Nicholmere's Full Review: Bill Watterson - Scientific Progress Goes 'boink':...
Before we get started, I would like to assign you to one of two groups. Fans of Calvin and Hobbes please stand off to the left; don’t touch anything, I’ll be with you in just a moment. If you have never heard of Bill Watterson and his Calvin and Hobbes comic strip then please come on in and sit down, you are in for a treat.
So, quickly, back to the group on the left, the following list is probably all you will need to read to help you decide if Watterson’s 1991 SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS GOES "BOINK" a Calvin and Hobbes Collection is for you.
In no particular order, other than alphabetical:
Bathtub moments – check (only a few though)
Life with Mom and Dad – check
Moe the schoolyard bully – check (although I do not like him, myself)
Rosalyn the baby sitter - check
Sled rides – check
Snowmen – check (some of my favourites, but it is hard to beat the snow chicken from the 1996 collection There’s Treasure Everywhere)
SPACEMAN SPIFF! - check
STUPENDOUS MAN! - check
Susie Derkins – check (she wins some, she loses some)
Top-secret club G.R.O.S.S. – check
Tracer Bullet – check (one story)
Wagon rides – check
Toss in a few more aliens, the use of the great all-American pastime as a setting for an extended commentary on the desire (or lack of) to conform to society’s expectations, some preparations for Santa Claus, the trials of the classroom, the introduction of the Duplicator (which appears again, with a slight modification, in ATTACK of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster SNOW GOONS), and your general day-to-day life as Calvin, then you’ve got another great collection. If you wish to stay on to hear more, by all means grab a seat, but if you’ve heard all you need then thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll enjoy the collection as much as I did.
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Ok, “Hello and welcome” to all those who are wondering, “What’s a Hobbes?”
Calvin and Hobbes are the main characters in a comic strip that ran from .... wait! Don't go! You say you don't want to read a book of comics? Especially a comic strip that might make you think (you saw that note above on conforming to society’s expectations, didn’t you?) Don’t worry; you don’t have to think if you don’t want to. In fact I’m sure young Calvin would consider thinking, which might lead to learning, to be a horrible waste of time.
Panel One (p. 76)
A distraught Calvin spreads his arms beseechingly, tosses his head back, opens his mouth wide in a “woe is me” cry against the unjust world, and asks,
Why should I go to school?! Why can’t I stay home?
Panel Two
In full wail he continues,
Why do I have to learn? Why can’t I stay the way I am? What’s the point of this? Why do things have to be this way? Why can’t things be different?
Panel Three
The harsh reality of life picks him up and tosses him out the door, literally. In this panel we see Calvin and his school bag flying through the air while the practical but unsympathetic words of his mother hang above him,
Life is full of mysteries, isn’t it? See you this afternoon.
Panel Four – the last panel
A dejected Calvin stands on the street corner, waiting for the school bus, and pronounces,
At 7:00 AM, Mom’s not very philosophical.
He may have no time for school, but when it comes to adventures that require the vivid imagination of an unstoppable six-year-old boy, then Calvin’s your man, er … boy. What sort of adventures? How about using a time machine to visit the Jurassic period in order to bring back photographs of dinosaurs (which will make you rich, of course). Or a machine called the “Duplicator” that can make copies of yourself so that your doubles will take care of all the annoying responsibilities in life (like cleaning your room). Better yet use your “Transmogrifier” to transform your enemies into talking worms. How can a six year old accomplish all this? Is he a well-funded child prodigy? No, not at all; Bill Watterson, the creator of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, shows us that all a child needs for adventure is a great imagination and, of course, one multi-purpose cardboard box.
Calvin is a great visionary, for a six year old that is. In his quest to solve world problems, in his own world, he invents the Duplicator (a cardboard box formerly known as the Transmogrifier). Sadly, Calvin’s quest for scientific knowledge is not always met with approval. Even his best friend Hobbes has doubts, which annoys Calvin to no end causing him to rant “Brother! You doubting Thomases get in the way of more scientific advances with your stupid ethical questions! This is a brilliant idea!” (p. 55). Calvin is not the type to let a few ethical issues, such as cloning oneself, to stand in the way of scientific progress. More often then not though Hobbes is right, and Calvin’s “scientific” experiments go awry. In this particular story we have over 20 strips (seven pages) to enjoy as Calvin quickly loses control over the situation. You’ll have to pick up the book to see how the events humorously unfold.
I mentioned Calvin’s best friend Hobbes, but I didn’t mention that Hobbes is a stuffed toy tiger. For Calvin, Hobbes is as real as you or I, perhaps even more so, actually definitely more so. Calvin lives in a world where parents and teachers can transform into aliens or monsters, where dinosaurs roam the playground, where one moment he’s floating out of control in a world without gravity and the next he’s shrunk to only one inch in height. Life as a six year old is not without its challenges, that’s for sure.
