A bit more serious than I expected, this is a scholarly study of the comic strip. Exploring themes repeatedly touched on in the strips, it covers things you might have already noticed, but also delves quite deep into serious psychological issues. ( )

It's not so easy to admit when reviewing such an intellectual book, but I'll be honest - I expected more pictures. Ok, any pictures. To be fair I didn't want the density of the prose discourage me, but it seems like a sad joke that a book aiming to parse out the "imagination and meaning" of Calvin and Hobbes attempts to do so without any of the charm and wonder of its source material. At least it makes me look smart sitting on my shelf. ( )

Jamey Heit. Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. 220 pp. $40.00.

As a preaching minister in the Christian Church I appreciate discussions on intertextuality and hermeneutics. However, I normally associate such terms with the Bible and not with my most beloved comic. If ever there was a comic that deserved such learned recognition it is Calvin and Hobbes. Yet, I was not prepared for such heavy lifting when I received this text. My preconceived assumptions of this book being a light-hearted read are due to the title and the look of the front cover. I have no one to blame but myself. If you simply love Calvin and his stuffed tiger sidekick, you may want to stick with just reading the comic books. However, if you love philosophical discussions this may be a good fit. ( )

It has taken me forever to muddle through this book. One definitely needs a solid grounding in philosophy to get the most out of this book. It was not the light-hearted read I had envisioned, but that does not mean it was bad. In fact, I thought it was quite good - just not what I was expecting.

This is definitely not Calvin and Hobbes the comic strip. This is a very dense and very academic work of philosophical analysis of a comic strip. Definitely not for the feint of heart. Jamey Heit does a very interesting and freewheeling analys si of the meaning and structure of the humor behind Calvin and Hobbes, one of the more cerebral and delightful comic strips in recent years.

The analysis gets very complicated very quickly, Jacque Derrida gets mentioned in the second page of the first essay. So this is not for the casual fan, this is for the fan of the strip that also has a good grounding in modern philosophy.

It is very interesting and very very intellectually stimulating, but I can see where people who bought the book for some lighthearted reading about their favorite strip can get turned off. ( )