Começando com o álbum inédito "O Mundo é Mágico - As Aventuras de Calvin & Haroldo", a Conrad começa a publicação completa das histórias de Calvin e Haroldo no Brasil. Criada em 1985, a tirinha foi publicada diariamente, durante dez anos, em mais de 2.400 jornais ao redor do mundo. Os álbuns publicados por Bill Waterson, criador da dupla, venderam mais de 30 milhões de cópias. A Conrad pretende publicar dois livros por ano com as tirinhas de Calvin e Haroldo, seguindo o formato original dos álbuns, com tradução inédita - uma edição definitiva para uma obra que agrada todas as idades.
A tirinha conta a história de Calvin, um hiperativo garoto de seis anos cujo maior amigo é o tigre de pelúcia Haroldo - que ganha vida quando não existe nenhum adulto por perto. Ao lado das fantasias e brincadeiras da dupla, surgem questões sobre política, cultura, sociedade e a relação de Calvin com seus pais, colegas e professores, com a sabedoria que os tolos adultos só conseguem traduzir como ingenuidade.
Bill Watterson (born William Boyd Watterson II) is an American cartoonist, and the author of the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes". His career as a syndicated cartoonist ran from 1985 to 1995; he stopped drawing "Calvin and Hobbes" at the end of 1995 with a short statement to newspaper editors and his fans that he felt he had achieved all he could in the comic strip medium. During the early years of his career he produced several drawings and additional contributions for "Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly". Watterson is known for his views on licensing and comic syndication, as well as for his reclusive nature.
Calvin: "I read this library book you got me" Calvin's Mom: "What did you think of it?" Calvin: "It really made me see things differently. It's given me a lot to think about" Calvin's Mom: "I'm glad you enjoyed it" Calvin: "It's complicating my life. Don't get me any more"
Calvin and Hobbes was so important to me when I was younger, and still is important. It really is in its own little catergory. It breaks my heart that Watterson left after this book... but in an understanding way. It is so rare that someone knows how to retire while they are at their peak and let their art stand on its own.
I have this last strip in this book pinned up on my wall at work... to remind me as I came here and started over, that it's a magical world out there.
After all these books, it has finally happened! Susie has entered Calvin’s house. And boy, does he go mad! This was such a hilarious story to read!
As this book contains the final set of comic strips Bill Watterson created before his retirement, I found my heart growing heavier as I neared the end. But what a fitting finale this book has been! Every single beloved character makes a memorable last appearance. I was the happiest to see Rosalyn return, and to see her final adventure with Calvin ending on mutually satisfying terms.
I’ll miss this gang! But as the final panels of the book say, it’s a new day full of possibilities; let’s go exploring!
Mr. Watterson, thank you for Calvin & Hobbes!
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The final volume of Calvin and Hobbes might just be the very best. The flights of fantasy are far fewer here, which is usually something I do not care for. I always wanted more of Spiff and Tracer. That is because Watterson's mundane stories often had a slice of life sentimentality that I found wanting. There is little of that here. Hobbes is a far more adversarial figure in the strip in general than it is given credit for and in particular here. The slice of life is more about making a point. Watterson is trying to give us his view on where we were going. As far as predictions go, he was sadly accurate.
It's a Magical World proves an old adage of mine: know when to quit. We often stretch out ideas and stories until they become dull. Watterson, already taking on darker themes in There's Treasure Everywhere, goes much further here. Existential dread is common. Most telling is his early jibes at the Internet, which was only then just arriving. Other commentaries are about technologically induced isolation, consumerism, the coarsening of political discourse, and the triumph of money. There was always a smattering of social commentary in Calvin and Hobbes but here it is on overdrive. He even mentions the vapid nostalgia machine. It almost overwhelms the strip, but it still remains true to its heart. It is also consistently funny. Yet, the title of this one is partially a lie. The magic of the world is mostly absent; Calvin has to go look for it in nature and with Hobbes, less content it seems to simply pretend to be a dinosaur.
It's a Magical World came when other things I grew up with were ending with the advent of the Internet and media mergers: WGNO 26, action films not based on comics, Married with Children, and Saturday morning cartoons. Kids played outside back then. They also read "the funnies;" if Watterson were working today he would go unnoticed. The world was shifting towards the one I know now: computerized, polarized, and even more fast paced. Indeed, much of this volume is about how Americans fail to enjoy life. Reading this strip, because of its biting wit and perspective, is not mere nostalgia. It's a Magical World is vaguely prescient.
