A Calvin and Hobbes Collection - It's A Magical World

I read and listened to my dad read "Calvin and Hobbes" comics to me as a kid so this comic strip has always had a special place in my heart. It' funny, it's smart, and generally anybody of any age can enjoy this comic series. I definitely recommend this book and the 10th anniversary book for anyone who loves or wants to try "Calvin and Hobbes."

From what I know this is the last C&H collection published before Watterson's adieu. That means the last page and, in particular, the last picture are the last we'll hear from Calvin and Hobbes in our lifetime. They're both absolutely beautiful and I don't mind to confess that I had tears in my eyes the moment I watched them. This book is typically exhilarating Watterson art: crazy, warm, witty, always funny and incredibly well written and designed. The strips about Calvin's snowmen are the ones that probably stand out, but it's a very tough call. A great, great farewell from my all time favourite comic strip.

you first must admit that Calvin is a rotten creepy kid. once you accept that then the collection becomes a fun variety of stomp the creep. Everybody beats up Calvin including his best friend Hobbes the imaginary tiger. You may have some problems with whack a mole humor. But then it just takez a second to watch this midget demon prey on everybody. Calvin has no redeeming qualities. He is the villain of every situation. So naturally if good can win then Calvin must wind up in a broken heap. Page after page of whack the rotten kid. And it is such guilty pleasure. Do not fall for the cute drawing of a little kid. This is no Charlie Brown. So enjoy the drawings. That rotten kid you knew growing up finally gets what he deserves.

This is the first time I've ever come across a book listed on the store that has hundreds of reviews and nearly all of them are five-star reviews. (And the dissenters all gave it four stars.) Don't ask me why, this book needs another five-star review like the Pied Piper needed more rats, but I want to join the party. I gave up reading newspaper comic strips decades ago, not a one of them struck me as funny and it was a waste of time every day -- and then along came CALVIN AND HOBBES, which was never less than sheer delight. Maybe my favorite comic strip of all time. These C&H collections are treasures.

Karl Popper once suggested that a never ending life may have little or no meaning. The very possibility of losing something, especially one's life, may imbue that thing with meaning and appreciation for it while it lasts. Things that never expire and last forever may end up getting taken for granted and could, to a certain extent, seem less valuable. Perhaps this principle also applies to great comic strips. After all, consider some strips that either went on for decades or some that continue to roll on interminably. Many of them seem flaccid, lifeless and worn out sometimes on multiple levels. Other things apart from fresh ideas seem to motivate such strips. Perhaps habit or the need of routine propels them? Or the simple fact that the artists make a living wage off them? No one can blame anyone for supporting themselves off of their creations, but Calvin and Hobbes never succumbed such pressures. The only pressure its creator, Bill Watterson, seemed to cave into was the quality and integrity of the comic strip. Some may even accuse him of fanaticism to an annoying or possibly dogmatic degree, but his strip still shines through comic strip history, unsullied by the cliches and tiresome repetitions that sour so many things that drag on beyond their time. In this spirit, and presumably for the good of the strip, Watterson decided to terminate it in 1995. Though it seems hard for heartbroken fans to imagine or even to believe, the strip's quality may have diminished had it continued. Watterson definitely quit while he was ahead and thanks to this the strip remains a shining example of comic strip art and integrity that few will ever match. Sometimes the best things are temporary.

