Weirdos from Another Planet!

Our ten-year-old grandson just discovered our collection of Calvin and Hobbes books, extensive but incomplete. We bought this for him for Christmas and it was a huge hit. Great comedy never goes out of style.

You can always depend on Bill Watterson and his brilliant creations Calvin and Hobbes, and in the collection "Weirdos From Another Planet!" Watterson does not disappoint.
This collection has many strips that deal with Calvin's numerous unnamed alter egos, many of them very simple creations (not "characters" like Spaceman Spiff or his noir detective) but rather Calvin imagining certain professions as himself. Examples from the text include his being a pilot, an archeologist, etc.
"WFAP" also introduces us to Spaceman Spiff, as we get to see his first strip and learn of his origins as one of Calvin's alter egos.
The title of the collection comes from a prolonged strip that is about a trip Calvin and Hobbes take to Mars. The trip is undertaken because Earth is too polluted and Calvin is disgusted with humanity's treatment of the planet. The title of the collection cleverly alludes to Calvin and Hobbes, not the Martians, and Watterson raises a very interesting point with how he concludes this particular storyline.
As usual with a Calvin and Hobbes collection I found myself laughing and thinking at the same time. I enjoy when that happens! I can always count on Calvin and Hobbes to make me laugh, and to tease my brain cells a little. I love them, and these collections, for that!

Is it possible that just 20 years ago that Calvin and Hobbes - - one of the finest comics strips ever created - - was fresh and poignant every day in the paper?

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us," says Calvin, looking at the chain-sawn stump of a tree, in 'Weirdos from Another Planet' by Bill Watterson. The demise of Calvin and Hobbes is reason enough not to contact Earthlings.

Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau is sometimes still incisive, with the same brilliance in political observations as when it was new and Richard Nixon was newly president. But brilliance is boring after 40 years of repetition. Doonesbury is dated. Nixon is long disgraced, dead and gone.

Calvin remains relevant, because like Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' he dealt with the universal human condition - - - as it applies to small boys and to the grown men they become without ever losing their small-boy outlook on olife.

"Do you believe our destinies are shaped by the stars?" Calvin asks Hobbes.

Ever the logical one, Hobbes replies, "Nah."

Calvin counters with words as relevant today as in 1988, because, "Life's a lot more fun when you're not responsible for your actions."

How do we greet strangers? Calvin went to Mars and, after mugging for the Viking Lander "to blow some circuits at NASA" he met a live Martian. Hobbes thought the Martian must be as scared of them as they are of the Martian. Like many of us when meeting a foreign culture, Calvin explains, "We're just ordinary Earthlings, not weirdos from another plsanet, like HE is."

Doonesbury was similarly brilliant in portraying Nixon as a weirdo; but, Nixon nostalgia remains firmly Nixon. "Weirdos from another planet" is sadly reminiscent of the usual reaction to the current resident of the White House, and most likely The-President-to-Be.

Calvin's Dad isn't all that slow either, as when he sets him up in the first three panels of one daily strip by asking, "Hey, Calvin! Guess what time it is!"

"Why? What time is it?

"It's a very special time!

"Oh boy, oh boy! What time is it?

"Do you really want to know?

"Yes, Yes! Tell me! Tell me! Quick! Please! Yes!

"IT'S YOUR BATHTIME! OH BOY!!

Gettting Calin into a bath is about the same agony as pilling a cat. In the final panel, a dejected Calvin is up to his nose in sudsy water and commenting, "You know how old people always write to Dear Abby, complaining that their kids never write,call or visit? Those letters really crack me up."

Calvin had his own four-panel approach to homework, "When I grow up, I want to be an inventor. First I will invent a time machine. Then I'll come back to yesterday, and take myself to tomorrow, and skip this dumb assignment."

Personally, for me, it was lima beans. Any time lima beans appeared, it was lima beans or no desert. Calvin and his Mom had more imagination; Calvin looked at his bowl of soup and horrified, "Hey! What's this stuff in my soup? Yeccch! Is this rice? It had better NOT be!"

His Mom was very worried, "Rice? Let me see!"

