Customer Reviews

It's A Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For over a decade, Calvin and Hobbes was a part of our families. We came to know Calvin and his suave stuffed tiger, Hobbes. We shared in his divine 'love' for his mother's cooking. We got the warm fuzzies as he and Susie Derkins played out their young romance through insults and secret G.R.O.S.S. meetings. We laughed at Calvin's vivid imagination through installments of Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, and the incomparable Spaceman Spiff (zounds!). And we cried and smiled through tears as Calvin learned the value of life and the pricelessness of a true friend. Calvin and Hobbes encapsulates every special moment of childhood, and can melt away the hard shell of even the most jaded and bitter individual. This comic strip is a celebration of life, and while it saddens me to realize that I'll never be able to share future adventures with them, I can always go back and relive those past moments again trough wonderful collections such as this. Since this book is the final collection, you owe it to yourself to own it in hardcover form. I can't recommend this book (or any of the others) enough. If there's a child somewhere in your soul, all of these books are absolutely essential.

Bill Watterson's creation of Calvin and Hobbes is for my taste the ultimate adult comic strip; six year old Calvin, his stuffed tiger Hobbes, and his extensive and witty vocabulary, can be laugh-out-loud hilarious.
In this large, softcover book, you get all the usual suspects: The dreaded Miss Wormwood, Calvin's schoolteacher, who has to put up with his imaginitive but lame excuses, snowball fights with Susie, Spaceman Spiff, who gets stranded on distant planets, and of course, his stressed out parents.

Other characters include two marvelous one-eyed aliens, Galaxoid and Nebular, who buy the earth from Calvin for 50 leaves, but when it snows, claim they were overcharged, and demand that Calvin bring the planet up to code, and Calvin's musings on whether there is an Evil Santa, who gives to the bad girls and boys "the dangerous, annoying, and corrupting toys your parents won't allow", and best of all, when he decides to be a Suburban Post-Modernist artist, and claims that "art isn't about ideas, it's about style".

Hobbes is my favorite cartoon animal, drawn as a stuffed toy when seen from non-Calvin eyes, but a wise and playfull being in Calvin's magical world. There's a lot of love between them, and the hug on the back cover of this book says it all. Calvin and Hobbes will appeal to the rebel in us all, provide numerous laughs, and warm our hearts on cold days.

This is the final collection of comics from CALVIN AND HOBBES, arguably my favorite comic strip of all times. Cartoonist Bill Watterson chose to retire before he drained all the magic out of his characters. While I'm disappointed, that is probably wise since this collection shows he was still at the top of his game.

Calvin can make an adventure out of everything, whether it's having Susie over for an afternoon (a great day for GROSS), trying to get out of school, playing Calvinball with Rosalyn, or putting off a leaf collection project until the very last night, his antics are sure to make you laugh. The genius of the strip is that we're often laughing at ourselves. Hobbes's comments are often funny and true, and watch out for the Chewing magazine strips. They hit a little too close to home.

This strip got better as it went along, and there is some classic stuff here. It's a little bitter sweet reading the last few knowing it's the end. And I still want to know what the noodles incident was.

While there are some strips out there I enjoy, I still miss this great strip. If you somehow managed to miss it, pick up any book today. It's guaranteed to have you laughing in no time.

One of the several reasons for Bill Watterson's departure from Calvin and Hobbes is that he wanted to pursue his craft in watercolor. It makes so much sense: just look at some of the background art in this collection and you can see it. (Actually, look at the background cover art, and it looks like Japanese watercolor.) Whatever his pursuits today, Watterson has left us a decade's worth of joy. This collection is just one of several. It doesn't really matter which one you pick up: you will always be guaranteed a few hours' worth of laughter and even a couple of warm tears.

