My Childhood is Rekindled

As a young child, I loved reading. I am one of a small number of people who ever asked for a dictionary for Christmas (and I got it, too).

And though I did love books, one of my favorite forms of literature when I was young was the comic strip. I consumed The Wizard of Id, The Far Side, B.C. and other newspaper comics with religious fervency. I might add, though, that I stuck to humorous strips; The Family Circus was lame and Ranger Rick was too preachy for my youthful sensibilities.

One strip stood out above all of these, though: Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes.

This was by far my favorite comic strip, and it still is all these years later. How could a kid not love reading about the adventures (and misadventures) of a verbose, quick-witted rebel and his faithful (and sometimes brutally honest) sidekick, a stuffed tiger named after a 17th-century philosopher? Okay, maybe I was an odd kid.

In grade school, whenever the teacher passed out book order forms, I would immediately tear through it looking for books of Calvin and Hobbes strips. Thankfully, my parents were kind enough to oblige my obsession. I still have those books, which currently reside in my classroom, and I break them out whenever I'm starting to feel old and crusty. Reading the tales of Calvin's numerous alter egos (Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, etc.) is the perfect remedy for premature aging.

Thus you can understand the excitement that overtook me last night when I found out that there is a Calvin and Hobbes documentary in the works. Apparently the Kickstarter campaign to get this film off the ground has more than surpassed its goal of $50,000, so it appears that it's definitely going to happen. Here's the kickstarter promo vid:

It may sound silly to others, but I really feel like this comic had a big impact on who I am today. My sense of humor and appreciation for sarcasm and wit probably stem largely from the hours I spent (and still spend) reading those strips and wishing I was the kid with the spiky-blond hair and the feline companion.

I'll leave off with one of my favorite strips from the series. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

BTW, I am still working on forgiving the fools who have, over the years, profaned this series with those heretical stickers of Calvin peeing on things. Yeah, I'm working on it...

Posted with Blogsy