What a gyp -- they'll give you free shipping for that one but not for the other one. I bet they weigh about the same.

It's cheaper at Overstock.com ($79.39 plus $1.40 s/h) and Wal-Mart.com.

What is the difference w/ that version & the normal one?

Anyway, picked up my copy today & the thing really is HUGE & insanely heavy. The picture above just doesn't do the thing justice of how big & amazing looking the collection is. It really would make a tremendous X-mas gift, but of coarse I couldn't wait. The only way to top this is, as already mentioned, if a Calvin & Hobbes collection was done the same way. I thought I read somewhere once, that it would never happen though.

why would it not happen?

Well Larson has continued to release calendars, organizers, books, etc. since he retired. Bill Watterson who did Calvin & Hobbes hasn't had anything published related to the series since 1995.

I don't think it means it couldn't happen but sure doesn't seem as likely. I think there's plenty of demand for it though.

Watterson is pretty funny when it comes to merchandise or anything like that. So it wouldn't be surprising if he were to oppose something like a "Complete Calvin and Hobbes." I don't know how he feels about the current books that are out... presumably he's okay with them.

Seems kind of odd that he's opposed to merchandise. It's like free money.

Yeah, but don't you recall the preachy strips about the evils of consumerism during the last couple or so years of the strip? Calvin & Hobbes is one strip that hasn't held up for me in many ways; I was looking through my collections of the strip the other day, and while some were still good, many of the strips turned me off completely.

I can see his point to an extent, though, as I really don't enjoy the endless whoring of Peanuts characters for every last nickel to be milked out of them.

He's been quite busy with all of those "Peeing and Praying Calvin" car decals in recent years.

I hope you're joking...


As for the C&H books, I've got my Tenth Anniversary book in my lap, and I'll quote a few relevant pieces.


Pgs 10-12. Watterson discusses licensing. He feels that licensing usually cheapens the the original creation. "Calvin and Hobbes was designed to be a comic strip and that's all I want it to be." This refers to using the images on things like coffee mugs and greeting cards, because they might take things out of context.

Pgs 14-16 discuss how the size of comics, particularly the Sundays' have shrunk so much over the years. Though he doesn't say it, I think he enjoys the strips in book form because he can bring the size back up to what he likes.

Pg 29, regarding the very first strip about Calvin catching Hobbes in a tiger trap with a tuna fish sandwich.

"My hometown paper didn't pick up the strip for several months, so I didn't see this strip in the newspaper either. This is one reason I've been grateful for the book collections."

One of the other things discussed though is how difficult his dealings with the syndicate were. There might be some bad blood or politics keeping the books from happening, or the publisher simply might not see it as profitable.



Back on topic, is this Far Side book really limited? Cause I'm not too hot in the money department these days.

I imagine this collection should be avilible for a little while still, those who lack the funds to buy it immediately. I stopped in at the local Chapters today, thinking they may have one or two copies (given it's $200 CDN price) and found the clerks unpacking boxes of it. They seemed to be putting out about fifty or sixty copies.

These people aren't lying when they say it's heavy. I was unprepared for it's bulk and almost dropped it on my foot as I made my way to the counter.

Offtopic re: Bill Watterson

I recently came across a site that had two pretty interesting pieces about Watterson. They paint him as Salinger-like recluse.

Article on what ol'Bill's been upto since finishing the strip:
http://www.reemst.com/calvin_and_hob...ic=plaindealer

An interview with him from 1987 (touted as 'The only known interview Watterson has every given... the author was later found dead!':
http://www.reemst.com/calvin_and_hob...opic=interview

I hope Berkley Breathed does a similar compilation book for his Bloom County and Outland strips. Ack!

Likewise, though the start of a new Opus strip in November might delay such a project.

while i don't know if i will be picking up this far side collection, i would definitly be picking up a similar bloom county one.

If I remember correctly, I saw this for Cdn$117.99 at Costco in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

this was my thought today when i went by the bookstore to look at this. :jawdrop: holy crap was this thing huge! luckily the 2nd store that i went to had one that was open so i slid out the two volumes and took a flip through. pretty good overall. i only glanced at a few strips but they were great. i will probably be picking this up if i could just get some love.

There's another 20% off everything coupon for Borders in the DVD Bargains forum: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=326611

It's good from Nov. 14 to 17th.

bordersstores.com lists it at 94.50 and after a 20% discount, it comes out to $75.60.

thanks blade. i saw that coupon earlier and was wondering what their price on it was.

I just grabbed my copy--wow is it ever beautiful, not to mention HEAVY! This will make an excellent coffee table book, I can't wait to show it to guests!

What is the shipping cost for this from them?

Also have to wonder if they won't raise the price on the book before the coupon even becomes valid. Probably not but just another thing to look out for.

Is anybody doing STL for this at Amazon?

[email protected]

i am gonna bump my earlier post if anyone is STL'ing this at amazon.

[email protected]

thanks. :)

That's a link to the inventory of the physical Borders around the country. I don't think they do online orders now as they sold that end of the business to Amazon.com.

But if you go to your local Borders (assuming you have one) they'll order the book for you at no additional cost if they don't already have it in stock.

Should be getting this for my birthday, november 19th. If not, then I'll pick it up myself.

Now ordered from BN.com