The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Revisited
Bill Watterson's Classic Strip Remains Brilliant – and Affordable
Oct 26, 2009
Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, starring a precocious six-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger, was a newspaper comic strip that ran in syndication from 1985 to 1995. In the tradition of George Herriman's Krazy Kat and Charles Schultz's Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes was perhaps the last masterpiece of the genre.
Calvin and Hobbes was never licensed for other media, allowing bootleg Calvin and Hobbes merchandise and artwork to flourish. Even now, reprints of the strip, such as The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, remain the only sanctioned products – but they should be enough for any true fan.
The Story of Calvin and Hobbes
Bill Watterson pitched a number of comic strips in the early 1980s, before Universal Press Syndicate decided to take on Calvin and Hobbes. The first strip was published on November 18, 1985, and became a huge hit. Watterson used the success of Calvin and Hobbes to push the boundaries of syndicated comics of the time, such as the size and layout of full-color Sunday strips.
Calvin and Hobbes was noted not only for Bill Watterson's brilliant cartooning technique, but for the sophistication of his writing and characterizations (fitting in a strip whose characters are named for a theologian and a political philosopher). The built-in tension between Calvin's real and fantasy life, personified by Hobbes, gave Calvin and Hobbes an extra sense of comic irony.
Watterson, reclusive and wanting to move on, decided to retire Calvin and Hobbes at the height of its popularity. The last Calvin and Hobbes strip was published on December 31, 1995. By then, Calvin and Hobbes had won many comics honors, including multiple Reuben, Harvey, and Eisner Awards.
The Rarity of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes Art
Bill Watterson was always very protective of the integrity of his creation, and refused to license derivative merchandise from the Calvin and Hobbes strip – there were no stuffed Hobbes toys, as there had been with Jim Davis's more-commercialized Garfield.
However, bootleggers would satisfy the demand for Calvin and Hobbes merchandise. Some simply infringed copyright, reproducing Watterson's art on a T-shirt or sticker. Others took the characters wholly out of context. The popularity among some of "evil" Calvin merchandise – such as mudflaps with a picture of Calvin peeing – must have confirmed Watterson's worst fears.
Watterson reportedly even stopped giving away signed Calvin and Hobbes art when he saw them being sold again for outrageous prices. With Watterson art so rare, collectors now also have to be wary of fakes, as well as bootlegs.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, or Just the Essentials
Yet the relatively small body of Bill Watterson's work makes collecting Calvin and Hobbes strips a relatively easy task. Unlike the 25-volume set of Charles Schultz's complete Peanuts strips, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is much more manageable – and affordable.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes was published in 2005. Containing every Calvin and Hobbes strip ever published in newspaper syndication (though one or two are variants), it consists of a set of three four-color hardcover volumes in a slipcase.
Those wishing to get a less-comprehensive entry into the world of Calvin and Hobbes, or those on a budget, won't go wrong with one of the Calvin and Hobbes compilation books. These include The Essential Calvin and Hobbes (as well as The Indispensable and The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes). Any Calvin and Hobbes collection shows what made that strip a modern classic, and the books remain the only way to enjoy Bill Watterson's authentic work.
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