Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets

The Plain Dealer ^ | February 01, 2010, 5:45AM | John Campanelli

[Slings and Arrows]

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.

[Maine Mariner]

And I have one. He is 14 now. He loves C and H.
My favorites was when Calving went into the duplicator
and out came six or seven Calvins.

[brytlea]

LOL

[brytlea]

My Calvin is now a married grown up. He was always a step or two ahead of me. I guess I should be glad we lived where it rarely snowed.

[Charles Martel]

I always liked the one with the kid pushing on the door labelled “pull” outside the “school for the gifted”

Personally, I've always liked the one with the "Bummer of a Birthmark, Hal" deer. Larson owes an awful lot to Hap Kliban, whose work was far edgier than The Far Side.

[Salgak]

The appropriate Illustration for ANY "Calvin and Hobbes" thread:

[NCLaw441]

My favorite Far Side cartoon is a single panel, with two bears, one in the sites of a gun, who realizes he is a target and is pointing at his “friend” who has no idea what is going on.

[r9etb]

One of those comics that I didn't "get". I read it on a number of occasions, and never even cracked a smile. Highly overrated.

Apparently you were never a kid, even when you were a kid.

[rintense]

Loved Calvin and Hobbes. Miss them...

Someone posted a comic from another writer that showed what happened to Calvin and Hobbes (died in sledding accident). Anyone have it to post again?

[Oberon]

My son Calvin is actually named "Calvin." We had my maternal grandfather to cover... he had the same name, so we could reasonably claim that he was named for Granddaddy... but believe me, we were well aware of the connection with the comic strip character when Calvin was born.

And of course, we immediately provided him with a stuffed tiger named "Hobbes."

[Drew68]

Yea but what has he been doing the past 15 years? (not that it’s really any of my business)

I imagine he walks to the mailbox every day where inside there's a royalty check from the fruits of ten years of work with his name on it.

Not a bad gig if you can get it.

[I still care]

The funny thing is, I was reading my Calvin book last night, laughing hysterically. My favorite ones were where Calvin imagined himself as Spaceman Spiff, and one particular one where his Mom drags him off to school, and he’s yelling, “Unhand me, Zorg Queen!”

The one that brought back a true childhood memory was the tidal wave in the bathtub. Back...and forth...back...and forth...Tidal Wave!

[SZonian]

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes

[Grammy]

My favorite three as well. My oldest son *was* Calvin. My mom and I used to find different strips that seemed to fit the stage where he was and send them to each other. Now he is grown up and married. (sigh)

My favorite farside comic showed a woods with a great big canning jar with several wild animals in it. It was titled “Wildlife Preserves”.

[I still care]

Matt, I hate to sound critical, but you were probably a Susie Derkins.

[Skenderbej]

My girlfriend bought me the 3-book hardcover set for full retail when it first came out...that’s how I knew she was the one, and we got engaged a week later =)

[Charles Martel]

I think this is the one:

I've seen stuff like this done with the Peanuts characters, too. Kinda lame, IMO.

[Skenderbej]

Too bad Michael Jordan couldn’t have learned from them.

[Skooz]

Perfection

[rintense]

I think its funny.

[stevio]

I like the one where his dad is explaining that black and white movies and photos are actually color pictures of a black and white world, pre-1945. Calvin asks, “How come paintings before that time are now in color?” Because when the world came into color, so did the paintings. I used that on all my kids, I know, I’m a bad father.