Customer Reviews

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons," by Bill Watterson, is a collection of comic strip adventures of Calvin, the feisty schoolboy, and his companion Hobbes, a stuffed tiger. The strips generally form short stories within the book. The book's title refers to one of these storylines, in which Calvin creates a mutant snow man which in turn creates an army of similar creatures. Other storylines involve Calvin getting chicken pox; his creation of his own TV show; and his club known as GROSS (a warped acronym for "Get Rid Of Slimy girlS").

The C&H stories are great because they are funny celebrations of the power of a child's imagination. Calvin assumes such alternate identities as sci-fi hero Spaceman Spiff, caped superhero Stupendous Man, and private eye Tracer Bullet. Often the humor comes from the clash of Calvin's fantasies with the reality around him. The stuffed Hobbes, through the power of Calvin's imagination, becomes both a comrade and a great foil for the boy; their wacky relationship is one of the most memorable in the comic strip genre.

Calvin is an academic underachiever, rebel, performance artist, disgruntled philosopher, and all-around bringer of chaos -- although his playmate/rival Susie refers to him as "the incurable weirdness poster child." Whether discovering a new dinosaur species (the "Calvinosaurus") or evading the dreaded monster under the bed, Calvin is hilarious. And you've got to love a comic that cites the U.S. Bill of Rights. "Attack" is a great book both for C&H fans and for newcomers to this excellent comic strip.

Bill Waterson is argudably one of the best comic writers out there. Even through his retirement, he has made great books of past comics featuring his Calvin and Hobbes characters. I laugh and laugh at these comics he creates and I sometimes wonder how he comes up with such brilliant ideas sometimes with the storylines of some of the strips.

Calvin, one of his best known characters, is the trouble-making kid in the school. He is funny and imaginative and likes to make funa and games with his "real" pet friend Hobbes. Through the comics, you can see the relationship between a stuffed animal and a human.

In this comic though, Hobbes "comes to life" in Calvins eyes. The things that Calvin can sometimes get involved in is so hilarious and sometimes out of this world.

I guarantee that anyone that loves comics will fall in love with this one and should definitely buy this book to start their collection of classic comics.

All of Bill Waterson's comic books are very well done and very professional. His work is his life and it shows the time and consideration it took to make these characters come to life. Thank you Mr. Waterson for creating such a great comic and thatnk you people for reading my review!

I have read almost all of the books in Calvin & Hobbes collection. By far, this one is BETTER THAN THE BEST! I have always been a great Calvin & Hobbes fan, but this has crazy plots and more...like in the Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons (the comis strip not the book) Calvin makes a snowman come to life and it makes more weird snowmen. They attack Calvin & Hobbes. Then Calvin's parents come outside and say it's time to go to bed. Will Calvin & Hobbes be able to save the world from the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons?

Calvin and Hobbes... you gotta love them!

"I'd like to shake the hand of the genius who invented these." - Calvin as he lovingly displays a perfect water balloon.

"Our class voted Calvin the 'Most likely to be seen on the news some day'." - Susie Derkins, the real expert on Calvin, after Calvin confesses to her that he is hiding from his homicidal bicycle.

"I dunno, it seems like once people grow up, they have no idea what's cool." - Calvin after his mom refused his request to get contact lenses... one blood red, and the other "Yellow striped, like a bug."

Oh... and why DO adults forget what is cool?

All Calvin and Hobbes books are great. But this one, in which Calvin imagines that he has brought a demonic snowman to life, may be the best of the bunch. The sequence of strips in which Calvin is sure that the snowman and his friends are out to kill him may be the most brilliant of Bill Watterson's career. He is an absolute comic genius whose presence in the funny pages has been sorely missed since his retirement. "Snow Goons" is Watterson at his finest.

Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes wreck havoc as usual in this awesome collection of Watterson's timeless comic. Whether Calvin's wild imagination is dreaming of prehistoric dinosaurs or planning a mischevious attack on his arch-rival (fellow classmate Suzie Derkins), you're sure to enjoy the unexplainable antics of this troublesome six year old boy.