The final collection, "It's A Magical World," released in late 1996, continues and ends the strip's amazing run. Throughout, the high quality characterization, writing and artwork permeates the pages. Though a slight, very slight, almost imperceptible trace of the strip having run its course peeks out here and there, though it never actually reached that point. Watterson, more concerned with his strip's legacy than merchandising or a paycheck, would have never allowed "Calvin and Hobbes" to sag into mediocrity. And so it never did. Calvin's issues with attention, school, bullies, Susie, attack tigers, aggravated parents and alien abduction continue in full force. Early on, one such alien takes his place at school in a brilliant Sunday strip. When Mrs. Wormwood, who Calvin often perceives as an alien or monster, asks if he has enough gum to share with everybody, he hurls out a gigantic slobbering ball of chewed gum and says "Probably, but do you really think they'd want it?" The next panel transports us to the principal's office with Calvin pleading "it was HER idea..." Computers also make more frequent appearance in this collection than in previous books. The majority of the strip's run remained largely agnostic to technology, but the world wide web hadn't really emerged en masse by 1996 - a reality probably unimaginable to most of today's youth. Calvin's subconscious comes alive in another brilliant Sunday strip featuring his inner workings and the films the workers play during dream sleep. Rosalyn makes her final appearance and masters the art of Calvinball and to a certain extent, Calvin himself. But the most astounding extended narrative in this collection remains the leaf collection turned alien intervention. Calvin, feigning authority, essentially exchanges leadership of the earth for a school assignment involving a leaf collection. The narrative ends, then reappears suddenly as the aliens protest "What the heck is wrong with this planet you sold us?" Then each character disappears one by one until the justifiably famous final Sunday strip closes the strip. The greatness of this final strip rests in the fact that it doesn't seem like a final strip. Another strip could easily appear. Another collection could effortlessly roll off the presses. But, as we know years later, Calvin and Hobbes careening on a sled off the bottom right panel - in western comics the direction of the future and of the end - remains the true and utter end. What a way to go out.

"Calvin and Hobbes" lives on as one of comic strip history's high points. It still seems almost insurmountable. As newspapers disappear and comics move to the very fluid medium of the web, its reputation will likely increase as the glut of comics propagates beyond the eyes and redacting pens of syndicates and editors. Who knows what will become of comics as the web becomes less static and more like a virtual world. Whatever happens in the electrified and digitized future, no history of comics will ever be able to exclude the often jaw-dropping masterpiece called "Calvin and Hobbes."

“It’s a Magical World” is a Calvin and Hobbes collection, so it goes without saying that it is good, and worth your time. As there are only two panels per page in this collection, many of them in color, the larger size really makes the artistry pop, and Mr. Watterson’s details add so much to the strips.
If there is a pattern in this collection, and I am not sure that there is, it seems to be a year in Calvin’s life. All of the seasons are represented in this collection, mostly in their natural sequence. It seems that a school year of Calvin’s is also part of this representation, and a lot of strips in “It’s a Magical World” feature Calvin’s long suffering teacher Miss Wormwood.
The last 10 pages or so of this book have some brilliant moments where you are stopped cold by the simplicity and power of strips that are about loving life and being brave to what it offers.
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!

The Calvin and Hobbes saga comes to a close in this fantastic book. The hilarious material holds up just as well today despite years and years going by. Strip after strip of the legendary comic has gotten captured in numerous collections over the years, from 'The Revenge of the Baby-Sat' to 'Weirdos from Another Planet' to 'Yukon Ho' and more, and the aptly titled 'It's a Magical World' ends things on a high note.

Fans of Calvin & Hobbes who used to read the newspaper strip in the 80s and 90s will find great pleasure in reading this collection of C&H comics. These witty comics about the 6-year old Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, named after the famous philosophers, will amuse people of all ages. The perceptiveness and humor of Watterson deserve the highest of cartoon awards, while his artistic creations exude hilarity. This cartoon is perhaps one of the most piercing yet funny critiques of modern society.

Snow creations, sledding, pranks against Susie, Miss Wormwood and more creative ways to escape class, ⦠the fun in Calvinâ(tm)s world never ends!

Note that there are two series of C&H collections: individual wide-format albums, each covering an entire year of strips (will call it âaeregularâ), and the vertical aspect ratio âaetreasury seriesâ which covers selected comics from two regular C&H books. Note that C&H ran for a year in newspapers, so thereâ(tm)s 10 regular books and 5 treasury books. Though the cartoons are slightly smaller in the treasury collection, each treasury book is far thicker and contains more strips than a regular book, and is furthermore less expensive, so treasury books are a real bargain. âaeItâ(tm)s a Magical Worldâ belongs to the regular series and was published in 1996.

