Customer Reviews

Calvin And Hobbes (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Calvin & Hobbes)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this one up after far too long an intermission. Calvin's adventures remain timeless, his antics winsome, his spirit soaring. The book that started it all, with all its poignant observations, philosophical ruminations, and side-splitting hilarity. I really hope Bill Watterson spends his much deserved free time egging the houses of the guys who write "Boondocks" and "Family Circus."

This is the first Calvin and Hobbes collection, which is clearly obvious when you flip through the first few cartoons and seen that our heros look a little less polished than they would later on. Nevertheless, Bill Watterson's genius was clearly evident from the start. He wastes little time introducing his characters, and merely assumes that we understand that Hobbes will only appear as a real tiger while Calvin is alone. Watterson is a comic genius whose reclusive presence has been sorely missed on the funny pages since his retirement. All we have left are his books. And this is the first of a fantastic series.

Calvin & Hobbes is one of the greatest cartoons of all time ranking up there with Peanuts & Doonesbury. This is the first collection of strips and we are introduced to Calvin, a six year old with an overactive imagination. He has a stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who comes to life only around Calvin. The strips humorously shows how Calvin drives his parents nuts, his transmogrifying machine where he take on different shapes, such as dinosaurs and his other foibles. Despite it's cynicism. Calvin & Hobbes is about the fears we all face in life and the means we use to confront them.

Meet Calvin, a smooth talking six-year-old with a wild imagination and his pal, a stuffed tiger he believes is real named Hobbes. They play together and have some wild adventures that range from making snowmen and snowforts, running around the house, watching television, bothering a girl Calvin has a mild crush on, named Susie Derkins, and, occaisionally fighting each other. Calvin and Hobbes have a great chemistry. They always run and play outside together. This is the first ever Calvin and Hobbes book and it has the very first comic ever done by Bill Watterson, too. Calvin hates his school and his teacher who drives him crazy, Ms. Wormwood. Calvin's parents also get on his nerves because they are very average and boring people. Calvin spends most of his school time daydreaming about his imaginary superhero he has made up, Spaceman Spiff, or other things that entertain him for the moment. He also hates the kids in his school. Calvin and Hobbes also like to ride sleds in the winter and wagons in the summer. Then there is someone they meet who they really don't like, their babysitter, Rosalyn. They terrorize her and drive her up a wall, but she gets lots of money from the parents who are so desperate to get away from him. There also is a bully named Moe who beats up on Calvin and takes his lunch money. Other incidents are when Hobbes "helps" Calvin get his homework done, and when Calvin and Hobbes look for monsters under the bed, which scare them so much that they carry dart guns, bats, and their cleverness to deal with the stupid monsters. These cartoons are not like most comics, they have a very special magic about them that only Bill Watterson can bring. Calvin and Hobbes has a true friendship and chemistry, very funny incidents, and, Bill Watterson reminds us all that childhood is not just a bunch of fun and games, but can be very hard. Buy this book, and you'll see what I mean.

Calvin and Hobbes is far and away the greatest comic ever written, and it's really too bad that Watterson retired. I feel it's enough to say that. If you've never read the comic before, you are TRULY missing out. Enjoy

This book was great with fun filled pages. It was a great book to read, and read over again. Calvil and Hobbes was a fun book to read after reading the other books from Bill Watterson. It gives you a great look at how the whole thing began. The first pages show how calvin and hobbes met, and throught the book you run into many crazy ideas and funny jokes. This book was good because I could relate to a lot of the things mentioned in it. After reading the book I wanted to read all of the other books. Since then I have bought every one of Tim Wattsons, Calvin and Hobbes books. I suggest that you too join in on the fun.

