Comic Reviews: Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Snow Goons

This marks my last review of an individual Calvin and Hobbes collection. As of this most recent Black Friday I find myself the proud owner of the complete collection in paperback, except a review shortly. By which I mean abandon all hope to ever see it, and then be surprised when it finally does come out.

There are two reasons why this collection is a must have, well, three. The first being that if you don't have the complete collection then you need this volume.

The second reason is that this collection contains one of the quintessential, and the best, Calvin and Hobbes stories. Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons is possibly one of my favorite stories. It's the first time that there was a legitimate threat in the series story. Granted, it was all in Calvin's head, but as we are seeing the story in his reality the Goons were as much of a threat as he wanted them to be. And there's something really cool about evil snowmen. Well, except for all the other times it's been done before. Still, there's something fun about the idea of a snowman zombie apocalypse.

Comic Reviews: Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"

I orginally read these strips as part of a larger collection. I can't remember which collection specifically, but it was fun to come back to some old favorites in a new format.

By this point in the series Watterson was almost exclusively working with longer storylines. Of course there were still a lot of single strip gags, but the stories were getting longer and more frequent.

The titual story in this case was the episode where Calvin duplicates himself and proceeds to get in trouble as his duplicates all go and do their own thing.

As an adult I can't help but wonder what stories like this look like outside of Calvin's imagination. Seems to me that a lot of the adventures he gets up to would have to be explained by a lot of running around.

Comic Reviews: The Revenge of the Baby-sat

In my last review I said Weirdoes from Another Planet contained one of my top three favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips. This collection completes the triforce of comedy, with my other two favorite strips.

The thing is, I'd forgotten about one of them, but when I rediscovered it I couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes. It's the story where Calvin's dad is trying to take a picture of Calvin, for their Christmas letter, only to have Calvin ruin every single picture with the faces he pulls. The very first one of those is my number two favorite, where Calvin pulls his face, and the last panel has him running away from his dad.

My number one favorite is the mostly silent strip where Calvin's mom puts on her nice clothes to go out, only for Calvin to be waiting for her at the door. The grin on Calvin's face cracks me up every single time.

Comic Reviews: Weirdos From Another Planet!

What can I say about this collection that I haven't already said about the others? If you scroll down the page you can see the grade I gave it, though you probably don't need to, because I'll never give any Calvin and Hobbes book a lower grade. So why even bother with this review?

Well, I don't know about you, but I for one never get tired of lavishing praise on Calvin and Hobbes, so we're going to keep going until I run out of books. Which will probably happen around the time I run out of money. But this is not that day, so sit back and enjoy a brand new batch of Calvin and Hobbes reviews.

As always, Calvin and Hobbes is the greatest comic strip ever, etc, etc. And besides the trip to the Zoo, yet another vacation, and their journey to Mars, this collection has some of the strongest stories in the series.

Comic Reviews: Yukon Ho!

The best part of this collection is that I could have sworn I read it before. But as soon as I got halfway through the book I found myself confronted by several pages worth of strips I'd never read before. For a moment I considered how much of a failure I was for not having read all of Calvin and Hobbes. That moment didn't last, as I realized with glee that I had brand new Calvin and Hobbes I had never read before!

It's like that moment, when you find a pristine five dollar bill in your pocket. And then you use that five dollar bill to go buy more Calvin and Hobbes, because what else would you bother spending your money on?

Comic Reviews: Something Under The Bed is Drooling

I would like to say that Calvin and Hobbes is timeless, and in the ways that matter it is. While there are minor markers of time, such as typewriters and spin dial phones, the atmosphere of the comic is absolutely timeless.

While reading through this collection, I do my reading in between calls at work, I had it lying on my desk. An older gentleman walked by right as I was finishing up with a call. He took a look at the book on my desk, and the two of us started talking about our favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips.

That is what this comic is, it's the one true bridge between the generations. Young or old, doesn't matter, everyone can find something they appreciate in Calvin and Hobbes.

Comic Reviews: Calvin and Hobbes

Disclaimer: This is for the first collection of strips, not the entire series.

Oh, Calvin and Hobbes, how you defie convention. Such as my convention to always break a review into a summary of the plot and the actual review. But that won't work this time.

Calvin and Hobbes was my absolute favorite series when I was growing up, much to the chagrin of my parents (go ahead and ask them about the bathtub incident). It's also one of the rare series that I've beena ble to enjoy at any age. Doesn't matter how often I've read it, I always laugh. I just laugh for different reasons every time.