I remember first becomming a Calvin and Hobbes fan back when I was about 9 or 10. Some 14 years later I've got the entire collection in a magazine holder in my bathroom.
Let's get past the point that Calvin and Hobbes is funny. Of course it is. What Watterson does that's so impactful is remind us everytime we look at a Calvin and Hobbes strip how we all have a little bit of Calvin in us. Whether it's our desire to make crude snow figures everytime we see a snow sculpture to dreaming of T-Rex's in F14's during a class, Calvin still lives on.
I loved how this book not only reminded me of first reading them in the Sunday paper, but Watterson's explinations underneath a lot of the strips explaining what he was thinking when he first wrote them.
Calvin and Hobbes will always stand the test of time. From laughing at the strips when you're 10, to laughing once again when you're 20 at the ones you didn't get when you were 10, Watterson will always be missed.
Opening the Sunday paper has never been the same since his retirement. Watterson proves how typical blocked in comics lose their appeal quickly, and every now and then circles and frameless pictures make things come alive.
I dream of the day when I have kids old enough to be introduced to a world of a small boy and his tiger friend.

Bill Watterson brings to the table what no other cartoonist can bring: a true artistic, not cartoon, ability. Take just about any Sunday funnies in this book, among others. You will usually see a mass array of panels. They appear to be just a jumble, yet are arranged so that you can easily follow while reading, coming together with a great punchline at the end, or a beautiful portrait of the forest that Calvin & Hobbes walk through, or, both.
What strikes me funny about this strip, more than others, is the intelligent conversations of this otherwise typical six-year-old boy. Some of them I'll have to read a comic a few times over to get the conversation, much less the punchline.
Something ELSE that strikes me is how much of Calvin's ethical conversations about just about anything make sense almost half a decade later. I'm sure it's make sense 10-15 years from now, too. That's what helps make this cartoon so timeless & classic.
Its just too bad that Watterson had to end while at the top, It'd be much cooler if Calvin & Hobbes was still running today.
You should simply just drop anything you're doing & get the book now. You just can't miss out on Calvin's magical world.

Bill Waterson is argudably one of the best comic writers out there. Even through his retirement, he has made great books of past comics featuring his Calvin and Hobbes characters. I laugh and laugh at these comics he creates and I sometimes wonder how he comes up with such brilliant ideas sometimes with the storylines of some of the strips.
Calvin, one of his best known characters, is the trouble-making kid in the school. He is funny and imaginative and likes to make funa and games with his "real" pet friend Hobbes. Through the comics, you can see the relationship between a stuffed animal and a human.
In this comic though, Hobbes "comes to life" in Calvins eyes. The things that Calvin can sometimes get involved in is so hilarious and sometimes out of this world.
I guarantee that anyone that loves comics will fall in love with this one and should definitely buy this book to start their collection of classic comics.
All of Bill Waterson's comic books are very well done and very professional. His work is his life and it shows the time and consideration it took to make these characters come to life. Thank you Mr. Waterson for creating such a great comic and thatnk you people for reading my review!

I loved Calvin and Hobbes when i was a little kid and I still do now! They're hillarious and Calvin reminds me so much of myself at
his age (not in every aspect). Especially our family camp trips. calvin and his mom remind me so much of myself and my mom when
our dad took us camping and it turned out to be a disaster, lol. These cartoons make me want to be a kid again. Almost everyone has
said this but I'll say it again. You'll start out planning to read a few pages but you won't stop there. you can't. it's so additive. some of
the younger kids might not understand some of the big words but older kids will. But I think that grownups will enjoy them the most.
With the purchase of this collection all the sunday comics are colored! Get them
all!

