Scan barcode
A review by allyoop
Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip by Nevin Martell
2.0
Meh. I don't know what I expected/wanted from this book. (I only found it while searching for Calvin & Hobbes at my library.) It's weird for someone to try and offer so much "insight" into the comic strip with any input from the author, or without any allowed reproduction of the comics. If that's the case, perhaps he should have abandoned this idea.
Martell notes his love and "profound respect" for Bill Watterson, and then goes to all sorts of lengths to pry into aspects of his life -old teachers, friends, random people from his hometown, his brother, his mother. Nice effort, but it seems like if you respect someone (profoundly, even) then you can respect their wish for privacy. Something really doesn't fit.
I also felt like there was something off about Martell's writing style. The words didn't flow very naturally -like he'd systematically tried to craft each sentence, and thus lost all true personality. He talks about himself a lot, but since there's no genuine first person feel it has no impact.
I did enjoy the heaps of love other writers/artists gave to Calvin & Hobbes. They mentioned specific qualities to the strip that I'd never really thought about before, particularly in the drawing stage.
All in all, I'd advise against reading this. Bill Watterson is quoted heavily from the 10th Anniversary book, so why not just read that instead and enjoy some snazzy comic strips in the process?
Martell notes his love and "profound respect" for Bill Watterson, and then goes to all sorts of lengths to pry into aspects of his life -old teachers, friends, random people from his hometown, his brother, his mother. Nice effort, but it seems like if you respect someone (profoundly, even) then you can respect their wish for privacy. Something really doesn't fit.
I also felt like there was something off about Martell's writing style. The words didn't flow very naturally -like he'd systematically tried to craft each sentence, and thus lost all true personality. He talks about himself a lot, but since there's no genuine first person feel it has no impact.
I did enjoy the heaps of love other writers/artists gave to Calvin & Hobbes. They mentioned specific qualities to the strip that I'd never really thought about before, particularly in the drawing stage.
All in all, I'd advise against reading this. Bill Watterson is quoted heavily from the 10th Anniversary book, so why not just read that instead and enjoy some snazzy comic strips in the process?