4 ms·
Was this the right choice, though? Interest in Calvin & Hobbes has fallen off a cliff. I don't see any references to it in public anymore, and it used to be ev
by echelon 4mo ago
Was this the right choice, though?
Interest in Calvin & Hobbes has fallen off a cliff. I don't see any references to it in public anymore, and it used to be everywhere.
Kids today probably don't even know about it.
- conception 4mo agoRather than bombard children with advertising to buy plastic junk? Y…yes it was the right choice?
- pydry 4mo agoI saw a little girl reading it on public transport just yesterday.
- willis936 4mo agoI'm not a kid, but I asked for some calvin and hobbes books for my birthday. The postmodernism laid out in the first comic of each anthology gets the main thrust across. It's a timeless piece of art. It doesn't need boosting. It will be there for me to reach for if I have kids who might enjoy them. https://youtu.be/P5ivZLTMhso https://youtu.be/P5ivZLTMhso
- vohk 4mo agoI think that's just a natural part of the times changing and generations having their own icons. In contrast to the shambling undead of Mickey Mouse and other eternally recycled franchises, I think it's OK to for things to fade a little. If nothing else, it leaves things for future generations to rediscover and make their own.
- nkrisc 4mo agoIt’s still there in libraries and bookstores, and even online. It’s not going anywhere. My son enjoys reading the collection I had when I was young.
- alanbernstein 4mo agoI suggested it to my young kids and it became an instant favorite.
- defen 4mo agoI bought my 8 year old daughter the hardcover box set for Christmas. When she opened it her initial reaction was definitely "oh...thanks" (she was clearly not excited about it but wanted to be nice). Within a week it was borderline impossible to get her to put them down and go to sleep at night.
- senordevnyc 4mo agoExact same story here. I got my father in law the box set as a gift, and when my daughter was about seven she started reading them when we were visiting them. So I bought her a set of her own. She still reads them all the time at 11.
- ericd 4mo agoYeah, our boys read my old C&H collection more than almost any of their modern kids books. Downside, it's inspired all sorts of mischievous ideas. Roald Dahl, too, and the Uncle series. These old books have more of an edge to them that our kids seem to light up at, and I've had a hard time finding modern equivalents. Most of the modern kids books seem too saccharine/sterile by comparison. Maybe it's just survivorship bias, these are just the old books that people bothered to keep reading.
- wrs 4mo agoYeah. Ronald Dahl once said something to the effect that to make a good children’s book the first thing you have to do is kill off the parents!
- ericd 4mo agoSometimes by having a rhinoceros suddenly and unceremoniously gobble them up.
- sgarland 4mo agoAnd Dahl’s foundation or whatever it’s called had the audacity to try to rewrite the books; removing references to people as ugly, or fat, etc. You don’t get to rewrite books because they make you feel uncomfortable. Don’t read them. Even Disney has had the common sense to not alter the problematic parts of its films, they just issue a warning at the beginning that it doesn’t represent their current values.
- beAbU 4mo agoAnd that's perfectly fine! It makes the accidental discovery of C&H all the more special. I remember the day a school friend showed me a C&H book he got from his dad. It was never in the newspapers where I grew up, so I would never have discovered it otherwise. Not everything in this world needs to obtain global reach and fame.
- Hugsbox 4mo ago[dead]
- biomcgary 4mo agoMy teenage boys are hooked on Calvin & Hobbes.
- jjulius 4mo agoMy wife and I take turns each night doing bedtime for our two girls, 4/6. I have the full C&H box set and, a whiiiiile back, my oldest asked what it was and if we could read it. For over a year now, any time it's my time to do bedtime, we have to read C&H and cannot read anything else. We've been cruising through it from start to finish and are, within the next week or so, going to reach the end. Both kiddos, especially my oldest, have been demanding that we start it over. I'll probably table it for a couple of years and then come back to it when they're just a bit older, but yeah... kids definitely know about it and really do appreciate/enjoy it. Edit: To say nothing of the idea that, eventually, everything fades into obscurity. I feel like what you're lamenting is something that actually jives with Watterson philosophically.
- zavec 4mo agoHmm, where have I seen a story before where a kid wants their parents to read the same book over and over. I can't quite put my finger on it...
- prmoustache 4mo agoMy 7y old nephew inherited my complete collection and is a big fan.
- cortesoft 4mo agoIs that the main goal, though? Making sure your characters stay in the public conciousness? I am not sure that is the most important thing, or even that important at all. The characters matter a LOT to people of a certain age, and his decisions helped maintain that.
- LandoCalrissian 4mo agoEverything comes to an end friend, not everything needs to go on forever. Maybe it is forgotten, left behind, but that's not really important. What's important is it ended on his terms and some of us had the privilege to experience it. There will still be people that find Calvin for the first time, and they will get the same privilege. I'm glad he did it his way and I think most of his new fans will as well.
- jamesfinlayson 4mo agoI haven't looked at the comics in a physical newspaper in a while but it was still there maybe 12 years ago (in Australia at least).