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Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip ReviewThere are problems with Nevin Martell's book, Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. While the title encourages the reader to think he or she will be reading the story of how Calvin and Hobbes came to be, what we get instead is one man's personal odyssey to score an interview with the elusive creator of the strip, Bill Watterson. It's true that we DO get to read the results of Martell's research (which include lots of tidbits regarding the aforementioned story), and it's often interesting. However, the book suffers from the plethora of personal asides about his wife, prior writing projects, and rock star interviews Martell had done.
Another problem rises due to the fact that Bill Watterson owns "Calvin and Hobbes" lock, stock and barrel. As a result, there are no comics printed in the book. Instead, Martell resorts to taking page upon page to describe individual strips, from first panel to last. While I acknowledge that this wasn't the author's fault, it adds a level of tedium to some sections of the book.
And yet another issue with the book comes in the writing itself. Martell primarily writes for magazines, and that's how this book reads: as a series of magazine articles on the same subject, rather than as a coherent whole. He repeats quotes from earlier parts of the book, summarizes earlier chapters in later ones, and so on. This would be fine if we were reading the book one chapter at a time over several weeks or months, but it doesn't work in book form. Also, his description is sometimes clumsy: "Everything was drenched in pure white, as if God had forgotten to shake the Earth as he would a snow globe." That's a long way to go for a simple image. In addition, Martell sometimes makes errors when discussing the comics themselves. When talking about Calvin's use of the cardboard box (one of the great conventions of the strip), he states that the Atomic Cerebral Enhance-O-Tron is one of the box's many uses. Well, the ACE was a colander that Calvin put on his head. A small error to be sure, but one that a fan will easily catch. Several more are scattered through the book.
However, the book is worth reading. His interviews with Watterson associates are illuminating, and his chapter on how Calvin and Hobbes influenced other comic artists is a must. He rounds up a who's who of current and former comic artists and syndicate bigwigs for these chapters. No one can fault the man's legwork.
Overall, I'm not sorry I read it. It was obviously a labor of love for Martell, and that comes through on every page. The problem is, that often comes through too strongly. It's interesting, but not essential to ones' appreciation for, or understanding of, the wonder that was Calvin and Hobbes. 3.5 stars.
Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip OverviewFor ten years, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life.
In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, Nevin Martell sets out on a very personal odyssey to understand the life and career of the intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. Martell talks to a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, and Brad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, and along the way reflects upon the nature of his own fandom and on the extraordinary legacy that Watterson left behind. This is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and it's the fascinating story of an intrepid author's search for him, too.
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