Calvin was insistent, "Look! These little white things! See, there's rice in my soup. I hate rice!"

His Mom looked closely and explained, "I didn't put any rice in. These are maggots."

Calvin was delighted, explaining, "Gosh, wait till I tell everyone at school what WE had for dinner.".

His Dad lamented, "Another lovely meal at home with my family. I wish my job required more travel."

Evolution? As Calvin explains, "Just think, Earth was a cloud of dust 4.5 billion years ago . . . 3 billion years ago, the first bacteria appeared, then came sea life, dinosaurs, birds, mammals, and finally, a million uears ago, man. Now, in 1988, there's me. The acme of evolutuion."

Hobbes, rolling his eyes, responds, "Oh, PLEASE."

Even Richard Feynman can't come up with better answers. Trudeau is always wordy, as Watterson was at times. But the genius of Watterson was the ability to draw a 14-panel Sunday strip showing Calvin filling a water balloon and sneaking up on Hobbes . . . . panel after panel. Only one dialoguie panel was needed, when Hobbes drily explains, just before he was otherwise to be doused, "As if life isn't short enough."

It ends with a thoroughly frustrated Calvin resting beside Hobbes.

This is the Master.

Calvin and Hobbes has always been a great read. This was the first one in book form that I read and thoroughly enjoyed.

The book has many good strips and quite a lot of Sunday strips as well. The aliens show up towards the end and there is a good many strips on that series where he explores the Martian surface and rightly is told by Hobbes that if one is not potty trained would you invite them to your home? So of course after damaging Earth, men need not expect a welcome from the Martians or anyone else.

There is a lot of wisdom and good humour in the book. The opening splash page itself is attractive about why intelligent life hasn't contacted us - with a picture of deforestation.

Other favourites are of course being a tiger, or the tiger's welcome to the kid coming home from school, Dad's approval ratings in the election, the family outing, room service for the ill kid, etc.

The parents are delightfully tolerant of the crazy nutty Calvin. The family outing to the woods is a riot. Calvin wonders what kind of vacation is it if he has to be with his parents, LOLz. Even Calvin's vulnerability is explored when he panics after breaking Dad's binoculars.

This book is cute as hell - and especially a great gift to pretty young girls who thank me endless for making their day. You won't ever be disappointed, probably not with any Calvin & Hobbes collection - they are a gem, a treasure, a laugh riot, a piece of modern art and culture.

Beware of Captain Spiff, the T-Rex, the paleontologist, the incredible comic strip from the best graphic art has to offer.

Okay, so Calvin is one kid that no one would ever want to try to raise, and Hobbes is one (stuffed) tiger that no one would ever want to mess with. But these two always have their fun, and they sure do have a hell of a lot of adventures (most with Calvin's parents): camping, going to the zoo, digging for dinosaur bones, going to Mars, being lifted up in the stratosphere by a balloon, fixing the bathroom sink. The list is always endless with this duo. And this is only the fourth installment in the series! And there are tons of philosophical, satirical, ironic, and even slapstick humor all around.

Now, you know a psychologically awkward kid like Calvin would probably never survive in the real world (watch the skit on "Robot Chicken" and you'll see why). But then of course, Calvin's vivid imagination is what makes these comics so great to read. The entire series is like pizza, it's deliciously excellent.

(I know the last sentence sounds corny, so deal with it)

I've read the entire Calvin and Hobbes series several times (once even in Italian!) and love them. They are smart, outrageous, hilarious, and thought-provoking. They make us remember what it was like to have an imagination, before life and conformity squashed it out of us, and the books encourage us, I think, to try to recapture that excitement. And I admire the author for stopping the series while it was still good. Charles Schulz continued with "Peanuts" decades after the strip stopped being innovative or even interesting, but Watterson knew when to stop, and that is a good thing. The books we have are gems we can always treasure.

Yet another brilliant Calvin and Hobbes book full of the usual adventures and journeys into an endless forest that lies only just beyond Calvin's back yard in a world that is forever summer or a weekend or a snowy winter. As always his parents are forever stressing out over their son's wacky world and intelligence that most five-year-old kids probably think but dare not say.

