This book is a visual poem. Poetry is at its core terse and welcomes interpretation. It's specific in its broadness. I know that's hard to comprehend and even come up with to be honest, but thats what poetry is, trying to say the most with the least. Knowing now, what went into this absolute masterpiece, I am so, so very proud to wield The Mysteries, by Bill and John; a whole year of collaborative push and pull, only to say, “NO - We can do better.”

It sounded like fun and maybe something people wouldn’t expect, so I decided to give it a try,” Watterson told The Washington Post. “Dave sent me a rough cut of the film, and I dusted the cobwebs off my ink bottle.” Like others have noted, this book was a fast read, but I've already read it a second time. It's a book with subtle and not-so-subtle themes and questions worth reflecting on, many of which align with past interviews Bill Watterson has given on his views. Here's some that I noticed:Be warned - this takes like five minutes to read. It is absolutely nothing like Calvin & Hobbes and if different names were on the cover no one would suspect Bill Watterson at all. Bill Watterson, the mastermind behind the timeless Calvin and Hobbes, was once asked why he hadn’t published anything following the famous strip’s retirement. His reply implied what most already feared; Calvin was too good—too great—to be ever surpassed. And so, rather than trying to top impossible expectations, he chose to exit as an inimitable legend. He “quit while being ahead,” as the old cliché says. Lastly, art appreciation is subjective. I hope for Bill Watterson and John Kascht that the experience of creating this work was 5-stars. Neither one of them owes us anything, so I'm grateful they decided to share this with us.

As a lifelong fan of Calvin and Hobbes, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I'm pleasantly surprised. However, it clearly makes me remember all about Bill's problems with the Syndicate and how their non-stop greed for licensing ultimately killed Calvin and Hobbes. As a kid around 12, it felt like I lost my best friends. Co-creator of The Mysteries John Kascht is best known for his work as a caricaturist. Kascht’s dynamic illustrations of many of the world’s most famous faces have appeared in countless magazines, newspapers, book covers, billboards, and posters. His works are collected at the National Portrait Gallery. As a master of his art, Kascht has been profiled in multiple documentaries, and he also works as a faculty member of Marywood University’s graduate program in illustration and design. But Watterson declined to publicly exhibit his work, telling Mental Floss: “I don’t paint ambitiously. It’s all catch and release: just tiny fish that aren’t really worth the trouble to clean and cook.” In fact, Martell described a rumor that Watterson was such a perfectionist that he burned his first 500 paintings because he felt they weren’t up to his standards. The Mysteries" is the latest work of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, over 10 years in the making.I think it demonstrated what was possible with the comics art form, how you can tell stories that appeal to a wide audience with visual variety,” Robb says. “These are all things that had been done before. But Calvin and Hobbes brought a lot of unique features together and showed how you could create something really special and really magical.” In June 2014, three strips from the Pearl Before Swine comic featured its artist Stephan Pastis being schooled by a second-grader on how to properly draw. The child’s drawings were a different style than Pastis’ normal work, and it was later revealed that Watterson had been the one behind them. It’s so wildly different from what [Watterson] did on ‘Calvin and Hobbes’… and I think that’s a very conscious decision on [his] part,” Martell said. “He would not ever want to be pigeonholed as just the Calvin and Hobbes guy.” Watterson has always been a outstanding modern philosophical thinker. And this book doubles down on that title. He provides some old school, Calvin and Hobbes red wagon tangents and questions, but this time there isn't a pithy conclusion. And that's ok.