The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes By ohthethinksyouwillthink on Feb 01, 2010 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

My Husband is a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes. This year for Christmas, I decided to get him another book to start filling out his collection.

For anyone unfamiliar with the comic, Calvin & Hobbes is centered around a six-year-old named Calvin, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. (At least, he is stuffed when adults are around. When it is just Calvin, Hobbes walks and talks and is Calvin's best friend.) It follows Calvin through all aspects of life: from the drudgery of school, to the joys of exploring outside, to the horror of having a baby-sitter. The real appeal of the comic, however, is the themes it explores. Calvin and Hobbes are always discussing the weightier matters of life like religion, politics, and the meaning of life. These are issues no one expects to hear a six-year-old talk about, and yet, it is most profound to hear it coming from one. Calvin & Hobbes take the issues an adult may prefer to leave theoretical, and apply them to everyday life with amazing simplicity and a healthy dose of humour. It doesn't surprise me that many people consider this comic to be their favourite.

When I looked into it, I discovered that there are three main books that a Calvin & Hobbes fan should have. This one, The Authoritative, is the second part of the Calvin & Hobbes series. The other two volumes are The Essential, and The Indespensible. These three contain the entire series of comics. There are other Calvin & Hobbes books to be bought, (for example, Revenge of the Baby-Sat) but these books overlap the content in the three main editions. The difference is that they organize the comics by theme, instead of chronologically.

This book contains comics in both black & white and colour. They appear as they did originally in the newspaper, so the black & white panels were released on a weekday, and the coloured panels where from the Sunday Paper. I gave this book a 4 for content, because it is comprised of comics only. Sometimes comic collections contain anacdotes from the author, but this one does not. But in the end, the comics themselves are the main attraction.