The title refers to a series of strips in which Calvin and Hobbes go to Mars to escape an inreasingly polluted Earth only to be freaked out by the aliens they find there.

As always it's pure genius and will surely take you back to your childhood. Would you want to give up Calvin's world just to be a grown-up?

The title of the book represents a truly classic series of strips in which Calvin first uses his cardboard box as a space ship to travel to Mars. What he finds is that the "Weirdos from Another Planet" are him and Hobbes! This is another first rate collection from the strip that was THE highlight of the comics page during its newspaper run. Bill Waterson's genius has been sorely missed ever since he decided to retire. This is another fine collection in an outstanding series of books.

i was introduced to calvin and hobbes in grade 4 by my freinds who brought it to school. they brought 2 but this was the one i read. this is absolutely hilarious!!!! u cant put this book down unless someone forces u to or u finish it. i especially lyk da rosalyn comic strip in this one.

A MUST HAVE IF U ARNT GONNA GET THE COMPLETE WICH HAS EVERY STRIP EVER

CLASSIC. Any C&H is. I have no doubt that anyone can get a real kick out of this, 'cause this is comedy it's very finest. It's completely outrageous, very intelligent, and just as thought provoking. It's so hilarious that I laugh out loud about it with other people now and again. Bill Watterson really hit one hell of a home run with Calvin and Hobbes - it's the sort of thing you get more and more out of the older you get. A book for all ages if there ever was one. Do your kid a favor and buy this.

This is a great book! There are lots of things in this story I love like when Calvin becomes a tiger, when he ruins the bathroom trying to fix a faucet,getting lost at a zoo, and going to Mars just to get away from all the pollution on Earth. This was one of the best books I've read. If you love Calvin and Hobbes, BUY THIS BOOK!!

I grew up with this series and I just had to collect them all together!! It has hilarious short stories and it always cheer me up whenever I feel alittle down! Highly recommended for kids and even adults! I still do read them!!!

For some reason I was expecting a fully color book. Probably because of the cover. I know it was cheap and when I found out the book was black and white, it made sense because of the price, but I was a little disappointed to not get what I expected.

This book is so funny!Something new every page and everything funny. You wonder where did he com up with this? it has incidents he probably hd himself and stuff he saw at other house or was told about. It seems impossible that this stuff could just pop into his head.

I really enjoy these drawings! Simple but so touching!

It does to philosophy what high intellectual speculating cannot achieve: touch your hearth with the reality of everyday living. A treat every night before falling asleep!

European drawings are certainly known the world over as masterly executed cartoons; but here, in Bill Watterson's series of Calvin and Hobbes, the American's sense of humour express itself by reaching the intellectual and the down to earth feeling! It brings back memories of childhood and fundamental questions adults rarely take the time to ponder, even for themselves! Five stars for this delectable reading!

I'm an 8 year old Canadian living in Beijing, China, and I love to read. I really like to read funny books. One of my favourites of all time is Calvin & Hobbes, "Weirdos from Another Planet". I find this book really funny because Calvin's imagination in this one is the wildest ever! The illustrations are a perfect match for the hilarious stories. I enjoyed the main part of this book, the space adventures of Calvin & Hobbes the best. I found them so funny that I couldn't put the book down in bed, and stayed awake very late. This book made me a real fan of Calvin and Hobbes, and now I can't wait to get more! Elise Hoffmann 8 years old, Beijing, China

i was introduced to calvin and hobbes in grade 4 by my freinds who brought it to school. they brought 2 but this was the one i read. this is absolutely hilarious!!!! u cant put this book down unless someone forces u to or u finish it. i especially lyk da rosalyn comic strip in this one.

A MUST HAVE IF U ARNT GONNA GET THE COMPLETE WICH HAS EVERY STRIP EVER

This is, in my opinion, the best of the short Calvin and Hobbes books. I read this book 15 years ago, and I can still remember strips from it! I've missed Calvin and Hobbes terribly since Bill Wattterson retired-my only consolation is I now get to share the magic with my son.