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Calvin and Hobbes Revisited: The Platypus Reads Part CCLVIII

I think it's been four or five years since I last read any of Bill Watterson's amazing comic, Calvin and Hobbes.  Looking for some lighter fair to wedge into small moments of open time as the semester winds up, I decided it was time to remedy that situation.  I began with the first comic a few weeks ago (the one where Calvin catches Hobbes) and have been pushing forward as time allows.

The first spate of comics are more sparse and simple than their sumptuous descendants.  The world is still being sketched out.  Even in this opening phase, Calvin and Hobbes sparkles with a light that I've never seen anywhere else.  I have pages and pages yet to read, but I know that the strip will come to an end and that peculiar light will be extinguished.  It's the way things are in the world.  ...and I think that's a clue to where the sparkle comes from.  Watterson caught something in that web of pen and watercolors.  It's a little piece of reality no one else has ever been quite able to get at.  It flashes for a minute, and then it's gone.
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