Stupendous Man is way cooler than Spaceman Spiff.

Calvin & Hobbes. Derek & Brody.

Eh, not quite the same, but close enough for me.

I've always loved Calvin & Hobbes. Well maybe not always loved, but for as long as I can remember I've liked it. Well, it was actually my second favorite comic strip or collection behind The Far Side. But not any more though. Now the guys are #1.

I think the biggest reason is that when reading it, I instantly feel like a kid again. Being able to let my imagination wander, play and dance like nobody's watching or even be almost consequence/care free again. What better time was there in life?

It's a completely different feeling I get when reading Calvin & Hobbes from the one I get when reading Astonishing X-Men or Green Arrow.



Sure there's a sense of escapism with Marvel and DC, but it's still grounded in an all-too-increasingly adult world. I read and react to grown up situations: war, infidelity, money trouble, grief, politics, betrayal, family strife, et al. A fantasy world? Yes. But still a grown up world. And sometimes I just don't want to deal with grown up things...

With Calvin & Hobbes though, it's different. I think like a 6 year old boy (more so than usual). I read and react to his problems: bath time, disgusting food, the babysitter, girls with "cooties", my best friend being the only one who gets me, etc... And when things are going tough, it's good to know that I can just let it all go and laugh out loud at some of Calvin's antics. Mostly because it's like someone took parts of my childhood and put them in small panels, and I can remember exactly what it was like to do whatever's going on right there in black and white (or color on Sunday).



Hell, most of the time I see Calvin doing something that I did last week.


Now don't get me wrong, Calvin & Hobbes aren't going to replace the kind of catharsis that Logan and Ollie Queen can still provide (sometimes you just wanna see someone get their ass handed to them); but it's just nice to know that I can have a third universe to tune into other than the multiverse that's provided by Marvel and DC. AND, if I need to put on the big boy thinking cap, any philosophical musings between Calvin & Hobbes are usually the kind even I can follow: funny and doesn't hurt my head when I think about it.



D




One of these days, I'm gonna fork out the cash to haul in The Complete Calvin & Hobbes Collection. That way I can take my time and just breeze though all of my childhood put into all of the black and white (or full color), panel-ly goodness it deserves. However, my parents might argue that it should be a collection of Stephen King novels instead.