'Calvin And Hobbes' Creator Keeps Privacy

[Tiggeroshii]

By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 22, 7:27 PM ET



CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio - Maybe someday, officials will put up a statue marking this quaint village as the birthplace of "Calvin and Hobbes."

Just don't expect cartoonist Bill Watterson to attend the unveiling ceremony. It's been nearly 10 years since he abruptly quit drawing one of the most popular comic strips of all time. Since then, he's been as absent as the precocious Calvin and his pet tiger, err, stuffed animal, Hobbes.

Some call Watterson reclusive. Others say he just likes his privacy.

"He's an introspective person," says his mother, Kathryn, standing at the front door her home, its yard covered by a tidy tangle of black-eyed Susans and other wildflowers. It's where Watterson grew up. Calvin lived there too, so to speak. Watterson used the well-kept, beige Cape Cod-style house as the model for Calvin's home.

You might even expect Calvin to come bounding out the door with Hobbes in tow, the screen door banging behind them. After all, the guy on the front porch kind of resembles Calvin's dad. Readers will remember him as the exasperated patent attorney who enjoyed gummy oatmeal and jogging in 20-degree weather.

More..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051022/ap_on_en_ot/reclusive_cartoonist

[Lautremont]

1. I know where Watterson is: at that wonderful club sipping brandy

with Larson and Breathed.

[flygal]

9. Ah yes, the magnificent three

Breathed is back and pretty biting at * :)

[KitchenWitch]

22. The holy trinity of the Sunday comics

Love those three!

[demobabe]

23. Don't forget Trudeau

Breathed's inspiration.

[Dora]

2. Thanks for posting this

it was a nice read. I think I'll buy that three-volume set for my husband for Christmas.

[buddysmellgood]

3. I miss that cartoon. But it's fun watching my kids discover it.

[disgruntled_goat]

4. it's my understanding

that of all those "Calvin peeing on something" window decals, not one was ever licensed by watterson. Theyre all technically illegal - he's just too private to sue.


discuss. ;)

[mark0rama]

7. From what I've heard,

his refusal to license Calvin and Hobbes for any merchandising also makes it harder to pursue any legal action against the makers of knockoffs.

If that's true, it's awfully perverse that the law is punishing the guy for having some integrity.

[demobabe]

15. There has long been an argument about this

Argument over him having 'integrity' for not licensing...

But the thing is, comic strips are commercial art, and Watterson is already a sellout, so to speak. To say you're not going to sell Calvin dolls or t-shirts or other merchandise is akin to a prostitute saying they'll only give blow jobs. She's still a prostitute.

Of course, C & H is one of my all time favorite comics, of course I love that strip. But Watterson held this lofty ideal in his head that comics were this 'great art' and reminisced about days gone where cartoonists could have whole pages in the newspaper for their cartoons.

So while newspapers gradually shut their doors or scaled back, Watterson demanded a whole half page for his Sunday panel. Unfortunately, this didn't have the effect of getting the newspapers to give more room to the comics, but instead many other cartoonists got dropped to accommodate the bigger C & H.

Sure, Watterson had the power and draw to do that. But for someone who ascribes to such 'high ideals' and the 'art of cartooning,' his actions benefitted nobody but himself.

ed. for typo

[Marr]

16. I read a commentary by Watterson on that subject. He mentioned no

concern about "selling out", but rather explained that he doesn't want Calvin and Hobbes merchandise everywhere because it dillutes the characters. It makes them less special for the reader.

[demobabe]

17. Yeah, this is BS for the most part

When you have your characters selling Coca Cola, yeah, there is dillution.

But if you put a copy of a C & H comic strip on a t-shirt, how is that different from it being on newspaper? It isn't.

Most cartoonists feel the highest honor is to be recognized by their peers: the Reuben awarded by the National Cartoonist Society is this award.

Bill Watterson won this award twice, and couldn't be bothered to pick it up. It's just this whole attitude thing; like I said before: he ascribed to all these lofty ideals, but in the end, he didn't help other cartoonists, he helped himself.

Garry Trudeau and Charles Schulz never have been that way: both of those guys are amazing people personally and have done so much to promote cartooning and humanity and better the general human condition WHILE being amazing cartoonists. They are true heroes.

[Marr]

18. Well, we'll have to disagree.

I tend to agree with Watterson. Putting characters on t-shirts and lunch boxes saps them of something, in my humble opinion.

It's different from being in a newspaper because print is the strips' medium. If half the people out there were wearing Mark Rothko paintings on their t-shirts and putting Rothko stickers on their car windows, I'd say the merchandising was sapping the work. Same thing.

[BiggJawn]

19. I take it he cashed the cheques?

Not very idealistic at the end of it, is he?

[demobabe]

21. There is no money attached to the award

Just one great big honking HEAVY metal sculpture of a bunch of cartoon characters piled up high - designed by Rube Goldberg. It's incredibly neat. Cartoonists vote to give the award, so it's a nod by the industry's best.

Watterson has his ideals; I'm sure he believes in them. But I'm just saddened by all the lost potential.

