Rating: 
Summary: The book that introduced me to a legend
Review: Watterson's talent is pretty hard to get over. What's the big idea, making a cartoon so consisently funny, explosively creative and accessibly brilliant that no other cartoonist could ever hope to match wits? When I saw the first Calvin strips in my paper several years ago, I knew it was something special. Here's a little kid more clever than most adults, whose stuffed friend comes to life and has philosophical debates with him while they careen down a gully in a wagon. Calvin and Hobbes is more than a comic strip, and that's what makes it so special. Far Side and Dilbert are clever and hilarious as well, but Calvin's creator has an artistic talent that will not be confined. The everyday life of his six-year-old protagonist is frequently spliced with daydreams--Spaceman Spiff, Dinosaurs, etc.--which are consistently staggering in their rendering. It's art good enough for Marvel but stylistically superior. In the later years he was arguing with newspapers for half- or full-page spaces that would do his work justice. What impresses me perhaps the most about Watterson, though, is his integrity. From the great beginning that is this book, up through the end, he refused to have his art form violated by commercialism. Calvin will be found ONLY on the printed page, not on TV, not on a baseball cap (save the amateur ones), not in a breakfast cereal, nor action figures, nor a fanclub, nor a box of fruit snacks. Watterson was true to the integrity of his character. What's more, he quit while he was ahead--before his strip could become repetitive, but after its potential had been fully explored. So buy this book, if you haven't already. In fact, do yourself a favor and buy every Calvin collection, because each is completely flawless. Calvin and Hobbes is the best cartoon that ever was, and it's the best cartoon that will ever be. I'd bet my sense of humor on it.
Rating:
Summary: Just Great !!!
Review: What happens when a six-year old, hyperactive kid finds a "stuffed animal" tiger? Well ... this is what this book is all about. The relationship between Calvin and Hobbes (a stuffed tiger that when is alone with Calvin, turns into a real tiger!). The two are hilarious, and their behavior can be compared to the life of two brothers. I read 4 Calvin and Hobbes Treasury Books and I thought this was the best. You can read it 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 100 times, and you never get tired.
Pedro Kok -
Sao Paulo, Brazi
Rating:
Summary: Another anthology of laughter
Review: Whether the collection is the "Indispensible" or "Essential" or "Authoritative" Calvin and Hobbes, it doesn't really matter. Watching this hyperactive, hyperimaginative child and his willing though wise accomplice, Hobbes, take on evil babysitters, Susie Derkins, the class bully and all creatures (real or imaginary), is a pleasure and laughter without stop. "The Essential Calvin and Hobbes" is another in a long list of the great comic work of Bill Watterson. This is an indispensible/essential/authoritative collection for all Calvin and Hobbes and humor fans!
Rating:
Summary: Laughter, the BEST medicine!
Review: You will laugh your way to good health with this one! Bill Watterson should get an Oscar for his contribution to curing what ails us. Funnies will never be the same without him!
Rating:
Summary: Laughter, the BEST medicine!
Review: You will laugh your way to good health with this one! Bill Watterson should get an Oscar for his contribution to curing what ails us. Funnies will never be the same without him!
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