This particular collection starts with a series of cartoons depicting Calvin with chicken pox. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as he finds out he's contagious, he invites Suzie over to play. That crazy kid.

Individual comics follow, but then another series emerges - one where Calvin's bike attacks him upon every attempt at riding it, and his parents remain clueless about how his face could EVER get caught in the bike's chain.

In another series, we see Calvin's "Get Rid Of Slimy girlS" club planning a failed water balloon assault on Suzie, resulting in the disappearance of Hobbes. Hobbes does some smooching with the enemy and is labeled as a traitor.

We also see Calvin struggling in math, losing a 25 cent bet to Suzie after failing a quiz. He spends all his test time daydreaming he's interplanetary hero Spaceman Spiff, and is only able to do one lousy problem.

When the Christmas season approaches, poor Calvin has to avoid throwing snowballs at Suzie so he won't lose any of his Christmas loot.

The amusing title series of this collection is definitely one of my favorites. Calvin builds monster snowmen that (in his mind anyway) come to life and threaten his existence, so he freezes the whole front yard with the garden hose to protect himself, much to the dismay of his father.

Last but not least, Calvin builds a human duplicating machine out of a cardboard box, and he makes a special copy of himself that represents everything good in him. His plan is to make his flawless duplicate do all of his homework and chores, while he himself gets all the credit. Everything goes fine for a while, until his duplicate develops a crush on Suzie, making him look bad. Hilarity ensues.

Inbetween each of the series are individual comic strips with recurring themes. Open-minded Calvin bugs his parents with questions like, "Why do I have to play outside?" "Why can't we watch TV during dinner?" "If we were cannibals, what parts of people would we eat?" Calvin also grosses out Suzie at every opportunity whenever it's time for lunch at school.

We see Calvin engaging in some of his less frequent behaviors as well, such as digging for dinosaur bones in the front yard and demanding his parents and teachers address him as "Calvin the Bold."

Great, great collection. I loved it years ago and still love it today. Best comic ever in my opinion.

I've got almost every Calvin and Hobbes collection, but as this was the first one I ever bought I'm going to review it. What can I say? What can anyone say? Bill Watterson has broken the mould of comic strips--this is the wittiest, silliest, sickest, and most heart-warming fiction I've ever come across, in ANY medium. I love his characters, and I love his insane plotlines--yet there's always a golden nugget of truth at the heart of each. Along with Gary Larson, Bill Watterson has breathed new life into the comic strip genre (and I'm no big fan of comics). Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant stuff.

I've been teaching my son to read English through Calvin and Hobbes books. I've been surprised how much of it is written with an adult in mind. We have drawn much amusement from these books. The Snow Goons isn't quite as rewarding as other C&H collections, but is enjoyable nonetheless. This is more a weekly format with black and white strip cartoons. None of the Sunday spreads are contained within this collection, where one really saw Watterson show off his stunning imagination. However, it is very much worth adding to the archives, especially for bedtime stories.

I first began reading Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper around the time he introduced the Killer Snow Goons story, where Calvin builds yet another mutant, deranged snowman--but unlike previous strips, Calvin attempts to bring the snow goon to life a la Frankenstein, leading to the monster creating an army of similarly deranged snow goons.

Watterson's artwork as usual is imaginative and humorous, and Calvin and Hobbes' interaction in this book are particularly hilarious. If you've never read C&H before, consider this book a great place to start; long-read fans will also enjoy it as one of the best selections in the Calvin & Hobbes library.

I loved Calvin and Hobbes when i was a little kid and I still do now! They're hillarious and Calvin reminds me so much of myself at
his age (not in every aspect). Especially our family camp trips. calvin and his mom remind me so much of myself and my mom when
our dad took us camping and it turned out to be a disaster, lol. These cartoons make me want to be a kid again. Almost everyone has
said this but I'll say it again. You'll start out planning to read a few pages but you won't stop there. you can't. it's so additive. some of
the younger kids might not understand some of the big words but older kids will. But I think that grownups will enjoy them the most.
Get them
all!