THE COMPLETE CALVIN AND HOBBES, by Bill Watterson, Andrews-McMeel, three oversize volumes, 1,456 pages, $150, hardcover.
Newspaper comics suffered terrible blows in the mid-1990s with the demise of the magical "Calvin and Hobbes" and the end of Gary Larson's incomparable "The Far Side." Both cartoonists called it quits at the zenith of their popularity.
While the end of these strips did not bring about the death of creative newspaper cartooning, they certainly contributed to its dearth.
There are still sure signs the strips had a great impact on American culture — and, arguably, world culture.
First is the fact that the cartoons' characters still spawn merchandise, such as reprinted collections, T-shirts and calendars — without a single new panel having been drawn in nearly 10 years to generate interest.
Second, when we benefited from daily looks inside Larson and Watterson's minds, everyone could name their all-time favorite "Far Sides." Calvin was like that too, with the difference that favorites were not recited, they were taped to refrigerators, filing cabinets and bulletin boards. (Reprints are running on the Deseret Morning News comics pages through December.)
Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" ran 10 years before the irrepressible 6-year-old Calvin faded from the newspaper page — but, hopefully, not into adulthood.
Watterson's strip was one of those rare works of visual literature where invention, personality, beautiful art, wit and longevity combined to produce a masterpiece that might come along two, maybe three times in a lifespan. As the guy who penned one of the best cartoon strips ever, Watterson was every bit as much wizard as artist or writer.
For the uninitiated, "Calvin and Hobbes" deals with the world of a 6-year-old who has no taste for the establishment. Childlike but never childish, Calvin was always on the edge of rebellion without the arrogance or belligerence of a real-world rebel. He consistently challenged authority figures with an eye for inconsistency as keen as his razor-sharp hairdo.
Watterson nailed that undefinable something of the kid who drives teachers and parents wild without actually breaking anything. But then, he left his parents pierced with guilt as he slept in angel-like innocence beside his stuffed tiger, Hobbes.
The cartoon's magic is powered by the not-so-secret secret shared by Calvin and the reader — when Hobbes is alone with Calvin, he is far from stuffed but is as lively, devious and adventurous as Calvin himself. Together, like some kind of updated Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, they explored and rejected the limits of adulthood and the rigid rules upon which that world operates.
Watterson took us with Calvin from home to school (his teacher is Miss Wormwood) to treehouse (no girls allowed) to outer space (where Calvin was transformed into Spaceman Spiff). A cartoon swashbuckler, Calvin went toe-to-toe with repression, wonderful space creatures and warty dinosaurs to meld a freehearted philosophy with kindly universal ideals that grown-ups have long forgotten.
Every Calvin strip was a gold mine where Watterson daily struck the mother lode. Watterson's text ran the gamut from childlike to existential, while the artwork was the best since Walt Kelly's "Pogo."
Some cartoonists get lucky from time to time with great ideas or superior art, but very few in the past 100 years have maintained the wonderful standards Watterson met day in, day out. The world, for millions of us, became a poorer place when Watterson retired.
There have been a number of paperback reprints of Calvin over the years (let's say 17) but "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" is a comprehensive (3,160 daily and color Sunday strips), oversize, hardback, three-book set, complete with dust jacket, that will make the perfect bookshelf companion to the similar two-volume "Far Side" collection that's been out for a couple of years.
How does Calvin's publisher compare this deluxe offering with the deluxe Larson? It is, they say, three books, not two, and it exceeds Larson's offering by $15 and outweighs it by four pounds.
"The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" is cartooning that is near perfection, and is well worth every penny and every pound.
E-mail: craig@desnews.com