It is a great book and if you are a Calvin and Hobbes fan, this one will have it's own space in your heart. It own's the final comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes. I think Bill Waterson made a mistake when he quit making the strip, but it is still one of the better books in the series. As I said before, if you are a Calvin and Hobbes fan, this one will own a special part in your heart because you know it's the last one, and it ends with a great personality of Calvin that we just wish that it is possible to Calvin's own free will (not the going to school part, but his great fun and laughs between school strips.).

This is another outstanding collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that are, as always, humorous as well as being little works of art on their own. When you come to the end, however, there's that sad feeling of knowing that its the end of the line as far as the strip is concerned. The same drive that made Bill Watterson perhaps the most brilliant cartoonist ever caused him to pull the plug on his beloved creations when he thought that he had given it all he could give. It is a rare thing for anyone in the entertainment business to know when to call it quits. Perhaps, instead of being sad, we should say, "hats off."

Okay, okay, so I'm prejudiced. I knew I would love this book before I read it. What's not to like? Calvin is the quintessential smart-aleck, while at the same time maintaining an innocence that is completely endearing. Whether we identify with Calvin the child or Calvin the child within us, he makes us feel...well, NORMAL. Calvin's quirks are our quirks. Not content to merely AMUSE us, Bill Watterson ENTERTAINS us. Calvin and his family (including, of course, Hobbes) are multi-faceted characters who stir up emotions and explore the angst of being a kid in a grown-up world. (And, for that matter, being a grown-up in a grown-up world!) Whew! What a task! And Bill Watterson does it superbly.

From what I know this is the last C&H collection published before Watterson's adieu. That means the last page and, in particular, the last picture are the last we'll hear from Calvin and Hobbes in our lifetime. They're both absolutely beautiful and I don't mind to confess that I had tears in my eyes the moment I watched them. This book is typically exhilarating Watterson art: crazy, warm, witty, always funny and incredibly well written and designed. The strips about Calvin's snowmen are the ones that probably stand out, but it's a very tough call. A great, great farewell from my all time favourite comic strip.

It broke fan's hearts when they heard it. Bill Watterson was retiring from the Calvin & Hobbes business. IT'S A MAGICAL WORLD is Bill Watterson's last Calvin & Hobbes collection, and it keeps the original life of Calvin and Hobbes the same, but all new comics come in. The only put down of this book is that if a seven year-old buys it, some of the jokes may be hard for them to understand it. Myself, owning seven other Calvin & Hobbes books, think this is by far the best one. Don't get me wrong, now. All the others I have would be at least a seven on the rating scale. This is truly one of the best books I've ever read, though I also read chapter books, and the best Calvin & Hobbes book I've read. If you like Calvin & Hobbes, but need some new good comics to read, this is a must buy. At a store, I would buy it for twenty dollars. Although, the list price is a good fifteen dollars, why not order it from Amazon.com? It's only $13.45. I remember a few weeks ago, I was out to buy a Calvin & Hobbes book, but I didn't know which one to choose. My choices were THE AUTHORATIVE CALVIN AND HOBBES, THERE IS TREASURE EVERYWHERE, and IT'S A MAGICAL WORLD. I bought IT'S A MAGICAL WORLD,not knowing what to expect. I had only read about fifteen pages when I decided it was the best choice I could have made, and that I should put a review on it. For you fans with broken hearts out there, you can keep the pride of Calvin & Hobbes forever, with the best collection. You can buy what you want, but for everyone, IT'S A MAGICAL WORLD will cheer you up any day. Happy Reading!

I have been a loyal Calvin and Hobbes reader since I first heard about the strip, about 4 years ago. I can't say I was there from the beggining(not that many people were, the first strip appeared in only 54 newspapers), but I have all but three of the books, which I am planning to get soon. I have read every single comic that had been put in a book collection, and this book is one of his best. I still wish he was writing Calvin and Hobbes, even if he just put out book collections and didn't do newspapers, so he wouldn't have to worry about deadlines. Anyway, for any Calvin and Hobbes fan, this book is a must!