This is the final collection of comics from CALVIN AND HOBBES, arguably my favorite comic strip of all times. Cartoonist Bill Watterson chose to retire before he drained all the magic out of his characters. While I'm disappointed, that is probably wise since this collection shows he was still at the top of his game.

Calvin can make an adventure out of everything, whether it's having Susie over for an afternoon (a great day for GROSS), trying to get out of school, playing Calvinball with Rosalyn, or putting off a leaf collection project until the very last night, his antics are sure to make you laugh. The genius of the strip is that we're often laughing at ourselves. Hobbes's comments are often funny and true, and watch out for the Chewing magazine strips. They hit a little too close to home.

This strip got better as it went along, and there is some classic stuff here. It's a little bitter sweet reading the last few knowing it's the end. And I still want to know what the noodles incident was.

While there are some strips out there I enjoy, I still miss this great strip. If you somehow managed to miss it, pick up any book today. It's guaranteed to have you laughing in no time.

I love Calvin and Hobbes. Since I was still young when it vanished from newspapers, I was eager to snap up the entire 16 book collection. Now that I look through them (and if you looked through all of them you'd notice this, too) I realized that the strip never really diminished in any way. When Calvin and Hobbes appear in "It's a magical world" the strips are just as, or funnier, than those of previous books. This is one of reasons that I have so much respect for the creator Bill Watterson. Very few strips can carry on for awhile without losing some of their humor, art, or general things that make them fun to read and look at.
For 11 years Calvin and hobbes dominated the newspapers. Now I urge you to buy the book that has the final Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. It's worth the money.

Calvin and Hobbes is one of those series that is Thouroughly word-for-word entertaining. I always warmed up while reading this, because it's so charming and humorous. There's never a joke that doesn't hit me in my funny bones.

It's a Magical World is a book with episodes from Calvin and Hobbes that span over a year. As we read, the seasons change along with the topics and moods. It's hard to pinpoint a favorite part of the book, because it's all hilarious. Whether you are a comic reader or not, this book offers something to people of all ages and types. No one can deny the magic that Calvin and Hobbes create. It is a book made to be loved.

If you are somebody that is like me, you have to be an adult too much of the time in daily life....if you are also like me you use books like this to remind you that happiness is in your heart and you can find it and keep it alive in the world that does not promote the childhood happiness that we all remember. All of these books are read over and over again by me, and they never seem to lose their splendor or innocent happiness. These books can help a person go into their own realm and find the child inside them that they so longingly miss and desire. Truely this is a comic that can bring the rainiest day sun and help the hardest frown turn into a smile....there is a piece of all of us in Calvin and Hobbes.

This is one of the funniest books in the Calvin and Hobbes collection. It contains the last strip Bill Watterson did; to me, let's go exploring meant : let's discover something else and not lament the end of a truly great comic strip. To tell you the truth I've honestly never fallen in love with any fictional characters until I started reading Calvin and Hobbes. I like the imagination aspect of this book in perticular. It brought back old childhood memories, back when the world outside our own seemed of little concern to us, for this reason alone I think Watterson is a genius pure and simple and his labour of love and passion will never be forgotten.

Well, this is the last installment of the C&H series. But does this mean more misery? No, of course not! The last C&H strip that was ever published gives us all a sense of hope for the world. And it also gives us more appreciation for the entire series. Calvin and Hobbes is filled with imaginary adventures, philsophical and satirical discussions, slapstick humor, and gorgeous scenery. I didn't appreciate these comics back when I was young, but I do now. Calvin and Hobbes will last another millenium, because it's brilliant stuff that shouldn't be messed with (with the exception of the hilarious "Robot Chicken" skit).

This is another outstanding collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that are, as always, humorous as well as being little works of art on their own. When you come to the end, however, there's that sad feeling of knowing that its the end of the line as far as the strip is concerned. The same drive that made Bill Watterson perhaps the most brilliant cartoonist ever caused him to pull the plug on his beloved creations when he thought that he had given it all he could give. It is a rare thing for anyone in the entertainment business to know when to call it quits. Perhaps, instead of being sad, we should say, "hats off."

