The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium Set 1 (Volume 1)

From the end of the eighties onwards,, we collected every Calvin and Hobbes book released. The first few were nicely uniform and easy to hold single-handed (such as “Something under the bed is drooling” and “Yukon Ho!”. They looked good together on the bookshelf. Then, the format changed and the books were much bigger and in landscape format, making the opened book over half a metre wide (“Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat”). It became a two-handed operation to read, and ridiculously cumbersome when trying to enjoy a little bedtime reading. The anthologies were also large format, but portrait. A total mess on the bookshelf. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collated the entire comic strip in four books, but these were even bigger than the earlier landscape releases (nearly 3/4 of a metre wide when open). That makes this new Portable Compendium series so very welcome. The packaging is portrait, but the individual books are landscape, and a much more manageable size, allowing single-handed support - perfect for bedtime reading. They are also consistent between collections, so they’ll look neat and tidy on your bookshelves. It also appears that the spines are going to be colour-graded so the final collection of seven volumes follows the colours of the visible spectrum. The content was never in question. This is one of the best comic strips out there. Now, you can have the perfect presentation as well!

Sheer genius. If you haven’t embraced the Calvin and Hobbes’ universe, now’s the time. If you have, then revisiting them will remind you of their enduring brilliance.

If you are looking at this as your first foray into the world of Calvin and Hobbes do not hesitate as they are great. Watterson is up there with Schultz and Barks as one of the great cartoonists; his work consistently makes me (and my 8 year old son) laugh and there is some profundity in his work as well. If you are already a fan: this is an accessible and easy way to read the strips. The complete collection is great and gives the cartoons the grandeur they deserve but for pick up and read, these are better. I will be getting the full series as they are released.

Puré genius

The drawings are great and this is a really lovely set.

Bought for my little sister, she loved it.

Ignore the reading age. This is for everyone.

Go buy this .. every family should have Calvin and Hobbs

Amusant. Vocabulaire adapté pour un enfant qui est en train d'apprendre l'anglais.

Always like Calvin and hobby as a kid. Never fails to make me laugh

Great edition, portable and easy to bring around. Good start to reading the whole collection.

Beautiful, the kind of genuine thoughtful story and ideas that make you feel a little bit warmer inside and a little bit sad too sometimes.

I have been collecting C&H books since they were first published. Waterson is one of my favorite cartoonists. This collection is beautifully designed. The cover and pages of high-quality and clear. I appreciate the form factor and size, as that makes it a bit more portable. Overall, I am really happy to have started this series, and look forward to completing it! I certainly recommend it to fans and people who (gasp!) have not known these amazing comic strips.