For Ed Grover: The Days Are Just Packed: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

One of the sweetest things that ever happened to me at epinions is when I received an email titled “Calvin- Snowmen” from Ed Grover. He simply said “I saw this and immediately thought of you.” Ed might not remember doing that, but it meant the world to me, knowing that someone I respected so much on the site could remember something like that about me. Thank you Ed, and take care.

The comic strip titled Calvin and Hobbes first hit the daily comic section of newspapers back in 1985. It told the story of a very clever and mischievous little boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger pal, Hobbes. At times Hobbes crosses the line between reality and fantasy, often sparking discussions with other fans of the strip about just how “real” the tiger was.

The Days Are Just Packed was released in 1993, somewhat near the end of the run of the Bill Watterson strip which published it’s final strip December 31, 1995. By now, the characters had been pretty well fleshed out. Calvin was a boy of about six or seven who was extremely bright but also filled with mischief. His partner in crime for much of the mischief was Hobbes, his “stuffed” tiger. I put “stuffed” in quotes because throughout much of the strip Hobbes appears to be as real as any of the other characters.

Together the two go on some wild adventures and often aggravate people around them including Calvin’s parents, Susie down the block, Rosalyn the only person who will babysit Calvin, and Miss Wormwood, the teacher who is way too underpaid to deal with Calvin in her classroom on a regular basis.

The strips are fun, following Calvin through the seasons and in a various degree of trouble. In The Days Are Just Packed, the black and white strips appear two to a page, making them larger than when I originally saw them in the comic section of our local paper. The Sunday color strip (from a time when only the Sunday comic were in color) takes up a page in it’s own right. The size of these strips makes it pretty easy for just about anyone to read. The book itself isn’t a small paperback but sits nicely on the lap to read, which is another reason the larger size of the strips is helpful. It’s not a book that would be easy to hold closer to the face to read.

One of my favorite themes is exactly what Ed Grover sent me. Calvin goes out in the snow and does something crazy with snowmen - something I only wish I could do. On the side of a hill he rolls snowballs together to create a giant “Kilroy” of sorts which startles his father when he comes home from work. Another time he creates a line of snowmen along the front pathway of his house all saluting in a manner reminiscent of soldiers at attention.

At times Calvin appears to be much older than his actual age, whether it’s questioning Miss Wormwood about the point of human existence or presenting to his father an analysis of his performance in the role of “father” as decided be an opinion poll. In one strip he decides he can write the advice column for his local newspaper better than the current columnist and comes out with answers such as “Stop whining and get a life, bozo” and “Go soak your head, you big baby”.

Other common themes are Calvin as “Spaceman Spiff”, time travels back to the time of the dinosaurs, or has monsters hiding under his bed. The strips where Hobbes attacks Calvin when he walks in the door from school are reminiscent of the duels between Inspector Clouseau and Kato in The Pink Panther movies.

Having my own son who’s five now and full of mischief, I can relate in a whole different way to the Calvin and Hobbes strip. The Days Are Just Packed is a great collection of the strips. Watterson doesn’t seem to have tired of the strip and most of the ideas seem pretty fresh. I always felt that Watterson saw Calvin’s father in many ways as the grown-up version of Calvin himself. That’s why in some strips Calvin’s father eggs on his son’s misbehavior. Calvin is at many times so innocent to what’s going on in the world, while at the same time reflecting on the world around him in a poignant way that cuts to the quick without him even knowing what he’s done. Surely Watterson does, but the way he crafts the lead up to Calvin’s profound statement is perfectly paced and not forced or contrived.

If you haven’t had the privilege of reading the Calvin and Hobbes strips, The Days Are Just Packed is a great book to pick up and read. It’s not as if you need to have read the other Calvin and Hobbes books to grasp what’s going on. I enjoy this book a great deal from time to time and even more now that I see my own son reflected somewhat in Calvin’s mischievous behavior.

I wonder just how real that stuffed Grover is to him…..


For more information on the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and/or Bill Watterson, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes


© 2006 Patti Aliventi