Of all of Waterson's collections this is a definate fave. The illistrations are all in color and they are all beautiful. Calvin and Hobbes was introduced to me by a friend and I ended up enjoying them more than him. Calvin and Hobbes was and will always be a part of my life that I enjoy. The simplicity of being a child and how we all could step back and revisit those times when playing in a sandbox could lead to a trip to Mars and back. I believe that the conflict between the rational and irrational minds is one of the best comedies of all time, but when all is said and done you will and can only go as far as your imagination will take you.

Calvin and Hobbes have touched a place in my heart where I know I will always be a kid. I'm 16 years old, and growing up and getting out on my own is a scary thought. Calvin and Hobbes remind me I'll always be a kid, and my imagination will always be there for me. Not to mention Calvin's methods of handling aliens who want to take over the earth are very interesting. This last book of Calvin and Hobbes is wonderful in that it leaves the kid and the tiger doing what they always do . . . be themselves. "It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy. Let's go exploring!" Read this book, and be a kid for a while!

For over a decade, Calvin and Hobbes was a part of our families. We came to know Calvin and his suave stuffed tiger, Hobbes. We shared in his divine 'love' for his mother's cooking. We got the warm fuzzies as he and Susie Derkins played out their young romance through insults and secret G.R.O.S.S. meetings. We laughed at Calvin's vivid imagination through installments of Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, and the incomparable Spaceman Spiff (zounds!). And we cried and smiled through tears as Calvin learned the value of life and the pricelessness of a true friend. Calvin and Hobbes encapsulates every special moment of childhood, and can melt away the hard shell of even the most jaded and bitter individual. This comic strip is a celebration of life, and while it saddens me to realize that I'll never be able to share future adventures with them, I can always go back and relive those past moments again trough wonderful collections such as this. Since this book is the final collection, you owe it to yourself to own it in hardcover form. I can't recommend this book (or any of the others) enough. If there's a child somewhere in your soul, all of these books are absolutely essential.

One of the several reasons for Bill Watterson's departure from Calvin and Hobbes is that he wanted to pursue his craft in watercolor. It makes so much sense: just look at some of the background art in this collection and you can see it. (Actually, look at the background cover art, and it looks like Japanese watercolor.) Whatever his pursuits today, Watterson has left us a decade's worth of joy. This collection is just one of several. It doesn't really matter which one you pick up: you will always be guaranteed a few hours' worth of laughter and even a couple of warm tears.

This is the last of the C & H strips, and I think Watterson finished on a pretty strong note. I hear people say that Watterson should come back and write more strips. First of all, I think he did good to quit while he was ahead. Second of all, it always bother me when people complain about a writer leaving a series. As if they didn't have a life of their own and had to locked up somewhere and forced to churn out strips for the sake of their fans. If Watterson felt that he was tired of doing Calvin & Hobbes then we have to respect that.
This book has got almost nothing but five star reviews here. So I feel that it's necessary to offer a dissenting opinion. I don't think this is Watterson's best work, and there are signs here that the quality of the strips was slipping. For one thing, while the Sunday strips are intricately drawn, the daily strips seem somewhat sparsely decorated. I think Watterson was putting so much time into drawing the Sunday strips that he had to just rush off his daily strips to meet his deadline. Second and most importantly, I think that the characters and the world of Calvin & Hobbes were beginning to lose their charm to some degree. Calvin was evolving from a hyperactive child to an obnoxious brat, and even though Calvin has always talked alot smarter than your average seven year old, I think some dialogue here sounds wierd coming from his mouth. Also, I think there's too much preaching from the soapbox here, and that sort of thing always gets on my nerves. I don't mean to give the impression that these faults are as bad as I'm making them sound. Most of them are hardly noticeable. I am simply trying to point out that there is a decline here from the glory days of the strip, and that's it's best that Watterson quit when he did before things got worse. He himself probably realized that he was losing his touch a little. I know that there are people who are fans of the strip and feel they have to come here and rave about any book with Calvin and Hobbes on the cover. (There is even one guy who posts the exact same review for every book in the series.) Some people think that's what being a fan is all about. It's the same sort of mentality that would make Star Trek fans go crazy over a Star Trek X even if the Enterprise was shaped like a cereal box. But you can be a fan and still have a discriminating taste. You can still separate the good from the bad. I think giving this book five stars does a disservice to better work like Snow Goons and The Authoritative C & H, which I think were the high points of the series. Anyway, this isn't a bad book. It's still vintage Calvin and Hobbes, and I think Watterson choose the perfect time to hang up his drawing board.

