The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

“Rats. I can’t tell my gum from my silly putty.” I just hate it when then happens.

For reasons I have never really understood, many people think I am very serious, a deep-thinking intellectual who just doesn’t know how to have fun. What planet do these people come from? Sure, I listen to NPR and watch PBS and think a lot about a lot of things, but “serious”? Ha!

As evidence of my totally non-serious nature, I offer my thoughts on another of my favorite books, Bill Watterson’s The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes (1990). A masterpiece! Spaceman Spiff never looked better. And that first bit with the elephant—I laughed till I peed.

Seriously though, Calvin and Hobbes has long been one of my favorites, and I still suffer from occasional withdrawal thirteen years after Watterson stopped drawing the strip. (Get Fuzzy has taken most of the pain away—most, but not all.) What a relief to be able to dip into one of the C & H books and instantly feel the cares of the day slip away. So many of the Calvin and Hobbes strips are like old friends to me, the kind you can meet up with every few years to laugh and reminisce and say, “Remember when scientific progress went boink!?” Good times.

I feel like I should keep writing—there’s so much more to say—but I have the book open in front of me, Calvin and Hobbes are playing archaeologist in the backyard, and I’m having trouble tearing myself away. If you’re also a fan, you will understand why I have to stop writing and turn the page; if you’re not a fan, poor you.

I’m going to read now, and maybe later I’ll jump into my spaceship and zoom off to an unexplored and very dangerous planet, or perhaps I’ll transmogrify myself into an elephant. Boink!