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.

[ArrogantBustard]

Maybe you needed to have a Calvin in the house to really get it.

Some of us were "Calvins" ... before C&H was written.

[Skooz]

Back around 1994, I was very sick in bed and miserable. The week before I had purchased the “The Days Are Just Packed” collection.

I pulled it out and started reading it at page 1. It took all afternoon, but I read every cartoon in the book. Every time I laughed, and that was often, my hacking cough was so bad my wife checked to see if I was OK.

When I finished the final page, I set the book down and was astonished at how much better I felt.

Like the Bible says: Laughter does good like a medicine.

[rlmorel]

I have them reversed...:)

I am not a Calvin and Hobbes fanatic, but I just LOVE all of the snowmen ones...

As for the Far Side, I have two absolute favorites, both with aviation themes:

My favorite, showing a flight crew looking out the windows and seeing a mountain goat standing in a cloud, and the pilot says: “Hey! What’s that mountain goat doing up here in the clouds?

(I use that one all the time as shorthand of an example of someone who just doesn’t get something, but are likely to find out shortly!)

My second favorite one shows the outside of an airliner, with the panicked faces of the passengers looking out the windows as the pilot says: “Oh my God! We are out of fuel! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE! AGGGGHHHHHHHH....oh, wait...that’s just the intercom light...”

[rlmorel]

You know, that one particular cartoon has always brought up an incredible, powerful feeling of nostalgia in me.

It is too easy to forget that, what it was like on those snowy days...out of school, just you and the snow all over everything. Everything is changed, and everything covered with snow has the capability of being a toy, a weapon, a fort or a canvas.

And for some reason, that one just brings it right back.

[MozarkDawg]

My favorites were the snow men in various death poses. I made one one winter and laid it in my driveway with a hatchet stuck in its forehead and an arrow sticking out of its chest. The neighbors really got a kick out of it.......

My brother did the one with the ice cream scoop murder/sno-cone.

[rlmorel]

I think your post at #45 shows why people love that comic strip.

It captures what being a little kid is all about...the world inside your head can be anything, your options are limitless, there are no boundaries, and being a TRex flying a F15 in full afterburner is something that can be done.

God. I wish I could figure out a way to get that back. Just for a little while.

[Maverick68]

One of the greatest strips ever...

[wbill]

Yea but what has he been doing the past 15 years?

Collecting royalties.

[GOP_Raider]

Comic strips should have ceased to exist after Watterson ended C and H. I haven’t read one since.

[brytlea]

You mean you were a Calvin before Calvin was cool?

[wbill]

I’m a bad father.

I call them "Dadisms". Use them all the time on WBill Jr.

My favorite is.....while looking at a "18 tons" sign on a bridge.... "How do they find the weight limit of a bridge?" "Well, they drive heavier and heavier trucks over it until it breaks, then they rebuild the bridge with the weight of the last truck on the sign."

I used that one, just the other day. :-)

[Major Matt Mason]

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

I have no idea what this means, but I'll assume it isn't a compliment.

[stevio]

LOL. I must’ve forgot that one. It’s now in my “Dadisms”.

[DManA]

Women and “journalists” ask how dies it feel. Men ask what DID YOU DO. Apparently no men write for newspapers. Probably why half the population no longer reads newspapers.

[niteowl77]

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

Ah, yes... the "Midvale" school...

My dad and I were Far Side fans from the get-go, and my son also took to the strip as soon as he could read. Some years ago, he, my wife and I all developed the habit of saying "Midvale" whenever one of us would try to push on a "pull" door (and vice-versa). I still half expect to hear that he has been reduced in rank because he said "Midvale!" while some officer struggled with a door.

Mr. niteowl77

[sportutegrl]

Your ‘cartoon’ is one of the reasons Waterston resigned in the first place. He wrote in one of his books that he was constantly besieged for the trademark copyright so people could sell a stuffed Tiger, for example. He never wanted to commercialize C&H, but when people began copying Calvin doing stuff that his Calvin would never do, that just tore it for him. He never authorized that Calvin peeing image.

[a fool in paradise]

What of Walt Kelly’s Pogo?

[Vaquero]

No, the decapitation of snowmen was his limit I suppose.

hey whatever....some people need to get a thicker skin or a good lawyer or whatever....

I really miss The Far Side much more than C&H...but I really like C&H too.

ps....forget what I said about Lawyers....I hate Lawyers.

[Ratman83]

Susie was a charactor in the comic. She was the straight to Calvins crazy.

[I still care]

Actually, many people quite identify with Susie. Susie is Calvin's nemesis, but he has a secret crush on her. She is everything Calvin is not- responsible, diligent, and functions well in society. She doesn't have Calvin's imagination, but she often outthinks him. She thinks Calvin is weird, and she's a smart cookie who's got his number.