Something Under the Bed is Drooling: Are There Monsters Under Your Bed?

One of my favorite comic strips has always been Calvin and Hobbes. Since the strip is no longer in papers, I get great enjoyment reading through the collections I have. 

I didn't have children of my own when the strips were first published. I laughed at them then, and I laugh even more at them now. Calvin is a very energetic and mischievous little boy.Hobbes is his stuffed tiger. 

Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic, at times shows Hobbes as a stuffed tiger and at times real. What is he really? Is he a tiger who appears stuffed to everyone except Calvin? Or is his apparent life just a product of a little boy's very active imagination? We used to have long debates about this topic during study hall... 

Something Under the Bed is Drooling was published in 1988, three years after Calvin and Hobbes first appeared in newspapers. The drawings have already been fine-tuned and the characters have established behaviors we expect to see from them. Many of the stories are not resolved in one strip, but continue on through about a week's worth of strips. I can remember not being able to wait to get my hands on the paper every afternoon just to see what mischief was going to happen next. 

Calvin is an only child who greatly tries his parent's patience. At one point, he becomes invisible and takes off his clothes (they can be seen) only to be caught naked, with his hands in the cookie jar. I don't know how my child could explain that to me. 

In one strip, Calvin creates tidal waves in the bathtub and you can pretty much figure out where the water ends up. Funny, I can remember doing that myself... 

A strip where Calvin and Hobbes get a little too rambunctious in the house on a rainy day and his mother throws them out is funny since I threaten my own two daughters with that all the time. 

The strips where he imagines himself to be Spaceman Spiff and tie into real life are a hoot. At the end we usually see where he really is and how it corresponds. In one case,Spaceman Spiff is attacked by slime on a distant planet. At the end, Calvin is playing with the school cafeteria's tapioca pudding. 

One of my favorite strips is in this book, where Calvin decides he's "going to grow a long beard like the guys in ZZ Top" and can't figure out why his mother isn't putting up a fuss. Another trick is when Calvin answers the phone but acts like he is the caller. 

I also love when Calvin asks for Crisco for school and uses it in his hair for the class pictures. After his mother combs it out, Hobbes helps him restyle it so he looks like "Astro Boy". He then paints a face on his stomach. When he shows the pictures to Hobbes they laugh about his mother's reaction and of the memories it will bring about years in the future. 

Susie is Calvin's nemesis, but also the girl he will probably end up marrying. The two of them drive each other crazy at times, but she also seems to be the only person who wants to have anything to do with him. 

Rosalyn is the only babysitter who can handle Calvin and that makes him dislike her all the more. 

Calvin's father is almost as mischievous as his son. Often when Calvin asks a question, he will purposely lead his son on with the answer. For instance, Calvin asks is there were dinosaurs when his father was a kid, and he responds that he and Grandfather used to hunt them for rituals. Calvin asks him how they know the load limit on bridges, and he tells them they drive bigger and bigger trucks over it until it breaks, then weigh the last truck and rebuild the bridge. He was probably a lot like his son at that age... 

Watching Calvin play a game with Hobbes is funny since they change the rules to suit the situation. Usually they end up bruised and filthy at the end, after a small fight. Hobbesalways seems to get all the breaks in whatever game they're playing, while nothing ever seems to go right for Calvin. 

The two of them on the sled during the winter is a recurring theme and a fun one as well. Winter seems to be one of the funnest times for the two of them as they create havoc with snowballs (Susie is their favorite target) and get into all sorts of trouble trying out new ways to use the sled. 

Of course the title, Something Under the Bed is Drooling refers to the monsters that live under Calvin's bed and frequently torment him and Hobbes. As rambunctious and forthright as Calvin is, this brings home just how much of a little boy he still is. 

These comics still bring a smile to my face, even more than ten years after they were first published. They don't come off as dated as so many other cartoons do, but are enjoyable to anyone, even if they are not a parent. It was a lot of fun to look back on them now with such a different perspective and get laughs from them all over again. 

Bloom County Babylon by Berke Breathed: A Child of the 80's Needs Her Opus Fix

After two weeks of information overload and learning way more than I ever wanted to know about building construction, I retreated one afternoon to my cozy couch with a glass of iced tea and my collections of comic book anthologies. 

Of all the Bloom County collections I own, this one is the only listed for review here at our glorious epinions. 

I know many people out there are now scratching their heads. I'll take a chance to say that a good many people reading this review have never seen Bloom Countyin their newspaper. This strip ran through the 80's and was drawn by man named Berke Breathed (that's his name... honest! Who would make a name like that up?) 

The theme of the strip is a general social and political commentary on the times. And that becomes a minus, because unlike Peanuts or Garfield which you can pick up and read regardless of when the strip was written, Bloom County needs you to understand some of the specific references to that decade. 

Some people may claim that the strip leans a little to the left. It may be true, but I found plenty of jabs to the liberal side of our country, as well as digs into Phyllis Schafly and the Moral Majority. 

The book begins with a bit of a narrative into The Great Larouche Toad-Frog Massacre. If you don't know who Larouche is, chances are you won't get many of the references in this strip. There are jokes at the expense of The Moral Majority, Prince Charles & Diana, the US festival, and a running commentary on the Cold War with the Soviet Union. 

This collection begins at the beginning. The strips there are a bit rougher, and the characters are still being roughed-out. Milo Bloom is the first main character we are introduced to . He lives at the Bloom Boarding House with his grandmother and grandfather. His grandfather - The Major - sees communists everywhere. He also coaches the local football team and runs them pretty much the way you would an Army troop. 

Ms. Bobbi Harlow is the teacher at school. A feminist, at 24 she was considered an old maid at the beginning of this strip. She briefly dallies with lawyer Steve Dallas at the beginning of this book, but thankfully moves on to greener pastures.Steve is a hard drinking, sunglasses wearing, cigarette smoking male chauvinist. 

Mike Binkley is the not-quite-as-slick friend to Milo. Binkley is innocent and sensitive with a whole closet full of anxieties - literally. 

It is Binkley Who introduces us to the heart of this strip, Opus the penguin, when he acquires him as a pet. Other animals that dot the landscape include Hodge Podge the rabbit and Portnoy the possum. 

These animals are frequently seen in the company of Cutter John a Vietnam vet confined to a wheelchair and the steady boyfriend of Ms. Harlow. His wheelchair is The Enterprise and Cutter John is its captain as he and the animals have different adventures around Bloom County. 

Later in the series we are introduced to Bill the Cat. Bill is the antithesis of the warm and fuzzy comic book cats we're used to. He is no Garfield or Heathcliffe. Other than standing around hacking up hairballs, this orange and black striped cat doesn't say much. However, once dead he does manage to find himself running for President on the American Meadow Party ticket (with Opus running for Vice-President) against Reagan in 1984. 

Of course, he is eventually cloned (wow - ahead of it's time here!) And resurrected thanks to the computer hacker Oliver. Watching Oliver's Banana series computer follow him around is hysterical, as well as watching the fallout from the havoc he creates. 

Another strip that really seemed funny now was one where Binkley light-sabersGeorge Lucas and says "Jedi Knights don't wait 15 years for a sequel." Who knew? 

Berke Breathed continued on with his strip Outland. Still, it didn't have the same heart and general merriment that Bloom County did. Out of the two, I enjoyed the silliness and continuing stories of Bloom County much more. 

In times of overload, the Bloom County characters often retreat to the meadow to stand among the dandelions. Reading through these books is a nice way to get a dandelion break of your own.