Don't mind the tiger!

For something a bit different, this week’s blog is on comics.

Okay, so this is the part where I put on my snobbish voice and say something like “comics date back to the 12th century…” and everyone rolls their eyes and stops reading, but it is actually really interesting. Of course everyone draws links between cave paintings and comics, but later on, sometime between the 12th and 13th century came the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga a set of four picture scrolls, similar to comics. They’re believed to be the beginning of manga.

Then, in 1827 Rudolphe Töpffer created the first comic strip and then, ten years later, his graphic novel Obadiah Oldbuck became the first comic book ever published in the US. Then we have Brenda Starr, the first comic strip drawn by a woman, published in 1940. Needless to say, this is not a new thing.

The comic that I’m focusing on is Calvin and Hobbes. I have loved Calvin and Hobbes for as long as I can remember. I must own over ten volumes. But what makes Calvin and Hobbes so popular? How is it that a comic whose strip was published almost 20 years ago is still relevant today?

Calvin and Hobbes manages to deal with issues like climate change, death, war… and the public education system,  through a six year old, and all of these issues are still relevant today. It’s really interesting to notice that there are very few things in Calvin and Hobbes that give you an idea of when it was drawn. It could have been drawn last month, and it’ll keep on like that until humans move to mars. Or stop driving cars. Calvin and Hobbes is very effective as a public awareness tool. It sneaks “positive messages” in without anyone noticing, and it appeals to both the younger and the older generation. Plus Calvin and Hobbes is just plain funny.

So, Calvin and Hobbes- saving the world, on comic strip at a time.

Feisty chick-o-meter:5/10
Age rating: 5+
Rating: 10/10
Stand alone or series: Ahahahahahaha
Book or audiobook: