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Calvin & Hobbes  5

This cartoon series is the funniest I’ve ever read - no question about it. The stories follow Calvin, a boy of about five or six years old, and his toy tiger, Hobbes, who comes to life when no one else is around. Together they get into trouble and are devilishly mischievous, but not out of some childish need to be naughty but simply through Calvin’s struggle to understand life and the world that surrounds him. His philisophical discussions with Hobbes are a treat as is his imagination which sees him becoming, amongst others, Spaceman Spiff: the all conquering space superhero …

I have several books but seem to be missing a few at the moment - I lent some to a friend in hospital and haven’t seen them since. They warrant reading at regular intervals and never seem any less funny each time around. If I ever see a book in a shop that I haven’t already got then it gets bought without hesitation.

“The greatest humourous comic strip series of all time. Forget Peanuts; forget Garfield; the Perishers; and … um … other stuff, Calvin and Hobbes is the only cartoon strip ever to incapacitate me with laughter. Bill Watterson is genius. Whether it’s locking the baby sitter in the bathroom, phoning local stores attempting to order surface-to-air missiles, wrecking his father’s car, fighting with Hobbes, snowballing Suzie Dekins (the girl next door), or cloning himself … Calvin’s adventures are so superbly written that even on the 120th read they still make me choke with laughter. I can say no more. This strip is a must see. If I was only permitted to give you one piece of advice, it would be to get these collections, read them, put your lungs back in after you have laughed them out, and treasure them. As I have said there is no comic strip of its type to even come close.”

Here’s a small selection of some of my favourite strips in the series:

• Book report
• Green stuff
• Safari Al
• “When’s lunch?”

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