Americans have always loved comic strips,
and in recent years, no strip has been as popular as Calvin and Hobbes,
which began its decade-long run on November 18, 1985.
"Calvin and Hobbes" was the brainchild of a 27-year-old failed editorial cartoonist
named Bill Watterson.
Inspired by such classic strips as Peanuts, Pogo,
and Krazy Kat, Watterson created the small
but vivid universe inhabited by an incorrigible
six-year-old with a vivid imagination and his stuffed
(or was he?)
tiger.
Like the strips that inspired him, Watterson’s work was a one-man show: he did
all the writing and drawing himself. But, unlike its predecessors, Calvin and Hobbes had two differences: The first is that the strip
didn't outlive its creator. Some features -- Blondie, Gasoline Alley, Popeye -- have gone on for decades
after their writers
and artists
gave up the ghost. But Watterson simply walked away from his creation after ten
years, claiming
he'd said all he had to say.
The more important difference was that, unlike the others, Watterson never
commercialized Calvin and Hobbes. Sure, there have been books
(more than 30 million copies sold) and a couple
of calendars,
but he never sold the rights to Calvin to others to turn into songs, movies, TV shows, Broadway musicals -- or even peanut butter. His
rationale was that "each product I considered seemed to violate the spirit
of the strip, contradict its message, and take me away from the work I
loved." (Though he also later ironically admitted that "I clearly
miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford
logo.")
After leaving Calvin and Hobbes, the publicity-averse Watterson
became a virtual recluse. Since the last Sunday page ran in 1995, his public output has amounted to answering 15 questions from fans, an appreciation of Peanuts when Charles Schulz retired, a review
of a biography of Schulz, and a foreword to a collection of Richard Thompson's Cul De Sac comic
strip.
While fans still nurture the hope that Watterson, Calvin, and Hobbes might
someday grace us with one more adventure, sometimes it’s good to let a perfect
thing be just that and not wish for more.
Suggested Sites...
- Go Comics: Calvin and Hobbes - daily reprints of the strip, with a full archive. Also offers a daily email feed.
- The Comics Journal: Bill Waterson - maybe the longest interview he's ever given, from 1989.
- Wikipedia: Bill Watterson - biography of the Calvin and Hobbes creator, with a rare photo.
- Bill Watterson's Rarest! - gallery of rare and unpublished art by the writer and artist.
- The Derkins Library for Calvin and Hobbes Research - obsessive site with tons of information about Watterson and his creation.
No comments:
Post a Comment