My son is not old enough to read it yet, so I've been reading it to him, and it's the only thing he wants to read for bedtime story now.
I read them fairly regularly even as a teenager so I was old enough to understand most of the jokes the first time I read them. But every so often I see one that I understand in a new light now that I'm a parent myself, in particular, the ones from Calvin's parent's point of view. And of course, some of the mild political commentary, and also the commentary on Waterson's own constant fights with Universal Press Syndicate over merchandising rights (or really his categoriacal refusal to do so) and the fight with newspapers for more space so that he didn't have to constrain the drawings to the rigid formats they demanded for easier editing.
I read the collection titled "Calvin and Hobbes: The Sunday Pages 1985-1995" in which Waterson discusses the context of these strips at length, as well as his artistic process. I highly recommend that one to anyone who is a fan.
I read them fairly regularly even as a teenager so I was old enough to understand most of the jokes the first time I read them. But every so often I see one that I understand in a new light now that I'm a parent myself, in particular, the ones from Calvin's parent's point of view. And of course, some of the mild political commentary, and also the commentary on Waterson's own constant fights with Universal Press Syndicate over merchandising rights (or really his categoriacal refusal to do so) and the fight with newspapers for more space so that he didn't have to constrain the drawings to the rigid formats they demanded for easier editing.
I read the collection titled "Calvin and Hobbes: The Sunday Pages 1985-1995" in which Waterson discusses the context of these strips at length, as well as his artistic process. I highly recommend that one to anyone who is a fan.