How does Bill Watterson do it? He creates characters full of depth and life. You want to meet these people. He creates Calvin, a six-year-old boy who's life so far is by far more interesting than mine, and I've lived three times as long as he has! You don't care how mischievous Calvin is, you wish you could have a son like that.

Does the world of Calvin and Hobbes need an introduction? Even if you are unfamiliar with this comic strip duo, how do I even begin describing what Watterson has done? He has done something magical.

"Something Under the Bed is Drooling" is a collection of comic strips by Bill Watterson featuring the adventures of Calvin, a six-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger and best friend, Hobbes, who comes to life with the power of Calvin's imagination (Oh, and a mighty power it is indeed! Calvin can make himself invisible, travel to other planets, and invent wonderous machines such as a "transmorgrifier", among many other things).

Calvin spends a lot of time with his imaginary tiger friend; perhaps the only time when they are not together is when Calvin goes to school. But even then, Hobbes waits with him for the school bus (how he walks back to the house and waits for Calvin to come home in order to greet him with a ferocious ambush attack is up to the reader's imagination). I don't want to ruin the collection by talking too much about the individual comic strips, but I feel that it's the only way that I can back up my laudatory claims. So, I'll use a couple of examples, trying to keep it to a minimum. Also, keep in mind that the excellent illustrations are half the experience, so just think about how hilarious the expression of Calvin's face must be when, for example, Hobbes lays a trap and then triple-jumps him in checkers to win the game or when Calvin carefully plans a vicious snowball barrage aimed at the neighborhood girl Susie only to have all his snowballs miss. That brings us to the subject of Susie, a cute girl that sits next to Calvin in class and is his "arch-enemy", if you will. Remember, all girls are icky when you're six. It's a shame that this collection didn't have any comic strips with the G.R.O.S.S. club. If you don't know what that is, buy more Calvin and Hobbes collections! Guaranteed to be excellent! But I digress. Susie reminds me of Lisa Simpson (Please tell me you know who she is. If you don't, lie.): sweet, does well in school, and also equipped with her own unique sense of humor. Oh and she can get mischievous and angry also if you push her buttons too many times (another reason to buy other Calvin and Hobbes collections: you get to see her pelt Calvin really well with a snowball. Just goes to show that the "female of the species is deadlier than the male") My favorite strips with Susie are the one where Calvin calls her a "boogerbrain" for no reason and wants to apologize and the one where Calvin asks what part she's playing in school play (that one made me crack up for at least a whole minute). Both of those are great and I don't want to spill the punchline. Here's another one I enjoyed:

Calvin is fishing with Hobbes by his side

Calvin: Fishing is the most boring sport in the world. We've been sitting here for twenty minutes and not one thing has happened!

Hobbes looks at Calvin, thinks for a second, and then smiles and pushes Calvin into the water.


His interactions with his parents are very amusing too. As you can imagine, Calvin drives his parents up the wall with his antics. Calvin periodically rates his father's performance as a parent and offers ideas on how to boost his standings, usually involving purchasing material goods for Calvin. There's a great strip where Calvin, inspired by a Godzilla-type movie he watched earlier in the afternoon, rises from the depths of his bathtub to wreck havoc on "Japan". He stomps his way to the kitchen, naked and dripping wet, and meets "his ancient arch-rival Megalon!" (in reality his mother washing the dishes and demanding that Calvin get back in the tub). He spits bathwater at his nemesis (or in the words of Calvin, "He spews a mighty fireball!") and then finds himself "returning to the sea" with an enraged mother chasing after him.
The collection also has its touching and emotional moments such as when Calvin makes breakfast in bed (albeit a disastrous one) for his sick mother or when Calvin finds a dying raccoon. The latter is an emotional roller-coaster: it has bits of funny parts, sad moments, a philosophical pondering on death, and a final strip that shows that through loss we better realize what we have and that brings us closer to our loved ones. A common Calvin and Hobbes strip in the winter is one where Calvin and Hobbes go for a sled ride and discuss philosophical issues that are obviously above the mental capacities of a six-year-old. Their discussion is almost always (I think always, but just to play it safe, I'll add in an "almost") ended with their sled crashing. In this collection, there is a strip where Calvin ponders, "Hobbes, do you think human nature is good or evil? I mean, do you think people are basically good, with a few bad tendencies, or basically bad, with a few good tendencies? Or, as a third possibility, do you think people are just crazy, and who knows why they do anything?" instead of heeding the warnings of Hobbes to watch the road. They crash and Hobbes says, "I choose crazy." There's a whole lot of other stuff that I haven't covered, such as who's Spaceman Spiff? But I want you to buy this collection instead of using my review as some cheap substitute. Most likely, you'll find it for less than the $10.95 I paid. Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip ever. Sometimes it makes me go, "Hey! I was totally like that when I was a kid!", but mostly it makes me regret that my childhood wasn't as colorful as Calvin's (nor my vocabulary at the time). But then I think to myself, whose childhood was? And I conclude that there is not a single negative thing I have to say about this collection and all the other collections.

"Something Under The Bed Is Drooling" also contains a foreword by Pat Oliphant. What a great last name. (If "Lord of the Rings" just popped in your mind at the mention of that last name, you rock)

Recommended: Yes