Hobbes is the best animated animal. Even as an animated feline he's better than Garfield. He's the perfect best pal for Calvin and the interaction between them is wonderful. Just take a look at the back cover. I wish I had a tiger like Hobbes. To everyone else he's just a stuffed toy but in Calvin's eyes he the cuddliest cat ever.
The best thing about Calvin and Hobbes is the way Calvin is wise well beyond his years but still has the many illusions of childhood. I think it's the way many of us would like to be. Wisdom without cynicism.
I totally love Calvin and Hobbes. Their adventures are the best and their friendship is real, even if Hobbes is not.

love this character and purchase this book on a friend's recomendation, as a person who never read calvin before my verdict is: 20 percent real gems worth framing on the wall, 30 percent extremely good, 30 percent just good, 20 percent not so good. for anyone never read calvin before, try it you will be a lover of calvin at the end of the book! enjoy the calvin to santa letter immensly, and the page where calvin forget his food and miss the bus is a gem! surely will buy more of calvin again! T.Santoso,Surabaya, Indonesia, dec 97

I simply have to laugh at folks who cannot appreciate Calvin. I have read Calvin & Hobbes for years, and have nearly everything (I'm pretty sure) that has been printed. I was concerned that this might be a reprint of material I already had--but it's not. It's EXCELLENT! Calvin is not a lonely child, he is industrious, imaginative, and actually very strong. Watterson captures the genius of that time in our lives when Mom & Dad were doing other things...be they reading newspapers or telling us to get outside and enjoy the day...and this didn't scar us. It's A Magical World wraps up the wonder of Calving & Hobbes. In fact, I have started giving these compilations to my nephews and nieces who are beginning to read...and they are LOVING them. Wapcaplet, you've got issues (I see you posted the very same complaint on other Calvin & Hobbes books!) Calvin doesn't have issues, just as we didn't have issues when we were children and stayed out way past dark riding bicycles miles from home (back when that was still safe).

Bill has given us a privilege to experience this way of art, just through a few boxes with words in them. But this is not just an everyday comic. What we have here is an everlasting part of ourselves! This is a mystical book for it gives to us not just laughter, but also is full of love, happiness, and sadness. There are not very many cartoonists in our world, so we must treasure what we have before us. It is a way to speak to millions of people just by sharing his ideas.

IT'S A MAGICAL WORLD is one of the best Calvin and Hobbes treasuries, but unfortunately there's a sad quality to it because it's the very last one. There are a few cartoons in the book in which it is evident that Watterson was slowing down a bit, but there are so many more great ones that it would be unfair not to rate it five stars. Even if you've read each and every C&H cartoon numerous times (as I have), you won't ever tire of reading this book.

This book is a really funny book because whenever Calvin does something to Susie it is always bad but funny. Calvin doesn't like getting up early and going to school in the morning and that is how I feel in the morning. I like school. I just don't like getting up. I like reading about the leaf pile and the mean babysitter. I also like reading about when Calvin comes home from school and Hobbes pounces on him. Calvin has a great imagination!

