The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is on sale for a price we haven’t seen since last year’s Black Friday sale at Amazon. As part of the retailer’s Prime Day 2025 deals event, the beautifully designed three-volume hardcover collection is up for grabs for only $84.17 (was $225)–no Prime membership required. To get the full discount, you’ll need to click the coupon box to knock an additional $41.62 from the price at checkout. Amazon is also offering a sizable discount on the four-volume paperback edition, and a selection of Calvin and Hobbes trade paperback collections are B2G1 free.
Written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, the syndicated comic strip earned legions of fans and widespread critical acclaim throughout its 10-year run (1985-1995) in newspapers across the US and abroad. If you grew up stealing the comics section of the newspaper from your parents to read the humorous and insightful adventures of Calvin and his stuffed Tiger, check out Amazon’s deal before it’s gone. Over the past few years, discounts as steep these on The Complete Calvin and Hobbes have tended to sell out fast.
$84.17 (was $225) with coupon
The premium hardcover box set features three volumes compiling every single comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes’ run. All told, you’re getting 1,440 pages of comic strips, some in color, others in black-and-white. The included slipcase features one of the illustrations that is most-associated with Calvin and Hobbes.
I’ve owned this box set for years and can attest to its quality. The comic strips are printed on thick art paper, and the bindings have held up well. Fair warning, though: The premium materials make these books quite heavy. With all three books in the slipcase, you’ve got yourself 22 pounds worth of comic strips, so each book weighs roughly 7.3 pounds.
$74.63 (was $160)
The paperback version of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is also an official Prime Day deal, but you don’t need to click a coupon box to get the $74.63 price. Unlike the hardcover deal, this offer is exclusive to Prime members.
The paperback version has 1,456 pages, but the complete run is spread across four volumes instead of three. If you’re buying the collection for a younger reader, this is probably the better option. While the full box set is still a hefty 17.75 pounds, each book is roughly 4.3 pounds. And with over 100 fewer pages per volume, these are easier to hold for kids and adults with smaller hands.
The slipcase features a different, but also well-known, illustration of Calvin and Hobbes dancing merrily.
Calvin and Hobbes, at least according to Amazon, is recommended for kids ages 10 and up, which makes sense in some respects. I read Calvin and Hobbes when I was just learning how to read as in kindergarten, and many other longtime fans probably did as well. It’s not so much the content that is inappropriate for early readers, it’s that much of what makes Calvin and Hobbes so great is its wit. The cleverness and social commentary can fly right past younger readers. I gained a greater appreciation for Calvin and Hobbes when I read it as an adult.
The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium Box Set Series
If you’d rather have smaller paperback collections, check out the ongoing Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium Set series. Andrews McMeel Publishing began reprinting the series in this travel-friendly format in 2023. Each compendium comes with two volumes. Four Compendium Sets have been released so far, with a fifth set slated to launch in October.
Compendium Set 1 is an official Prime Day deal and discounted to $15.15. Meanwhile, Set 3 and the recently published Set 4 are eligible for Amazon’s B2G1 Free Sale this week.
- Set 1 — $15.15 (
$22) | Prime Day Deal - Set 2 — $14 (
$22) - Set 3 — $16.80 (
$22) | B2G1 Free - Set 4 — $16.80 (
$22) | B2G1 Free - Set 5 — $22 (
$25) | Releases October 7
Amazon also has deals on the original paperback volumes collecting various Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. These books have larger pages since they are the full-sized editions. You can also grab all three of the Calvin and Hobbes Treasury Volumes in the B2G1 Free Sale. These are essentially greatest hits collections from the first half of Calvin and Hobbes’ syndicated run.
Calvin and Hobbes Treasury Collection:
Original Trade Paperback Editions:
Adults who love Calvin and Hobbes should consider picking up Bill Watterson’s latest work, The Mysteries, as the hardcover is only $7 at Amazon. The Mysteries couldn’t be more different from Calvin and Hobbes, but it’s an interesting illustrated fable for adult readers.
