This is not simply a compilation of the latest year or two of Calvin and Hobbes strips, and neither is it a "best of" collection in the traditional sense. Of all the Calvin and Hobbes books (with the possible exception of The Compete Calvin and Hobbes, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book is the best one. He hasn't done anything comparable since.The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book I hadn't realized it until after I had finished reading this book, but apparently Watterson stopped the strip in 1995, after ten years, when he himself was in his late thirties. Ironically, in this very book, there are some lengthy misogynist episodes involving Calvin and Susie. Watterson also muses on the ways in which racism and other judgmental stereotypes enter comics to their detriment. Cultures throughout the ages have developed ceremonies and mythologies based on a path of maturation, and these are generally absent from Western convention. Sure, it is possible for this to occur, but it is deeply saddening. I feel like this attitude-that old people aren't adult or mature, just old-permeates especially the outlook of privileged white men.
Watterson says that Calvin accurately represents many of childish tendencies that have endured through adulthood. The book was published in 1995, and the pressures facing news and art back then almost sound quaint compared to current affairs.Īlthough Calvin can seem innocent in his naïveté, I now realize that he was a bad influence on me both in childhood and in adulthood. Watterson talks extensively about the evolution of comics, and the newspaper medium in general. I realize now that much of the lore my friends would tell me about Watterson likely comes from this book. Even though I was given this book as a child, I had only ever paged through reading the comics, so this was my first time reading the text.
It is a different Calvin and Hobbes, in that it includes lengthy musings and reflections by the author, Bill Watterson. It being the summertime, I felt in the mood for something carefree, and found this on my shelf.
A few of my friends were obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes, and had read every book. Calvin's adventurousness and imagination was an inspiration for me and my friends. It was in this venue that I first came across Calvin and Hobbes.
I would sometimes get access to compilations of comic strips the though (Garfield, Peanuts, etc.). My parents didn't subscribe to the newspaper, so I didn't have access to the comic strips as a kid.
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