-age tale or some hyperactive meta-fiction. Calvin and Hobbes, as comic characters, did a number on me, as they were loud and adventurous while, in turn, quietly discussing philosophy. Looking back, I probably scored a heavy helping of social interpretation from the two. It’s pretty hard to get a kid to consider morality and mortality, but, somehow, when Calvin posed a question to Hobbes in the woods or in the wagon, there came a serious pondering of existence in this great big world.
I’ve read through my Calvin & Hobbes collections dozens of times, over the years, every year. To read Calvin & Hobbes comics this week, ones that I’ve never previously read, was some sort of hellfire crash of excitement and nostalgia. It was the first comic strip I ever loved. It was the first thing my father and I ever discussed like literary men. It was the first characters that I thought made eloquent and constructive sense of wise-assing.
This particular collection got a five-star rating from me before I even read it. Bill Watterson spent his years as a cartoonist having an open discussion about the wants and drags of mankind and the nervous wonderment of people, all while letting an uncontrollable kid’s imagination run wild with his closest friend. It was perfect then and it’s perfect now.
- Goodreads rating – 4.66
- SUMMARY – Jake