Hobbes is an interesting character. Since he is brought to life by Calvin’s imagination I would expect him to think and act like Calvin himself, supporting him in all that he does. Instead though Watterson often has Hobbes acting as the voice of reason in an otherwise unreasonable situation. For example, in Calvin’s constant attempt to avoid homework he postpones working on a school project until the night before it is due (good thing adults don’t procrastinate like that, eh?). Calvin attempts to rush through the project, avoiding any research or effort, and then plans to rely on his “secret weapon,” a professional looking clear plastic binder, to get a good grade (ever sit through a business meeting and watch a presentation with all fluff and no substance, I guess some Calvins never grow up). During the evening Hobbes questions Calvin at almost every step, and then in the end says “I don’t want co-author credit on this, ok?” Poor Calvin, even his imaginary friend doubts him at times. Don’t worry though, there are many great moments where Hobbes provides the love and comfort that a child needs from his best friend even if that best friend is a stuffed tiger. Hobbes can be as sarcastic as Calvin, but he’s still the one who Calvin chooses to share all his adventures, his hopes, and fears with, and he’s the one who gets the last good night hug every night.
A word or two about Watterson’s drawing style is a must. This is after all a comic strip, and how a strip is drawn is as important as the words and actions of the characters. Despite Calvin’s often overly mischievous and evil (as evil as a six year old can get) activities the strips have a light and open appearance. Compared to the highly detailed, realistic, dark and sinister style I encountered while reading Frank Miller’s BATMAN. The Dark Knight Returns, Watterson’s work has a comforting Sunday morning cartoon feel to it. The characters are realistic in that people are definitely identifiable as people, but they are people with only three fingers, and the children have somewhat disproportioned bodies with their feet starting at almost the same level as where their legs meet their torso.
There is much more to Watterson’s work though than noting how many fingers the characters have. For example, how he chooses to tell a story can vary. One of the Sunday strips (p. 63) has no words at all. Each box advances the story, through pictures alone, starting with Calvin spotting a new snowfall and running excitedly to get his father to come play outside. His father is too busy working to join him, but then the subsequent panels show the father as he wrestles with the decision to work instead of play; staring down at his work, peeking out of the window. Eventually the pull to be with his son wins and we can see the joy each of them has as they spend the day building snowmen together. Despite Calvin’s penchant for imagining his dad as a monster (another opportunity for Watterson to show off his creative drawing styles) the reader is left with the knowledge that father and son do share good times together. Even modern art can make it into the Sunday funnies. Unfortunately the Scientific Progress Goes “Boink” collection is all in black and white for the colour version of Calvin suddenly seeing multiple perspectives while having an argument with his father is an impressive rendering by Watterson of Calvin in a cubist world. By taking a character well established as one with a single point of view (his own), and placing him in a world I would more readily associate with Picasso shows just how creative Watterson was with a story line and its drawing.
So there you have it, a comic strip whose two main characters are a six-year-old boy and his toy tiger. It sounds simple enough, but throughout the series, (the syndicated strip ran from 1985 to 1995), there are recurring themes, everything from perfecting the fine art of doing nothing on a beautiful summer day to learning how to cope with a schoolyard bully, familiar characters – mom and dad, once known as "bug-eyed aliens from Neptune," and much anticipated events such as how will Calvin top the previous year’s snowmen creations. Rather than making the strip become predictable, a C&H fan will find that Watterson was able to make these recurring story lines provide an almost inexhaustible source of entertainment for his readers. Unfortunately though, the series did end. If you are a C&H fan then consider reading Calvin and Hobbes, Sunday Pages 1985-1995. An exhibition Catalogue by BILL WATTERSON published in 2001. In it Watterson provides an explanation of why he ended the strip. Even though I think Watterson was still producing original, entertaining, and thoughtful work, he had decided, “there were no more mountains … to climb” (p. 17) in his career as a comic strip artist. Ending the strip has allowed him to move on to other challenges in his artistic life.
Well, we cannot stay six forever and the daily strips may be gone from the newspapers, but fortunately we can still read the strips in their book format. I encourage you to pick up any one of the collections. I do not think it matters which one since you can start with any of them and you’ll probably be hooked. If you do start with Scientific Progress Goes “Boink” then you may find yourself in the middle of a story in progress, but with Calvin as the star there really is no beginning or end, just one continuous adventure. Hop on, hold tight, and enjoy the ride!
Calvin and Hobbes touched the hearts (and funny bones) of the millions who read the award-winning strip. One look at this Calvin and Hobbes collection...More at HotBookSale
In five years of syndication, Calvin and Hobbes has become an American comic strip sensation, appearing in more than 1,800 newspapers daily and Sunday...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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