Calvin stands over a sleeping Hobbes with a water balloon at the ready. Upon awakening, Hobbes gently queries, "If today were the last day of your life, would you do anything differently?" A pause. "Especially if, by doing things differently, today might not be the last day of your life?" This is one of my all-time favorites.

For anyone who slept through the 1980s, Calvin and Hobbes was a syndicated comic strip that has been collected into a series of books. I have all of them, and still pull them out when I need a laugh. The characters are:

Calvin - a six year old with the imagination of an adult and the ethics of an alley cat. Like most little kids, Calvin is very self-absorbed and only views the world as it impacts on him. His imagination is both a blessing and a curse - it takes him away to places where he can be Spaceman Spiff or Stupendous Man, only to have the reality of being a powerless six year old come crashing down.

Hobbes - Calvin's stuffed toy tiger, Hobbes becomes "real" when no one else is present. Hobbes is an intellectual who enjoys simple pleasures - tuna, Christmas trees and naps. Hobbes also serves as Calvin's conscience to a degree, and frequently gets him into - and out of trouble. If Hobbes were politically inclined, I think he'd be a Libertarian.

Mom & Dad - Calvin's mother is a stay-at-home-Mom, who must contend with Calvin's not-so-harmless antics. Her patience is terrific, but when she loses it, it's quite a sight. ("You pick EVERY one of these dead bugs out of my shampoo and I mean NOW!") Calvin's Dad is a patent attorney who responds to Calvin's request for bedtime stories with "Let me tell you about the gasket and the evil copyright infringement." Calvin far prefers "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie" Both of Calvin's parents are a little bewildered by him. My personal favorite "family" vignette, based on sheer visual impact alone:

Calvin seated at the dinner table, has his mouth open as wide as it will go - you can see his tonsils. Over his head - BUUUUUUURP! His mother says, "Good heavens, Calvin, what do we say after that?" His reply - "Must be a barge coming through!" Sensing this is wrong, he amends it to, "That sure tasted better going down than coming up!" "WHAT do we say?" coupled with The Look, finally gets a meek "Excuse me." out of him. Now what parent hasn't played THAT one out? They aren't exactly paragons of dining etiquette, though. Calvin's Mom has been known to coerce Calvin into eating stuffed peppers by telling him they are stewed monkey heads, and that pasta is toxic waste that will turn him into a mutant if he eats it. (As he scarfs it down, he says, "Ahhhh, I can feel it working..."

Susie - a neighbor about the same age. Susie is Calvin's arch nemesis and the inspiration for Calvin's club G.R.O.S.S. (an acronym for Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) Susie is sensitive, but she also packs quite a wallop, and her aim with a snowball is flawless.

Miss Wormwood - Calvin's teacher. Looking rather like a turtle in a dress, she has no patience whatsoever for Calvin's disruptions.

The Babysitter - she has a name, but I forget. Calvin torments her by locking her out of the house, telling her boyfriend she's crazy, and otherwise being rotten. She handles it well, though, and is the only one in town who will agree to sit for him - charging his parents a fortune.

Moe - the class bully. He appears rather like the bully on The Simpsons, with a goofy look to him.

Calvin and Hobbes make up games with rules that change as they go. Once while playing Calvinball, Calvin took Hobbes' flag in a move that was illegal, resulting in his having to sing The Sorry Song, a duet with Hobbes:

"I siiiing the very sorry song! Won't you join and sing aloooong? I blew it! I'm sooorry! I knew it! So sooorry! I'm very very sorry that I took your precious flaaaag! Just don't do it any more you scurvy scalawag!"

Calvin can also get weeks worth of fun out of an appliance box - something I'm afraid our Nintendo-coma generation has forgotten how to do.

It's funny how I see certain aspects of my own behavior as a kid in Calvin - I loathed math (still do), was a master snowball maker and thrower (still am), and thought I was right about everything (um, working on that one).

Interestingly, the personal philosophy of both characters has little to do with the Reformation-Era theologians for which they are named. Perhaps Bill Watterson's vision for them changed as the comic strip developed. Another interesting note - the quality of the drawing improves significantly after the early strips. I recommend these books for anyone with a slightly sophisticated sense of humor, new parents, and big kids or kids at heart.

Recommended: Yes