"Calvin and Hobbes" creator Bill Watterson grants first interview since 1989
67 replies, posted
This is a bit late but I thought a lot of you would still find it interesting.
[img]http://media.cleveland.com/living_impact/photo/bill-watersonjpg-9ea972478de10d17_medium.jpg[/img]
From CNN: [url]http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/01/calvin-and-hobbes-creator-no-regrets/?hpt=Sbin[/url]
[quote]On December 31, 1995, the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" ended. Comics fans have been in mourning ever since.
But Bill Watterson, who created the strip, "never regretted stopping," he told his hometown Cleveland Plain Dealer in a rare interview that appeared Monday.
"It's always better to leave the party early," he told the paper's John Campanelli. "If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now 'grieving' for 'Calvin and Hobbes' would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them."
"Calvin and Hobbes," the strip about a mischievous 6-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger (which comes alive only for him), ran for 10 years in syndication. At its height, it was one of the most popular - and lauded - comic strips in the world.
But Watterson, who rarely gave interviews, kept tight control of his creation, so that the only "Calvin and Hobbes" product was the strip itself and its published collections - no coffee mugs, bumper stickers or television commercials. (Those "Calvin" stickers you see on the backs of pickup trucks are counterfeit.)
He took two breaks during the run of the strip and finally ended it with a Sunday strip in which Calvin exclaimed to Hobbes, "Let's go exploring!"
The strip, much honored during its run, is receiving another tribute in July, when the U.S. Postal Service releases a "Calvin and Hobbes" stamp.
Campanelli asked Watterson how he feels about the fans' connection to him, and how he deals "with knowing that [the attention] is going to follow you the rest of your days."
"Ah, the life of a newspaper cartoonist - how I miss the groupies, drugs and trashed hotel rooms!" Watterson responded.
More seriously, he added, "I just go about my quiet life and do my best to ignore the rest. I'm proud of the strip, enormously grateful for its success, and truly flattered that people still read it, but I wrote 'Calvin and Hobbes' in my 30s, and I'm many miles from there."[/quote]
The interview: [url]http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html[/url]
[quote]Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets. This
marks the 15th year since "Calvin and Hobbes" said goodbye to the comics pages. Creator Bill Watterson, who grew up in Chagrin Falls and still makes Greater Cleveland his home, recently answered some questions via e-mail from Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli. It's believed to be the first interview with the reclusive artist since 1989.
With almost 15 years of separation and reflection, what do you think it was about "Calvin and Hobbes" that went beyond just capturing readers' attention, but their hearts as well?
The only part I understand is what went into the creation of the strip. What readers take away from it is up to them. Once the strip is published, readers bring their own experiences to it, and the work takes on a life of its own. Everyone responds differently to different parts.
I just tried to write honestly, and I tried to make this little world fun to look at, so people would take the time to read it. That was the full extent of my concern. You mix a bunch of ingredients, and once in a great while, chemistry happens. I can't explain why the strip caught on the way it did, and I don't think I could ever duplicate it. A lot of things have to go right all at once.
What are your thoughts about the legacy of your strip?
Well, it's not a subject that keeps me up at night. Readers will always decide if the work is meaningful and relevant to them, and I can live with whatever conclusion they come to. Again, my part in all this largely ended as the ink dried.
Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?
This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say.
It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.
I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.
I've never regretted stopping when I did.
Because your work touched so many people, fans feel a connection to you, like they know you. They want more of your work, more Calvin, another strip, anything. It really is a sort of rock star/fan relationship. Because of your aversion to attention, how do you deal with that even today? And how do you deal with knowing that it's going to follow you for the rest of your days?
Ah, the life of a newspaper cartoonist -- how I miss the groupies, drugs and trashed hotel rooms!
But since my "rock star" days, the public attention has faded a lot. In Pop Culture Time, the 1990s were eons ago. There are occasional flare-ups of weirdness, but mostly I just go about my quiet life and do my best to ignore the rest. I'm proud of the strip, enormously grateful for its success, and truly flattered that people still read it, but I wrote "Calvin and Hobbes" in my 30s, and I'm many miles from there.
An artwork can stay frozen in time, but I stumble through the years like everyone else. I think the deeper fans understand that, and are willing to give me some room to go on with my life.
How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?
Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.
How do you want people to remember that 6-year-old and his tiger?
I vote for "Calvin and Hobbes, Eighth Wonder of the World."[/quote]
Personally, I have always loved Calvin and Hobbes, and though I am saddened that it ended, I have to agree with his decision.
Wikipedia article on Watterson; found his personality interesting: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Watterson[/url]
[quote]But Watterson, who rarely gave interviews, kept tight control of his creation, so that the only "Calvin and Hobbes" product was the strip itself and its published collections - no coffee mugs, bumper stickers or television commercials. (Those "Calvin" stickers you see on the backs of pickup trucks are counterfeit.)[/quote]
Interesting. I never knew that.
final letter to readers from wikipedia
[quote]Dear Reader:
I will be stopping Calvin and Hobbes at the end of the year. This was not a recent or an easy decision, and I leave with some sadness. My interests have shifted, however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises. I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue.