Watterson chose the perfect time to bow out. Unlike Charles Schulz and Jim Davis (and many people far lesser than Schulz) Watterson did not beat it into the ground. Indeed, so much of the final pages are about trying new things, avoiding stale repetition. To read this book now (I did not read it back then) is to feel nostalgic, thoughtful, sad, and happy. Watterson pressed all the buttons here. He ended the strip with a bang.
Yet another among the books published by Bill Watterson from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that I have enjoyed. This one is from the beginning of the C&H comic strip, and I own a framed print of that first strip. When Calvin tells Hobbes, "It's a magical world...lets go exploring,", it speaks powerfully to me on several levels. That print hangs in my office, and has become a reminder to me of the importance of discovering what I don't yet know, of the need to ask important questions and find their answers.
My children have literally worn out these collections of C&H comics, and with good reason. C&H is a unique blend of homespun philosophy, side-splitting humor, and insight into the human (child and adult) condition. Watterson's insights into, and sly digs at, various social, familial, and other institutions of modern life are masterful.
Reread this recently and loved it just as much as every other time. Contains a fair bit of surprisingly prescient, wryly delivered social commentary - amidst irrepressibly child-wise humor, Watterson called out trends in '95 that still held (and bore fetid fruit) in the 2010s.
Although this last collection has plenty of continuity with all Calvin & Hobbes previous, you can tell that Calvin was on the cusp of beginning to grow up. Like most fans I wish it could have gone on, but understand why it had to end.
I know for sure I've never read this one before. I would have remembered the babysitter Rosalyn's commandeering of Calvinball for her own purposes, or the aliens Calvin trades the earth to for 50 leaves...it was sheer delight.
About as good as it gets, even through nostalgia goggles. More introspection, more musings on where the world is going (spot on, Bill old son)... but still some time for Spaceman Spiff, and Stupendous Man. And if I'd known then that there would be no "next year's book" I'd have had a quiet moment after that last hurrah.
"Calvin, it's okay. It's okay! Trust me!" "TRUST YOU?? I HARDLY EVEN KNOW YOU!!!" "WHAT? I'm your father!" "You've only known me six years! Come back when i'm forty, THEN we'll talk about trust!"
Some people never forget what they were doing when they heard about a historic event or the death of someone famous; as for myself I'll always remember where I was when I read the last ever 'Calvin and Hobbes' strip in the paper.
While I have a great appreciation for what Gary Larson accomplished comedically in a singular panel, Calvin and Hobbes is far and away the greatest traditional (we will leave Marvel and Dc out of this) comic ever created. C & H reminds me distinctly of the Simpsons(seasons 3-10, all other seasons are an embarrassment to the franchise and FOX should issue a formal apology)-it could be enjoyed equally on different levels and that enjoyment consistently evolved over time. My father and I, when I was 7-12, would both read C & H with equal passion for completely different reasons. That is an accomplishment reserved for truly great works of art. Watterson's creativity, and poignant yet seemingly apolitical social commentary, is timeless.
.??? 90s on: this five is for all ‘calvin and hobbes’ collections. it is because i also appreciate this work that my illustrator friend riley rossmo forgives me for being insufferably intellectual- and so i begin to look at graphics as medium in itself and not degraded form of anything else... i have not found anything near as good in daily comics since watterson retired...
Calvin And Hobbes is a madeleine de Proust. Everytime I go back to it it dweled so many teen memories I got overwhelmed... I Can never get enough of it :-)
I was about 12 when the "It's a magical world" strip ran in my local paper. I cut it out and glued it in my scrapbook and then cried. That said, I have learned more interesting vocabulary from Calvin and Hobbes than I think I have from most of my other favorite authors combined.
Throwback naar de studententijd. Al valt het me nu ook hoe Casper als individualist karaktertrekken van de Ayn Rand-held heeft, of als ettertje en fantast een voorafspiegeling van Trump kan genoemd worden. Maar dan is er toch weer die humor, die liefde voor Hobbes, die ongebreidelde fantasie en die mix van filosofie en alledaagsheid, die hem zowel onschadelijk als onweerstaanbaar maakt. Ik blijf fan.