Calvin and Hobbes part of Abe Books' "Most expensive sales in 2023"

Most expensive sales in 2023

Literary masterpieces, fantasy, poetry, a comic strip, and more.

https://www.abebooks.com/books/rarebooks/most-expensive-sales-2023

Welcome to our most expensive sales of 2023. The list features a remarkable collection from Thomas Pynchon, author of 'One of the Longest, Most Difficult, Most Ambitious Novels in Years,' iconic works from the minds of Walt Whitman and Adam Smith, and a signed color proof from the well-loved comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes.

#10  Calvin and Hobbes: The Last Sunday, "Let's Go Exploring" by Bill Watterson - $35,000

Signed color proof, 250 x 350 mm (approx. 10 x 13.5"); image size approximately 225 x 323 mm; printed in black and half-tone colors, light handling creases to margins

A rarity, this large color proof of the final Calvin and Hobbes strip is signed by Bill Watterson.

Calvin and Hobbes was a daily comic strip that ran between 1985 and 1995. It became hugely successful and was featured in thousands of newspapers around the globe.

This signed color proof was one of a small number produced and sent as a thank-you gift from Watterson to select newspapers who carried the strip.

Sold by Manhattan Rare Book Company

If you are of a certain age (like I am), you may remember opening the newspaper on December 31, 1995 with a little bit of excitement and more than a little bit of sadness, to see what Bill Watterson created for the last strip of his beloved Calvin and Hobbes. After 10 years and 3100 strips, it was all coming to an end. And Watterson didn't disappoint. Here is that last strip, and it's a perfect, joyous, and hopeful ending. Against a backdrop of fresh white snow serving as a template for possibilities, Calvin and Hobbes remind us that it is, after all, a magical world - let's go exploring.

Michael DiRuggiero (Manhattan Rare Book Company)