I loved Calvin and Hobbes when it was in the paper and I love it just as much now even though it's gone. Waterson is a true genius and has given us the most fall-over hilarious, touching, wonderful, brilliant comic strip of all time. Calvin and Hobbes are simply immortal characters. Professional novelists can spend there whole lives trying to create one character half as amazing as these two. I always will love Calvin and Hobbes and fifty years from now I still see myself opening up a Calvin and Hobbes collection and, as I have done so many times before, laughing my head off. Thank you Bill, your work has truly had an impact of me, and I'm sure millions of others. You are simply the best. There is no other way of saying it.

Calvin and Hobbes is a big part of my life. I love it and will love the Ignorant Calvin and the sarcastic Hobbes. Then, when Bill Watterson ended the series, I was crushed. And then my friend told this was a book, I begged him to let me read it. He did, and I felt compelled to write this. I love this book.

It was with sadness that I finished this book, knowing that this was the last of the Calvin & Hobbes books to come from Bill Watterson's sketchpads. Watterson is like the Michael Jordan of the comic strip in the sense that when he retired, he was the best of the best and therefore irreplaceable. His final book is wonderful as always.

... don't make me rate a book I've purchased just so I can read it ... if I want to rate a book I'll do it of my own free will not of coercion ... stupid the store ... I love this book but hate being forced

well, when we think of 'comics' calvin and hobbes, we automaticly think oh yeah kids [stuff], well you are very wrong. i have been a fan of calvin and hobbes for a short time, but you soon get into the characters lives. "Its a Magical World" is a comic classic, which crude remarks and histerical scenes. Calvin being the young boy intrigued by all which is around him, and Hobbes being the stuffed tiger toy which calvin is obbsesed with. But in all the scenes Hobbes is seen through calvins eyes as a real tiger, who he can talk too and play with. Magical World is easy to read, and therefore a good comic book to buy, after reading it once, you should not read it again for a while then come back too it, and all the comic strips seem different. Have fun, Jon aged 16.

What can I say that's not said already? Calvin and Hobbes put great comedy into little comic strips that you would wind up memorizing as life's little lessons. So get it, pass it on to your children or anyone you know that have not read Calvin and Hobbes before. This collection features a very different babysitter story. You will enjoy it.

This latet release of the Calvin and Hobbes tresurey is a beautiful example of what makes Bill's work so great. From the antics of the lovable tramp Calvin to the guiding wisdom of his best friend Hobbes the story unfolds of their friendship and adventures together.

Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes Collection, that contains
great jokes and beautiful art. Bill Watterson and his
drawing tools do great work, and he hasn't forgot the humor.
Great book for all those Calvin & Hobbes comics fans out
there!

As all Calvin and Hobbes books, "It's a Magical World" has great gags to laugh about also the 100th time. The mimic of the actors, especially Calvin's, just show the real feelings. One of the best books I've ever read! Thanks to Bill Watterson. HD

I will read anything that is Calvin and Hobbes! I highly recommend this book. I really wish Bill Watterson would start this comic back up. Give it to your kids or buy it for yourself. You will not be disappointed!

I love this comic and Bill Waterson was wrong to stop it. The comics page isn't worth reading anymore. This is a great collection of strips to sum up the boy and tiger's last year. I like the heartwarming ending strip that ran on December 31st, 1995.

This is (I think) the last book in the Calvin & Hobbes series. Calvin is just as great as ever, an unchanging, selfish 6 year old, and his tiger friend tags along patentily. When I finished reading this book, I felt as if I had lost a good friend...

This book truly captures the whole point of Calvin and Hobbes. It is magnificent. Bill puts all his effort into his work and makes it so lifelike. It puts into animation and words what a six year-old thinks about and does. Two thumbs up!!!

I love this book. Calvin and Hobbes have much to say about living and life. I keep a copy of this book around always. I think this is the best of the series.
The last couple pages are worth the price of purchase. A snowy hillside with Calvin and Hobbes on a sled looking down at an unmarked field of snow. I give this to friends who are moving on with their lives, as a hope for their future. "It's a magical world".