Calvin and Hobbes is the most idealistic comic ever published. It shows us a lonely, never-ending world within the eyes of a young boy and his sarcastic tiger. As we read through Calvin's life through printed text, we begin to notice the significance of our lives and how the world can affect who you are. Calvin shows us what childhood is actually like. He makes the comic it's unwanted humor to take place inside his discoveries about his life. Hobbes leads us in to the real adult perspectives about doing the right thing, while he Hobbes is only seen as a stuffed tiger by Calvin's parents, or in other words not conscious. The parents and the other few cfharacters oin the comic show the world in their way. They have their own personal love/hate relationships with Calvin and his long-lasting mind. So in short, Calvin and Hobbes shows us the significance of life, and how it can be through the eyes of a kid totally unaware of the real world.

... but be prepared to explain some of the big words. And to explain why some things are funny.

I got the first couple Calvin and Hobbes collections for my nephew, as a transition from "I Can Read" books to real books. They worked great. I think that comics are especially good for this, as a lot of the information still comes from the drawings and there aren't huge blocks of text to be intimidated by. The story lines were appealing for a young boy (surprise!), the vocabulary generally wasn't too difficult, but there were still some challenging words that made him work. Even when he didn't really "get" why the comics were funny, he still enjoyed reading them.

And it was a nice trip down memory lane for me.

It will only take the reading of at most 10 pages before you will reach the conclusion that Bill Watterson is a genius. He captures the lament of all children whose imagination overpowers them, leading them to other places when they "should" be concentrating on more mundane things like schoolwork. Calvin is a young boy who is always in trouble, yet his problems are a consequence of his tenuous grip on reality. If he can maintain his imagination into adulthood, he no doubt will be very successful as a writer, but as a child, there are strong forces that will strongly dampen his wandering mind.
I was such a child, often preferring to play off by myself on the playground and pretend that I was doing greater things than simply kicking a ball or swinging in a swing. My teachers often wondered about my being alone, yet those were my favorite times during the school day. Elementary school teachers have a collective abhorrence for any child that is "different."
Some people enjoy C & H for the amusement, yet some of us recognize something deeper, the imaginative nonconformist who struggles to hold that characteristic into adulthood. For it is not till adulthood that it is appreciated.

Forgive me if my review runs a bit on the sappy side, but I grew up with Calvin and Hobbes, and I sometimes think they are among the best friends I've ever had. Bill Watterson's comic is gentle, sincere, and magical. At its core it is an examination of what it means to be human, and the value of friendship. Watterson's philosophy of the comic strip was that it should be based around characters rather than gags; we should feel as though we know the protagonists as real people, rather than as interchangeable vehicles for jokes. That comes through on every page, even from the very beginning. Calvin's world has a cast you can probably count on two hands, but every character (except possibly Moe, the bully) has at least a hint of fully-rounded personality. Watterson's world is one of simple pleasures shared with good company.

As with any comic strip, the first collection is rather crude in pretty much every aspect--the drawings, the humor, the personalities--but as a prototype for what would come later, it is not without its own charms. Even at this stage I would hardly call Calvin and Hobbes a forgettable, generic strip. It still has heart and a sense of profundity, even if Watterson had not yet figured out the most effective way to illustrate these things in his strip. It's interesting to see the origin of Hobbes (even if this version was discarded later), the genesis of Calvin's relationship with Susie (the love-hate romance, which will later be toned down, is at the forefront here), the first appearance of Spaceman Spiff, the introduction of a then-unnamed Rosalyn, and so forth. Also, early Calvin and Hobbes are somehow a bit more adorable here than their later incarnations, but you didn't hear that from me.

In an age of disposable comics, Calvin and Hobbes is one of the few childhood experiences of my life that I can actually appreciate more with age. I would not find it an exaggeration to say that Watterson's perspective of life heavily shaped my own, as I find myself much less concerned with superficiality and the plastic culture of Hollywood than many of my reality-TV-addicted, Nike-sporting, iPod-blasting peers, and more appreciative of the little things in life that we tend to take for granted. All Calvin needs to be content is a good friend and a search for adventure, and even as I grow, kicking and screaming, into adulthood, I find I can still relate.