The US Postal Service is releasing a few stamps this July to commemorate some honorable comic strips, one of these being my all-time favorite: Calvin & Hobbes. This comic strip has honestly been an important part in the growth of my imagination. Beautiful art, amazingly well-written and as funny and powerful now as when I first read it (if not more so).

Bill Watterson recently offered some brief words to John Campanelli, of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the first interview granted since 1989.

Here’s a strip just because it’s so cute.

During my novel-hiatus I filled my reading void with a lot of comic books. My renewed interest in comics towards the end of 2007 when Rob Schrab announced that, after 10 years, he would be completing his independent comic book series, Scud: The Disposable Assassin.

I read Scud when I was a kid, and I remember Schrab left the series on it’s 20th issue with a giant cliffhanger. I loved the Scud world and it’s spinoff series La Costra Nostroid and the one-off Drywall: Unzipped.

Scud takes place in a world where people buy weapons from vending machines. Frequently, people buy robot assassins to that self-destruct after killing their intended target. Our hero is a Scud, Heart Breaker 1373 series, who is given a mission to kill Jeff, “a crazy plug-headed mutant armageddon on two legs” with mousetraps for hands and a squid used as a belt. While looking in the mirror, Scud notices his warning label, mentioning that he will self-destruct after termination of his target. He resolves to blast off Jeff’s arms and legs and put her on life support to ensure both of their survivals. The story follows Scud as he becomes involved with the cyborg mafia, killing to pay Jeff’s hospital bills and even falls in love. Anyway, the story gets pretty crazy and it’s all collected in the omnibus entitled Scud: The Whole Shebang.

Also published by Fireman was Douglas TenNapel’s (of The Neverhood and Earthworm Jim fame), a six issue mini-series. This comic follows four cats who hijack a giant robot. There’s robots, insects, dogs, betrayal, legends, and war. This is an awesome little comic series and is now available in color! TenNapel’s Gear was later turned into a a very, very light-hearted adaption called Catscratch which aired on Nickelodeon for 20 episodes.

Jeff Smith’s Bone is another independent comic I read when I was a kid but never managed to catch the entire story until the whole thing was released as a collection. I think Bone is possibly my favorite comic book of all time (to be politically correct for my nerds everywhere – I am referring to graphic novels… comics in general I’d have to hand it to Calvin & Hobbes). The comic spanned 55 issues, running irregularly from 1991 to 2004 and follows the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, “Phoney” Bone, and Smiley Bone, who are run out of their hometown Boneville and are separated by a swarm of locusts. They end up in a fantasy landscape and follow a story arc with epic proportions that match The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This comic is amazing. I urge you to read this 1300-page behemoth.

My last recommendation here is the Cerebus the Aardvark series. Dave Sim’s Cerebus is another independent comic book and is the longest-running English language comic book by one creative team. The series ran from December 1977 to March 2004, totaling 300 issues (about 6,000 pages). The series has been collected by story arcs in 16 separate bound editions. This comic offers lavish art and really stretches the boundaries of comic book storytelling. Sims was joined by Gerhard from issue 65 onward. Gerhard rendered highly detailed backgrounds from the rest of the series while Sims wrote and drew the characters. The comic book, initially more of a hero fantasy series, moves into an intense political satire and drama. On that note, I haven’t even finished reading this series yet… I’ve made it up to the 10th book. I’ll have to get on that. It’s hard to really sum up what goes on in this comic and there are drastic differences from the first story arc to the next. From the second book Cerebus continues a little more cohesively. Anyway, definitely a work of art- start at book one!

Figured I’d end this one with a Calvin & Hobbes strip that still manages to bring tears to my eyes. Appropriate with our recent New York weather, I’m looking outside a window of my parents’ suburban home to see beautiful untouched snow.

Have a wonderful Christmas!