Calvin and Hobbes creator has first interview in 20 years

[Bob The Mercenary]

He's back! (http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html)

C&H still remains my favorite comic strip of all time, OF ALL TIME! And I know there are plenty of other superfans here on the boards that would be interested in reading this rather short interview.

This summer, the U.S. Postal Service will release a "Calvin and Hobbes" stamp.

Oh God I hope it's Calvin pissing on the UPS logo.

[Mirai Gen]

Yeah, saw this on the LRR girl Kathleen's Twitter. This was my favorite.

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.
I said this when I was 14 and I am glad he did it for the same reason I believed he did.

[Aerozord]

Gotta hand it to the guy for being well grounded. I like an artist that simply does his work and is satisfied that it exists reguardless of how people respond to it.

[PCD]

I love that Bill's so straightforward and simple about the whole experience. He doesn't make a big deal out of it, he does exactly what he thinks he should do. He never sold out or pushed things beyond what he was comfortable with.

Though, at the same time, I kind of wish he'd made it sound like there was more passion involved. Maybe it's hard to really see, what with it being an e-mail interview, but he spoke about it kind of distantly, which makes me a bit sad. He's probably just being grounded, though.

[Locke cole]

Ah, Bill.
I never got the strip in the paper, but I was enthralled by the compilation books we had lying around the house (and we had a lot). I remember reading the Anneversery book back when I was 10, and then reading it a lot later and understanding what he was talking about in those boring, non-comicky areas in the book.
Once I was old enough to know what he was doing with his comic (especially the whole anti-licensing stance), I got even more respect for the guy.

And, you know, in spite of being "many miles from there", he still sounds just like the guy who wrote that anniversary book. He's a rare find, that one.

[BitVyper]

Oh God I hope it's Calvin pissing on the UPS logo.

That would be an interesting way to honour Watterson, given that the image comes from bootleggers that stole his character for merchandising.

As Watterson pointed out during the notes of one of the collection books, the original image was of Calvin filling up a water balloon from a faucet. After threat of a lawsuit alleging infringement of copyright and trademark, some of the sticker makers replaced Calvin with a different boy, while other makers ignored the issue.[citation needed] Watterson wryly commented, "I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo."[18] Some legitimate special items were produced, such as promotional packages to sell the strip to newspapers, but these were never sold outright.

[Mirai Gen]

I was rather fond of (by which I mean repulsed by) Calvin praying before a cross, myself.

Also seriously that pissing thing has been used on everything from Ford to the Oakland Raiders.

[Mike McC]

It's kinda a shame that they chose such a crappy interviewer for this interview. A few of the questions are pretty redundant, which is a shame because only six were asked, but Watterson does his best to actually answer them differently but still relevantly.

As always, Patrick Alexander (http://www.chickennation.com/2010/02/02/bill-watterson-interview/) is pretty awesome.

[Donomni]

If only the man would do webcomics.

Not even Calvin and Hobbes, just webcomics.

[Mike McC]

If only the man would do webcomics.

Not even Calvin and Hobbes, just webcomics.Why would you wish such a fate on anyone? You would have him become a... webcomic... artist... and then leave him to the mercy of the insatiable and gibbering, insane, ranting masses of the internet?

What did poor Bill Watterson ever do to you? ;_;

[Amake]

Watterson didn't budge when the multi-million dollar cartoon syndicates leaned on him to keep making the strip, I don't think he'd be bothered by Internet fans.

Which leads me to what I wanted to say: Damn, that guy has integrity.

[Donomni]

Why would you wish such a fate on anyone? You would have him become a... webcomic... artist... and then leave him to the mercy of the insatiable and gibbering, insane, ranting masses of the internet?

What did poor Bill Watterson ever do to you? ;_;

Fate? Bill Watterson could easily rank along the lines of Dr. McNinja and MSPaint Adventures.

I was just suggesting for creative freedom junk, mostly.

I won't blame him if he never makes a comic again: Even without Merch of any sort, the guy has to be living comfortably with the money he's made.

[Si Civa]

Eh, there was some kind of faq by some magazine, where fans had asked questions and Watterson answered to them. And it was done in this century, so it's not like the guy has been completely lost from media all this time. I just can't remember where it's but you can find it from internet naturally. But yeah, it wasn't interview.
And anyway, it's always pleasure to find articles about Watterson. (:

But Watterson himself? Everything that could be said about him has been already said better than I could put it, dammit with you guys!

[Nique]

I love him.


I loooooove him

[The Wandering God]

I know this doesn't really add anything of substance to this thread, but fuck it.

Any house/apartment/whatever that doesn't have some Calvin and Hobbes strips in it is in some form is poorer for it. I put that man in the same high rank as George Carlin as people who knew what the hell was going on and trying to get other people to realize it through humor.