Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Calvin and Hobbes ought to instigate a number of fond memories from other religious fans of the Sunday funnies. Personally, I've always enjoyed reading through the often ludicrous adventures of more often ludicrous characters. From the well known Peanuts and Garfield to relatively newer strips like Zits and Retail, comics have an undeniable charm to them; none, however, begin to compare in my mind to Calvin and Hobbes.

The strip ran from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995 and followed a six-year-old-boy named Calvin, who has a gargantuan imagination that causes him as much trouble as it does define his character. One figment of the child's imagination is Hobbes, a stuffed tiger that comes to life whenever everyone other than Calvin is absent.

I'm going to attempt to tell you as much as I can about why I love this series so much but, honestly, I'm not sure the powers that be of this fine publication medium will allow me the space to do so. However, I think it's best to start with the impressive intelligence of the series.

Watterson uses every single character of his masterfully to speak volumes about society, education, politics, environment, gender roles, art, commercialism, consumerism, material obsession, violence, apathy, and on and on and on. Watterson is also behind a well-known quote that I personally enjoy: “I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.” At the same time, somehow, Watterson doesn't lose track of the fact that it is a comic strip and retains the humor and lightheartedness that a comic strip should have.

Watterson throws in a few literary references once in a while, just barely visible below the surface. It seems that every time I read through the series — yeah, all ten years of it; it's that good — I find something new. There are references to C.S. Lewis, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Karl Marx, Frank Miller in there, hints of Superman and Batman show up occasionally, and a few Hemingwayesque subplots that appear to name a few.

The character of Calvin was inspired by John Calvin, a French Protestant Theologian. Hobbes' name is from 17 Century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who believed that humanity co-operates only out of individual self-interest, a belief that somewhat mirrors that of the character.

As I mentioned above, the book does remain funny, though it is remarkably smarter than you'd expect it to be (or at least than I would have expected it to be). You don't need to be looking for Leitmotifs to find some of the freakish things that Calvin does completely hilarious.

Going beyond the comic itself and the influence that it's had — I'll be bold enough to say that even some of the Interrobang's own comic strips have been influenced by Calvin and his imaginary friend — Watterson himself has display uncanny integrity as an artist. In his ten years of writing Calvin and Hobbes he never once sold the rights of the images to any merchandising company, in spite of the massive pressure for him to do so. Any time you see Calvin or Hobbes anywhere outside of a Calvin and Hobbes strip it's because it was bootlegged — I'm sure we're all familiar with the famous picture of Calvin pissing on a truck logo, sports team, collage of my ex-girlfriends, etcetera. Watterson believed (probably accurately) that selling the image would cheapen the messages he wanted to get across and dull their effectiveness.

Since putting Calvin and Hobbes to rest on the last day of '95, Watterson has taken to painting and drawing artistically. I can't say that I've followed his career beyond this point, as I'm a layman when it comes to visual art. I can tell that he has talent (he's snuck a few paintings in the beginning of some of his books alongside some very impressive poems) but I have to say that Calvin and Hobbes is, thus far, his most impressive accomplishment. This isn't to say that it didn't finish at a bad time. I'm sure Watterson had his reasons for ending the series when he did and to be fair, the ending is actually very well done.

All in all, Calvin and Hobbes is beautifully smart, satirical, funny and enjoyable. Just before Christmas of 2005 the entire series was released in a three-volume collection of the entire ten years that I can proudly say I own. Despite taking ten years to make, being comics, they're quite a quick read if you're determined enough. Maybe I'm biased because I pretty much grew up alongside Calvin, but this review can be summed up with the following: read it, you'll love it.