Having the talent to reach so many people is an incredible tool and huge responsibility. Watterson is free to do whatever he wants, but it's sad that he abandoned something that truly sparked the imaginations of millions of people. Just name one modern day comic strip that has the same kind of impact of Calvin and Hobbes... I can't - can you?

I don't believe comic strips are true "art" - they're art all right, but they're commercial art and a communication device. Just like the TV series "Friends" isn't art. Same kind of thing. To put the strip up on this huge "art" pedestal as if the comic pages were some kind of holy pages just takes it away from what it really is: an art form for people of all ages.

[Neil Lisst]

24. Of course cartoons are art.

Cartoons are one of the most important art forms, and the most important in politics.

[Tiggeroshii]

25. YE! I second that!

As a longtime aspiring cartoonist myself, I have taken offense a number of times when people insisted Comics are not art. They have been a tradition for quite a while with various expression taken about with them. For more information on this topic, I urge everybody to read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, or Redefining Comics by the same guy. He goes an extra mile to get out this same point.

[Neil Lisst]

26. here's art in comic form

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst

It's also political commentary.

[BiggJawn]

27. No, but he still got PAID for his "art", yes?

Comics have a special niche in the artworld, IMO. Like Warhol and Maxx. It's not "Serious Art", but it's of too great an importance to dismiss.

And after all, as Elbert Hubbard's handyman, Ali Baba once said, "Art is mostly a matter of Haircut."....

Calvin and Hobbs was one of those special strips that will live forevver. As long as people make demented snowmen...:7

[Tiggeroshii]

8. I'vebeen telling people that for ages

he never signed one licensing contract

[jayctravis]

10. His "artist commentary" edition is fascinating.

Apparently he just wanted to draw cartoons, and he didn't want panel limitations. He had to work within some stringent guidelines that he eventually got pushed back and his later strips are fanciful panoramas of comicstrip storytelling. Worked wonderfully in Calvin and Hobbes about a fiercely imaginative child, his tiger friend, and his parents who seem more at home in the standardized non-color strip cartoon.

Plus Watterson explains things that seem like non sequiturs. The Tuna-Noodle Incident?

One of the strips involving Susie had me laughing so hard that I could not continue in the book for an hour. The only other comic strip that did that to me was one of Don Martin's from Mad where there's some noise; "floipadoipadink" or something that made me laugh till my sides hurt.

Oh...the one where Calvin's dad is going to work and Calvin has made a gruesome tableau of a snowman pedestrian accident at his car with snowman poice and snowman horrified bystanders. The look on his Dad's face is perfect.

[brettdale]

13. Favorite all time calvin and hobbes

The one when they are watching the toaster, they put in the bread, the toast pops up and they ask "Where does the bread go?" "beats me"

[renate]

14. that's interesting

I've seen lots of car-window decals of Calvin praying in front of a cross and thought

:wtf:

I couldn't care less whether Watterson was a fundie--that would be his business, not mine--but it just always surprised me, Calvin not being a particularly pious dude normally.

[1monster]

5. Calvin and Hobbs almost made me want to move back up north for a

snow covered winter just so I could build tiny snowmen armies crossing the road, with a large SNOWMAN CROSSING sign in front of them.

http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes


Calvin and his friend Hobbes, the tiger.
THE YUKON SONG
by Bill Watterson

My tiger friend has got the sled,
And I have packed a snack.
We're all set for the trip ahead.
We're never coming back!

We're abandoning this life we've led!
So long Mom and Pop!
We're sick of doing what you've said.
And now it's going to stop!

We're going where it snows all year,
Where life can have real meaning.
A place where we won't have to hear:
"Your room could stand some cleaning"

The Yukon is the place for us!
That's where we want to live
Up there we'll get to yell and cuss.
And act real primitive.

We'll never have to go to school.
Forced into submission.
By monstrous, crabby teachers who'll
Make us learn addition.

We'll never have to clean a plate.
Of veggie glops and goos.
Messily we'll masticate
Using any fork we choose!

The timber wolves will be our friends.
We'll stay up late and howl
At the moon, till night time ends,
before going to the prowl.

Oh, what a life! We cannot wait,
To be in that arctic land,
Where we'll be master of our fate,
And lead a life that's grand!

No more of parental rules!
We're heading for some snow!
Good riddance to those grown-up ghouls!
We're leaving! Yukon Ho!

[Art_from_Ark]

6. In other Latest Breaking News

J.D.Salinger is still in New Hamshire somewhere keeping away from the public

[PurityOfEssence]

11. And Thomas Pynchon is playing bridge somewhere in Berkeley

I'll bet the other three don't even know who he is.

[brettdale]

12. Calvin and Hobbes Rule!

The Greatest comic strip ever.

I would trust Calvin's household polls ahead of Gallop anyday.

[sproutster]

20. It's night... A window with a sheet tied coming out of it...

Night scene...
Night scene...
Calvin *ring ring* "Hi dad, it's three am. Do you know where your children are?

lmao.

I don't care what people say about Watterson, he had principles, and he lived by them. Are we in the business of forcing someone to further a cause? Or do we allow people to have a voice and speak when and where they want to?

This world without Calvin and Hobbs is a bleaker place.