Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

As I tried to iron out all the final details of my trip and tried to make sure all my i's were crossed and my t's dotted, I had to put my book reading on hold a bit. A friend of the boowahs had loaned them a bunch of Calvin and Hobbes books and so I grabbed this one and went through it.

I'm somewhat surprised at the staying power of Calvin and Hobbes. This book was published almost 20 years ago and I read Calvin and Hobbes as a kid and now my kids are. This book is one of the top 12,000 on Amazon right now, a claim a great majority of the books I've read this year cannot make.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Calvin and Hobbes are funny. Calvin is way too bright for your average six year old. He gets in trouble but his antics are far tamer than stuff you see in cartoons with kids (Simpsons, South Park, etc.) and much more humorous and endearing. When you add in a stuffed tiger sidekick who has more sense and is all for smooching girls, well, what more can you ask for really?

In my case, two things. More snow cartoons. Any strip with Calvin and snow has about a 99% chance of being downright brilliant. The other thing is that some of the cartoons are dated. Calvin complaining that the family car does not have a cassette deck, for instance.

I find it hard to imagine that anyone reading this hasn't read Calvin and Hobbes but in the event you just were cryogenically unfrozen recently, check them out.