<i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> by Bill Watterson is my favorite comic strip,
as you can tell from the fact I've written several <A href="../../db/songworm-parodies/index.html">
songs inspired</A>
by it (Something's Under the Bed, New Blaster, From Neptune,
Classroom Fantasy, and tangentially, Calvin and Chucky.).
<p>
New strips no longer appear in the newspaper, but they live on
in books. (Don't be sad. Calvin got to spend ten times as long as
a six-year-old as the rest of us.)
It's well worth buying the collections, especially if you didn't catch
all of them in the papers. I've bought several of them myself.
Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary
book contains
commentary by Bill Watterson explaining his philosophy,
both creatively (e.g., is Hobbes imaginary) and in professionally
(e.g., why he doesn't want to license products), and it
reprints stories selected to illustrate various points, with
a short comment on each story.
<a name="books">
<h2>Calvin and Hobbes books you can buy here</h2>
Note that each of the "treasuries" is just a reprint of
two of the "collections" (with some watercolors and poetry added
at the beginning) . I've listed them in chronological order of
publication. I'm not sure it matters. One of the many weird things about Calvin's life
is that it's cyclic, not linear. The same things keep happening to him
(albeit always with interesting variations), he never learns,
he insists on the same bedtime story almost every night, and although
the seasons keep changing (with the annual struggle to be good in December
and the long lazy summers), he returns each fall to Miss Wormwood's
first-grade classroom. Actually, that's not so mysterious, but he's the
same age, and Suzie, the perfect student, always returns along with him.
The only sign of linear progress is the improvements Calvin makes
the cardboard box that serves as his time machine, transmogrifier,
duplicator, and ethicator.
<p>
<a name="books">
<img align=left 139 height=382 src="../../graphics/CH/CH-books-36dpi.gif">
<table border=5 height=382>
<tr>
<th>Treasuries
<th>Collections
<tr>
<td>
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes
(1988)
<td>
<font size=-1>
I presume this contains the same as:
</font>
<br>
Calvin and Hobbes
(1987)
<br>
Something Under the Bed Is Drooling
(1988)
<tr>
<td>
The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book
(1989)
<td>
<font size=-1>
I don't have this treasury but assume it has Sunday strips from all collections that came before.
</font>
<tr>
<td>
The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes
(1990)
<td>
Yukon Ho
(1989)
<br>
Weirdos from Another Planet
(1990)
<tr>
<td>
The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes
(1992)
<td>
Revenge of the Baby-Sat
(1991)
<br>
Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'
(1991)
<tr>
<td>
They still owe us two or three treasuries covering these:
<td>
Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
(1992)
<br>
The Days Are Just Packed
(1993)
<br>
Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat
(1994)
<br>
There's Treasure Everywhere
(1996)
<br>
It's a Magical World
(1996)
</table>
<br clear=all>
<p>
<A href="../../fun/quiz/Calvin-And-Hobbes/top-Fset.html">Be sure to take my Calvin and Hobbes Non-trivia Quiz</A>.
<p>
By the way, click
<A href="WanttoseeCalvinbroughtback.html">here</A>
if you'd like to see Calvin brought back.