Monday, March 8, 2010

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Calvin and Hobbes.

We have owned these books for years now, but only finally took them out of the plastic late last year when I was jonesing for a new Complete Peanuts collection. I had waited so long for two reasons. 1) the books were still beautiful and shiny; 2) they are huge (note: these reasons explain why The Complete Far Side, purchased at the same time, remains in plastic).

#2 is why it took me three months to read it. I used to read a Calvin and Hobbes collection in one or two sittings all the time. This 7+pound book is not nearly as so wieldy as my old paperback collections were.

But the joy is no less.

It a weird experience to read a strip you still know by heart more than a decade after still reading it and yet laugh yourself silly.

And while it's not as true for me as it is for professionals of my generation (eg Jake Parker), I too can look at a picture I would stare at for long minutes (they got funnier as each minute passed) and realize yeah, hey, that influenced the way I draw.

God bless you, Bill Watterson.

2 comments:

Snowman said...

Wow! I'm so jealous! Calvin and Hobbes are great! Always wanted a copy but I can never find their books or they were just way out of my budget. D:

Th. said...

.

The good news is there are so many millions of the paperbacks now that it's not hard to pick one up on the cheap if you keep your eyes open.