Cover of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

by Bill Watterson · first published 2005

13mentions
5recommended by
11HN commenters
2011–2026first – last mentioned

45% recommend55% neutral

Why HN recommends it

A beloved comic strip collection with humor that holds up for parents and adults revisiting it. It works for kids and grown readers alike, and it suits reading a page or two at a time.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

This is a three volume slipcased book collection of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strips that where published from 1985-1995, it covers all the strips published and also reproduces many of the covers of earlier books in full page color illustrations. There are three daily black and white strips per page, and one color Sunday comic on a single page. Besides the comic strips there is also other full page color illustrations, and the poems and stories from other collections included. There is a new 'Introduction' by Bill Watterson. It originally sold for $150.00 in U.S.A., $200.00 in Canada, $265.0

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Mentions per year

20 2007: 0 mentions2008: 0 mentions2009: 0 mentions2010: 0 mentions2011: 1 mention2012: 0 mentions2013: 2 mentions2014: 0 mentions2015: 0 mentions2016: 1 mention2017: 0 mentions2018: 0 mentions2019: 0 mentions2020: 0 mentions2021: 1 mention2022: 1 mention2023: 2 mentions2024: 2 mentions2025: 1 mention2026: 1 mention200720172026

What Hacker News says

  • santareader · Nov 17, 2013 · Recommends

    …Macmillan Visual Dictionary - http://www.amazon.com/The-Macmillan-Visual-Dictionary-Illust... Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth - http://www.amazon.com/Logicomix-An-Epic-Search-Truth/dp/1596... The Complete Calvin and Hobbes - http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Calvin-Hobbes-Bill-Watterson/...

    on “What books to buy for christmas” ↗
  • vunderba · Jun 26, 2026 · Recommends

    The Complete Calvin and Hobbes anthology by Bill Watterson - a formative part of every kid's childhood growing up in our house. Dad: How's your math coming? Calvin: I don't do math anymore. I decided I'm more of a "visual" person.…

    on “AI children's books, body horror edition” ↗
  • nvarsj · Feb 13, 2021 · Recommends

    I can strongly recommend buying the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection off of Amazon. Especially if you have kids. I bought this when my son was around 7 and he absolutely devoured the books. He's older now but still goes back and reads them over again, giggling…

    on “Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine” ↗
  • nvarsj · Nov 21, 2022 · Recommends

    The Complete Calvin and Hobbes (SCHOOL1+). Bought it for my then 8 year old and he still reads it regularly. Great for developing a sense of humor and learning to not take this world so seriously.

    on “Ask HN: What gift worked for your child well?” ↗
  • cmsonger · Dec 24, 2023 · Recommends

    One of the smartest things I've done in recent years is to buy the complete Calvin and Hobbes and put it prominently on a table that I walk by daily. I turn a page a day... In the morning before I get coffee usually, though it's often too dark and I'll come back to read the two facing pages…

    on “Bill Watterson Commencement Speech (1990)” ↗
  • MrMcCall · Dec 5, 2024 · Recommends

    One of my son's best investments was his buying the Complete Calvin & Hobbes. He also got the Complete Far Side and Bloom County as well. Both our teenagers have read them both. It's funny hearing them know how Bill the Cat's brain was switched (?) into Donald Trumps brain. Ack-thpptt! I only read them in the newspaper and in a couple of treasuries, but never completely, as our kids have. What

    on “An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)” ↗
  • ctdonath · Apr 22, 2013 · Mentions

    On a related note, an anecdote which has long stuck with me: In the foreword to the Complete Calvin & Hobbes, Watterson noted his excitement at receiving the first copy, a box containing his life's work nicely arranged and packaged. Then horror hit him: that was it, his life's work, in just one small box.

    on “Bill Watterson's Speech – Kenyon College, 1990” ↗
  • yarapavan · May 24, 2016 · Mentions

    With a score of 4.81, the highest rated book is Bill Watterson’s The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, ahead of the ESV Study Bible.

    on “What Is the Internet’s Favorite Book? Data from Goodreads” ↗
  • cratermoon · Oct 21, 2023 · Mentions

    …metric is skewed towards new books and books with few ratings." The books in the "Apex" table with the highest score tend towards new as well. A few observations. #1 is from 2005, Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Now Watterson certainly deserves adulation, but above all the others over the past thousand years? #2 is Brandon Sanderson's 2014 novel Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2) from his "immersive…

    on “Apex Books of Goodreads” ↗
  • cratermoon · Oct 29, 2023 · Mentions

    …attempt to account for the recency bias. It was not entirely successful, as the result includes four of the Harry Potter series and five Calvin and Hobbes collections, including the highest-rated The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, from 2005, and second is Brandon Sanderson's 2014 novel Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2)

    on “The murky math of the New York Times bestsellers list” ↗
  • mdrzn · Jul 15, 2024 · Mentions

    Great timing, I just purchased The Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection in paperback! [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449433251

    on “Introduction to Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995 (2001)” ↗
  • tzs · Nov 2, 2011 · Mentions

    Interesting. It does surprisingly well on some things--just a glance at "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" box identified it. And it does surprisingly bad on some things--a Diet Pepsi from a co-workers desk was identified as a Camo Gladitator II Heavy Duty Belt Clip Carrying Case for various Samsung phones.

    on “Amazon Flow appears on the iPhone” ↗
  • mandevil · Nov 20, 2025 · Mentions

    I'm currently working through the Complete Calvin and Hobbes with my 9 year old, and he had these jabs at commercialism throughout, though it might have been sharper towards the end, but he was already jaded by art in 1985 as a 27 year old. He had dreamed of being…

    on “'Calvin and Hobbes' at 40” ↗

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