A book for all ages, I recommend everybody to read and enjoy this masterpiece of modern comics. Heavy criticism on the way of life from an innocent little kid is the secret behind this immensely successful comic. But there is more innocence and creativity involved in the criticism, and less sarcasm. Now thats the spirit of a good cartoonist and it comes out beautifully in all the Calvin and Hobbes books.

If you have never read Calvin and Hobbes you are a deprived person. Bill Waterson's imagination and twisted humor are endlessly creative. It seems like every single strip is good, and that's rare in comic strips. Really rare. It's genuinely funny material with deep philosophical undertones. If you like philosophy, twisted humor, and intellectual conversations between a six year old and a stuffed tiger, you'll love Calvin and Hobbes.

---but not the best. Watterson can be very funny, but his pompous and sententious moralizing about How Technology Is Corrupting Us All gets very old very fast. He's better than he was at first, but how can I give a five-star rating to a book that so angers me?

The Calvin and Hobbes strips have been sorely missed for four long years. There has never been a strip since so wonderfully drawn or insightful. This is a perfect ending to a perfect strip[if there had to be an ending....] Calvin and Hobbes took a decidely ''alternive'' view toward life, a viwe un duplicated since...

My 2nd favorite Calvin & Hobbes book. This book includes (besides more than 150 pages of this awesome comic strip),the very last, and very heart-touching comic of Calvin & Hobbes, which was printed Sunday, December 31st, 1995.

those who've followed calvin & hobbes all the way through will no them well enough now to appreciate this book in all it's glory, myself i have all the books, thanks to a really great aunty who bought us all the books in sequential order over the years...this is the last calvin & hobbes, and in my view, it's the best, if only for the last page. they are forever!

The very last collection of Calvin and Hobbes that Watterson published shows how his imagination tap never ran dry and how he evolved in his work as his confidence and popularity grew. Amazingly funny book. A definite must have!

I am so hooked on this book. I have been reading it all afternoon. The characters have a wide variety of attitudes. I like Calvin's sarcastic, childish act, when Hobbes appreciates nature, and the better things in life. With Calvin, Hobbes, Rosalyn, and Calvin's mom and dad, you'll be having fun through the whole book!

This, Bill Waterson's last collection of Calvin and Hobbes, meets all desires and expectations of a true C&H fan. It's great fun from cover to cover the only exception being the last strip, as it is, possibly, the last ever. Come back to us Bill. The world still needs you.

When i heard the news close to six years ago that Bill Watterson had retired i was stunned. No more Calvin and hobbes?!,impossible! Yet it was true. calvin and hobbes wll still live on in the books but never will they enlighten,shock or amuse us. Still i think the writer made the right decision.

After reading all these reviews it seems to be sacrilegeous to write a dissenting review. However, I must say I do not think this is up to the level of "The Authoriative, The Essential, and The Indispensable." The subtle humor is missing and the preaching is not subtle.

Ever since I learned to read I have loved Calvin and Hobbes. These comic strips are hilarious, and they say a lot about life and childhood. I really miss Calvin and Hobbes being in my newspaper every day. Every time I read the last one, it almost makes me cry.

The greatest collection of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons! It's super! This may be a collector's item for it's Bill Watterson's last book and last treasury of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. Add it to your collection!

An only, lonely child. Bullied at school. Clearly a genius level intellect, he's unchallenged and stifled since nobody, not his parents, and not even his teacher, recognizes this. A father who's always too busy to spend any time with his son. A father who's often seen, get this, reading --*reading* -- rather than paying his only son some attention! A mother, who literally, in strip after strip, throws him out the door. Throws, as in "child flying through the air". A child, and a small child at that, allowed repeatedly to wander alone through the woods! A child denied even a pet. His only friend -- a stuffed tiger.

Makes the "Peanuts" look like "The Family Circus".