Weirdos from Another Planet!

I know I had this collection as a kid, but it didn't come along with me with the others when I moved out. No idea why. But that means it has been a long time since I've read the strips in this one, so it was a lot of fun to rediscover these, some of which I barely remembered. ~March 2024

I bet I've read every one of the Calvin and Hobbes collections straight through ten or twelve times by now. I used to lie in a heap under a tree with a stack of them in my early teens during the summertime, and in graduate school I kept some beside the bed for the nights when I couldn't sleep. It's probably been three or four years now, though, since I've read one, and, for some reason, I don't have a copy of Weirdos from Another Planet. So when I show more stumbled across it at the library today, it came home with me and got devoured along with lunch.

I still love Calvin, and his awesome facial expressions, and his perfect six-year-old logic, and especially (most especially) the way he can get indignant like nobody else. Hobbes was always my favorite, though, and he still is--so laid back and come-what-may but without ever the slightest hint of apathy or indifference. But he's still never above winding Calvin up or launching a sneak attack. I've always cared less for the long strips with the "altered state" realities, where Calvin is a dinosaur or Spaceman Spiff, or the like, than for the other strips, even though I think Watterson is at his most skilled in some ways in those kinds of stories. I'm not sure why I don't like them as well--perhaps because I prefer to see more direct interplay between Calvin's imagination and the real world. My most favorite of favorite strips are the ones where Calvin's parents show a little imagination themselves or play along with Calvin's world. It actually saddens me a little, now, how often his mom and dad just shut down his imaginative world or dismiss him entirely. They are Calvin's foil, sure, but how much more fun they would have had if they'd loosened up a little bit. ~April 2013 show less

Back with a bang to Calvin! Though not as enjoyable as the first three books, this is still a worthwhile read. Calvin is as crazy as ever. And the highlight story, that of his journey to Mars, really stands out in its hilarity.

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No matter how old I get, I don't think that I'll ever outgrow the antics of Calvin and Hobbes! It's maybe a bit weird to think that I still relate to a 6-year-old at age 27, but then again I still firmly believe in being a child at heart and enjoying (or despising, as the case may be) all the wonders of the world.

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Title: Weirdos From Another Planet! Series: Calvin and Hobbes Author/Artist: Bill Watterson Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 128 Format: Digital Scan My Thoughts: Yet another book of Calvin and Hobbes strips. These seemed to have been written in 1988, an election year, so there are some political spoofs, but nothing overt. Other than that, since these are all pretty much show more one offs, you can read just about any book and fit right in. It's rather an amazing how Watterson kept thinking of interesting things that didn't require some long and complicated plot. Genius. " show less

I feel like anything I could really say about Calvin and Hobbes would simply come down to a list of superlatives that sound like the review was written by Calvin himself.

So, instead I'll just say this: If you've never read Calvin and Hobbes, you are doing yourself a great disservice and you should correct this grievous error immediately!

Another great volume in the Calvin and Hobbes collection (it's hard to pick a favorite) but this book does have one of my favorite covers, I just love how it's drawn and the expressions on everybody's faces,

Compared to its predecessors, this fourth Calvin and Hobbes collection is rather pedestrian. It's filled with all sorts of Calvin and Hobbes gags and stories, but none really jump out as my favorites. However, pedestrian Calvin and Hobbes is still great stuff, so I'm keeping this on my shelf.
--J.