Just when you thought Calvin and Hobbes were no more...

Just when you thought Calvin and Hobbes were no more

It was a sad day in 1996 when Calvin and Hobbes was put to rest. It was sadder still when new books stopped coming off the presses. But, at last there is another Calvin and Hobbes collection out there. Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995 is the newest addition to the C&H repertoire. It’s a collection put together by the Ohio State University Cartoon Research library, and the original pieces are on display there through the 16th of January 2002.

This collection features the original strips from before they were colored-you see all the corrections, and all the white out marks. Right beside the draft is the finished product so you can compare.

My favorite part of this book is the commentary put forth from Bill Watterson himself for every strip. It’s nice to see what the artist thinks about his work. We also get insight to, among other things, why he wouldn’t allow merchandising, and why he quit the strip. There is a fairly lengthy foreword in the first few pages by Watterson, and it’s nice to read his words. After all, the man is a genius.

It's really wonderful to see the progression of Calvin and Hobbes from start to finish. It’s unique to see how the strips are put together, but also in how the characters evolve in both form and personality over a ten year period.

There is a lot of commentary on the distinctive artistic styles used in many of the more memorable strips. For example, there is a strip where Calvin is running through the house, and everything is exactly wrong, and ends up crashing into things. Mom, of course has one of her trade mark overworked-underappreciated mom lines: "stop crashing into things or I'll sell you to the monkey house!" Watterson comments “It’s surprisingly tricky to draw things exactly wrong, because you have to know the rules pretty well to break every single one.” You can view that particular strip at:

http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/viewch.cfm? uc_full_date=19890604&uc_comic=ch&uc_daction=X

in case you aren’t clear on the strip I’m referring to.

To leave you, I’ll quote the dialog of the strip from April 19th, 1992:

Calvin: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?

Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that didn’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.

Calvin: [blank stare] I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.

Who’d a thunk that a 6-year-old could have such deep thoughts-that’s what makes this strip so funny, don’t you think? I know I do.