On Nov. 18, 1985, a new comic strip made its newspaper debut: Calvin and Hobbes. It featured a small boy wearing a pith helmet who announced that day that he was going to check his tiger trap. The boy was Calvin and the tiger snared in the last panel -- happily snacking on the bait -- was Hobbes.

For 10 years the duo captured the imaginations of adults and children alike. Then, in 1995, cartoonist Bill Watterson announced his retirement at the age of 37.

Now the definitive Calvin and Hobbes collection has been released. The three-volume set is fittingly called The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. It features every one of the 3,160 strips Watterson produced between 1985 and Dec. 31, 1995.

Lee Salem worked with Bill Watterson on those cartoons. He's editor of the Universal Press Syndicate and he spoke with Renee Montagne about the development of Calvin and Hobbes.

Bill Watterson -- not one for the publicity circuit -- did offer his thoughts on the characters he created when The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book was published. The following are his descriptions of characters appearing in the strip:

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