Calvin & Hobbes C or D

We should poll the non-compilation books. I think I had them all at one time. They were the ideal Christmas present.

that'd be tricky! so much of the strip's greatness is individual classic strips that to my memory could basically be in any book, or the brilliant beautiful sundays in the final years. but with a cheat sheet of major storylines in each one i could maybe make a judgment call. snow goons vs transmogrifier vs duplicator for the crazy elaborate ones, but dead bird vs binoculars vs class presentation on bats for the everyday observational ones.

Would love that

the storylines sounds a v good idea

there's so many others... transmogrifier gun, vacation road trip, rosalyn arcs, trip to mars, stuff with susie and moe at school. it was a strip of really diverse strengths, between the pogo-inspired rambling storylines, the nemo-inspired sunday bonanzas, and the one-day zingers of incredible cartooning or hilarious ever-notice-this writing. wouldn't know where to start if you had to put just one thing in front of somebody to explain why it was a special comic.... but, with no memory of what's in them, I'm guessing Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat or The Days Are Just Packed --- after the introduction of the oversized sunday pages, but (I think??) before the focus on those sort of curtailed the dailies back to gag-a-day or one-week bits (tho those remained brilliant, and brilliantly-drawn).

The last Rosalyn arc is sweet, where they finally make peace after she turns out to be surprisingly skillful at Calvinball.

Calvin is terrible to Susie. In weirdos from another planer he says her hair is hiding her lobotomy scars. I know he’s six years old, but the comic captures how abusive males treat females pretty accurately - that sort of damage lingers on.

Classic moment: Calvin hugging Hobbes as a Xmas gift

https://assets.amuniversal.com/9fe19e1018ad012f2fc600163e41dd5b

the faces in this one are so amazing

Hadn't seen that in years. So good.

https://i.imgur.com/Gf79M3v.png

damn

hot gen x take tbh.

C+H has really aged remarkably well. every time i've picked up one of my old books over the last few years i just marvel at how funny it is and how vividly and beautifully drawn it is.

lately i've found myself wondering how old calvin's parents are supposed to be. early 30s? obviously not a question that ever occurred to me as a kid, but it struck me the other day that i might be older than them now!

it struck me the other day that i might be older than them now!

Uncle Max breaks my heart

https://i.redd.it/evlad03a9hw21.jpg

I just cracked open a C&H book for the first time in over a decade and I’m already falling out laughing at this:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/49/a6/d049a6c8ea52f09ac85983d879ca5d14.gif

I think as a kid I did actually categorize Miss Wormwood and Rosalyn as "villains," when really they're the absolute heroes of this universe.

Moe is irredeemable.

"Sometimes I think ALL my friends have been imaginary."

"Like, you know, the guy with the orange cat who eats lasagna..."

^ https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/749bfi/uncle_max_lyman_theory/

surly morning calvin looks like john terry

I just cracked open a C&H book for the first time in over a decade and I’m already falling out laughing at this

Xxp
Lol. I love obscure knowledge/insight about funnies. I think Lyman got dropped because people were asking if Jon and Lyman were lovers

did u know about this year's big garfield revelation?
https://youtu.be/ZSPidZP_3X8?t=534

i remember seeing that older drawing of Garfield in a Garfield book once, i don't think this is that big a revelation

!!!!

Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson has a book coming out in the fall. https://t.co/JytiWwnV8B

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 14, 2023

holy shit

O_O

OH DARN

Ok!

this was not the reason I feared the thread got bumped, thank God.

This is great. What a legend

lol yeah him dying seemed way more likely than him releasing something

Hmm:

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

Wow, this is cool!

I finally got the collected C+H for xmas after hinting about it for like a decade. I kinda wanted the hardcovers buuuut the softcover box set somehow weighs like 413 lbs so I'm ultimately glad that I received a version I will hopefully be able to physically wield in my dotage

man, this looks and sounds very odd!

TBH the cover image looks a lot like an AI with a medieval prompt, just saying, but I am super intrigued by the concept.

We need more oddness out there, and sort of a bummer that the first thing that might come to mind is “AI prompt” when talking about that art but I understand that this is where we’re at these days.

I acknowledge the bombardment of AI lately influences me, but that image in particular really brought me there immediately (not just due to "weirdness" factor, either, I consume plenty of objectively weird current outsider comics).

Can someone make for me a picture of that scared dude pissing on a Tesla logo, thnx.

this book sounds p bad

Oh so you're the guy

literally nothing about it sounds good and the cover is not helping!

I'm definitely curious about the book, but I'm also reminded of what he said in The Calvin & Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book: "Graphic novels are incredibly stupid."

What about it sounds bad? I mean from the description it could also be good.

Separately I have a really really distinct memory as a kid of the very first Calvin and Hobbes strip in the newspaper. I would read the comic section every morning religiously, and even as a 10-year-old or maybe even especially as a 10-year-old I recognized immediately that this was a cut above everything else. That and peanuts were my top two for life from then on.

bloom county and far side to complete the late 80s set imo

I’ve got the same collection of C&H books I started acquiring with babysitting money as a child and BW is one of those guys where despite my love for C&H I’m just not interested in the new material. I thought about why and I think it’s partly the fear that he turns out to be personally dodgy in a way that ruins his work for me (cf Morrissey) and also, it just doesn’t seem intrinsically that interesting compared to the stuff I know him for.

Pulled a few boxes of books out of the basement last week and realized I had the first 3 big C&H anthologies down there. When I unpack the boxes again I'm gonna dive into those for sure.