That so many newspapers would carry Calvin and Hobbes is an honor I'll long be proud of, and I've greatly appreciated your support and indulgence over the last decade. Drawing this comic strip has been a privilege and a pleasure, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Sincerely,
Bill Watterson[/quote]
[editline]03:55PM[/editline]
more copy/paste related to letter
[quote]Watterson opposed the structure publishers imposed on Sunday newspaper cartoons: the standard cartoon starts with a large, wide rectangle featuring the cartoon's logo or a throwaway panel tangential to the main area so that newspapers pressed for space can remove the top third of the cartoon if they wish; the rest of the strip is presented in a series of rectangles of different widths. In Watterson's opinion, this format limited the cartoonist's options of allowable presentation. After his sabbatical year in 1991 he managed to gain an exception to these constraints for Calvin and Hobbes, allowing him to draw his Sunday cartoons the way he wanted. In many of his strips, the panels overlap or contain their own panels; in some, the action progresses diagonally across the strip.[/quote]
I read this on Wikipedia a week or two ago. I even remember the "it's better to leave the party early" line. Hold on...
[editline]09:05PM[/editline]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Watterson&oldid=341337534#Since_retirement[/url]
There it is, from 1 February. Not that it matters as long as it's new here.
Calvin and Hobbes is truly my favourite comic strip.
I'm glad Watterson resisted syndication of the strip and kept it in its original medium.
^^^ one of my favorites. I love Calvin and Hobbes, it's one of my favorite comics ever.
What was the ending? I never really knew.
[QUOTE=BCell;20368701]What was the ending? I never really knew.[/QUOTE]
the last strip?
[img]http://radio.weblogs.com/0109790/myImages/ch951231.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=BCell;20368701]What was the ending? I never really knew.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9528/chlstcomicgk5.png[/IMG]
Edit: OH COME ON!
[QUOTE=zeldar;20368833]
Edit: OH COME ON![/QUOTE]
Incoming clock bombardment.
Oh god, whew, as I was reading this thread, I thought it would say that Bill died.
I fucking love Calvin and Hobbes.
[QUOTE=Waals Vander;20368801]the last strip?
[img]http://radio.weblogs.com/0109790/myImages/ch951231.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
:crying:
Side note: I was born in 1995.
Yes, that means I'm a 14-year-old shitkid.
[QUOTE=Waals Vander;20368801]the last strip?
[img]http://radio.weblogs.com/0109790/myImages/ch951231.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
That last strip always makes me want to cry. :frown:
I'm 20, but my parents got me Calvin and Hobbes books when I was growing up. I've always loved it, and always have gotten a little heart ache when reading that last one.
god i think i might have pull out my old calvin and hobbes books again.
Never heard of it.
[QUOTE=he-did-it-->;20370178]Never heard of it.[/QUOTE]
You are extremely uncultured and deprived.
[editline]08:25PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Maddude7;20370109]god i think i might have pull out my old calvin and hobbes books again.[/QUOTE]
Already have. All of them, actually.
Holy shit I loved those comics, I still read them.
I hate all the people that say that Calvin died at the end of the comic. He didn't. Watterson just retired.
[QUOTE=IceCKryss;20370732]I hate all the people that say that Calvin died at the end of the comic. He didn't. Watterson just retired.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://images.avalondire.multiply.com/image/3/photos/7/600x600/2/lio080120ij0.gif?et=1V5yBHxaLEAAX0uvupA58g&nmid=78732427[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Pat4ever;20370748][IMG]http://images.avalondire.multiply.com/image/3/photos/7/600x600/2/lio080120ij0.gif?et=1V5yBHxaLEAAX0uvupA58g&nmid=78732427[/IMG][/QUOTE]
:crying:
Oh god.
[QUOTE=Pat4ever;20370748][IMG]http://images.avalondire.multiply.com/image/3/photos/7/600x600/2/lio080120ij0.gif?et=1V5yBHxaLEAAX0uvupA58g&nmid=78732427[/IMG][/QUOTE]
okay that's actually kind of funny, though i'm not a big fan of the comic.
[QUOTE=Pat4ever;20370748][IMG]http://images.avalondire.multiply.com/image/3/photos/7/600x600/2/lio080120ij0.gif?et=1V5yBHxaLEAAX0uvupA58g&nmid=78732427[/IMG][/QUOTE]
He made another comic, for the weekdays. Had Lio walking down the street, and he walked by a figure covered in a blanket, distorting his shape, but you can see the hair sticking out, and a beat up tiger doll next to him. The beggar had a sign next to him that read, "Please help! Retired too early!"
:crying:
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;20370928]He made another comic, for the weekdays. Had Lio walking down the street, and he walked by a figure covered in a blanket, distorting his shape, but you can see the hair sticking out, and a beat up tiger doll next to him. The beggar had a sign next to him that read, "Please help! Retired too early!"
:crying:[/QUOTE]
Would love an image if somebody could of this one.
[QUOTE=Valdor;20371005]Would love an image if somebody could of this one.[/QUOTE]
I'm searching for it.
If I can't find it online, I'll snap a picture of it and upload it.
It was Calvin and Hobbes related so...I cut it out and kept it.
[editline]09:08PM[/editline]
[img]http://images.gocomics.com/images/blogs/gocomics/liocalblog.jpg[/img]
I honestly attribute my intelligence to reading this strip as a kid. I didn't even really "get" it, but it was better than reading Garfield or something else god-awful.
Watterson used to live not two miles away from me.
Apparently, I met/saw him in a bookstore in Chagrin Falls (Fireside, if any of you are locals), though I don't recall.
On the back of one of the books, Calvin is smashing a town. The town pictured is Chagrin Falls (where Watterson lived and where I lived as well). I dunno if he still lives around there or not, though.
i dont get these comics they all seem to have no joke
[QUOTE=abcpea;20371708]i dont get these comics they all seem to have no joke[/QUOTE]
Then you lack the intelligence to understand them.
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