New Calvin and Hobbes book!

August 23, 2001 9:09 AM

New Calvin and Hobbes book! "Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995" will reprint the 35 sunday strips that are being featured at the 2001 Festival Of Cartoon Art at the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. While not really a 'new' book, it will include "an essay by Mr. Watterson about his work on the strip, plus his comments on each of the strips in the display." This is a treat for fans because Mr. Watterson is an extremely private individual, and has given no interviews or produced any new work since Calvin and Hobbes left us, December 31, 1995.
posted by o2b (11 comments total)

...but will he answer the age-old question:

Would Calvin rather piss on the Ford logo or the Chevy logo?
posted by ColdChef at 9:39 AM on August 23, 2001

I plan to make a hugely controversial installation (with NEA funding of course) that features Calvin being pissed on by the pope, while sporting a halo formed by the confluence of Chevy, Ford and Dodge corporate logos, which will circle his head and play selections from the Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist album. At random moments, feces will shoot from hidden poo-cannons in the walls coating Calvin, the pope, and sometimes the viewer, making it a truly interactive offending machine.

hmm, I made this thread all icky.
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:07 AM on August 23, 2001

Cool thing about the internet #1546: I now get daily emails of Calvin & Hobbes strips from about 10 years ago. I don't remember them all, so it's like I'm still getting new ones. I love it.
posted by dnash at 10:34 AM on August 23, 2001

I remember reading the The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book
and being really disappointed by how negative Watterson was about the whole thing.

I came away with a whole new, and far less entertaining, view of what he was trying to say in the strips. I still can't read them without hearing him complaining about the newspaper business and comercialism and marketers.

I know they are his creations, and he had no duty not to shatter my illusions about the strip. But... I still wish he hadn't.
posted by Irontom at 10:38 AM on August 23, 2001

Fact: My wife and I own three copies of Scientific Progress Goes "Boink".
posted by iceberg273 at 11:13 AM on August 23, 2001

so, will this new book have something more than the tenth anniversary book (which somehow managed not to shatter any of my illusions; maybe because calvin always seemed incredibly cynical to me?) in terms of essays and strip explanations? I already have all the strips in one form or another, and I have multiple copies of most of them thanks to the whole treasury thing, so... is there a point?
posted by rabi at 11:20 AM on August 23, 2001

ColdChef, I saw one the other day that bugs me more than using him to take sides in the auto wars: Calvin on his knees praying at the foot of a cross.
posted by jdbanks at 11:45 AM on August 23, 2001

jdbanks: You're right. That is so much worse.

You know, I'd like to know exactly how a person sees a sticker like that and thinks, "Yes, that's how I'd like to express myself to the world."

Cars with only one sticker are always stranger than cars plastered with stickers. Because then, you always find yourself asking, "Why just that one?"
posted by ColdChef at 11:55 AM on August 23, 2001

You know, I don't think anything helped me mature mentally at a young age more than Calvin & Hobbes did. Hell, some of the subject material I only really understand now. It had beautiful artwork, and truly thoughtful writing. Watterson was a great, and I'll be pushing and shoving to get this book. Huzzah!
posted by spyke at 3:06 PM on August 23, 2001

considering how upset he got over bootleg shirts, I'm surprised we haven't heard anything about him putting a stop to those damn pissing calvins once and for all by now...
posted by kevspace at 4:35 PM on August 23, 2001

Has anyone else printed up stickers of Calvin pissing on Calvin pissing? I don't recall where I got the idea (It's not at all mine), but it works surprisingly well in execution. I do NOT have one on my car, though.
posted by ewagoner at 8:18 AM on August 24, 2001