Posted on 10/22/2005 10:27:04 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson
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.
Sure enough, Watterson's father, Jim, has a sheen of sweat on his neck, not from a run but from the 73-year-old's three-mile morning walk.
Watterson has acknowledged satirizing his father, who is now a semiretired patent attorney, in the strip. Jim Watterson says whenever Calvin's dad told him that something he didn't want to do "builds character," they were words he had spoken to his cartoonist son.
After "Calvin and Hobbes" ended, Jim Watterson and his son would paint landscapes together, setting up easels along the Chagrin River or other vistas. He laughed that sometimes they'd spend more time choosing a site than painting. But they haven't painted together for years.
So what's Watterson been up to since ending "Calvin and Hobbes?" It's tough to say.
His parents will say only that he's happy, but they won't say where he lives, and the cartoonist could not be reached for an interview.
His former editor, Lee Salem, also remains mum, saying only that as a painter Watterson started with watercolors and has evolved to oils.
"He's in a financial position where he doesn't need to meet the deadlines anymore," Salem says.
Watterson's parents respect — but have no explanation for — their son's extremely private nature. It doesn't run in the family. Kathryn is a former village councilwoman and Jim is seeking his fourth council term this fall. Their other son, Tom, is a high school teacher in Austin, Texas.
Bill Watterson, 47, hasn't made a public appearance since he delivered the commencement speech in 1990 at his alma mater, Kenyon College. But he recently welcomed some written questions from fans to promote the Oct. 4 release of the three-volume "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes," which contains every one of the 3,160 strips printed during its 10-year run.
Among his revelations:
• He reads newspaper comics, but doesn't consider this their golden age.
• He's never attended any church.
• He's currently interested in art from the 1600s.
Salem, who edited thousands of "Calvin and Hobbes" strips at Universal Press Syndicate, says that Watterson is private and media shy, not a recluse. Salem didn't want to see the strip end, but understood Watterson's decision.
"He came to a point where he thought he had no more to give to the characters," Salem says.
"Calvin and Hobbes" appeared in more than 2,400 newspapers during its run, one of the few strips to reach an audience that large.
Its success was rooted in the freshness of Calvin — an imaginative 6-year-old who has the immaturity of a child and the psychological complexity of a 40-year-old. As for Hobbes, the device of Calvin viewing him as alive and everybody else seeing him as a stuffed animal was simply brilliant, Salem says.
Their all-encompassing bond of friendship — being able to share joy and have fun together, yet get angry and frustrated with one another — was another reason for the strip's success.
Universal would welcome Watterson back along with "Calvin and Hobbes" or any other characters he dreams up. "He knows the door's open and he knows where we are," Salem says.
There are few signs of Watterson or "Calvin and Hobbes" in Chagrin Falls, a town of 4,000 that has evolved from a manufacturing hub centered on its namesake falls to an upscale area of stately homes and giant maple trees.
A Godzilla-sized Calvin is depicted wreaking havoc on Chagrin Falls on the back cover of "The Essential Calvin and Hobbes," released in 1988. He's carrying off the Popcorn Shop, where sweet smells have flowed from its spot on the falls for about 100 years.
Fireside Book Shop, located just out of earshot of the water's roar, carries 15 different "Calvin and Hobbes" books — customers used to be able to find autographed copies. Store employee Lynn Mathews says Watterson's mother used to deliver the signed copies to raise money for charity or just to help the book shop. That ended when the cartoonist discovered that some ended up on eBay, she said.
The demand remains, though.
"I get a couple e-mails a month from people looking for signed books," said Jean Butler, Fireside's officer manager.
Watterson and his wife, Melissa, moved earlier this year from their home in the village — a century house on a hill between downtown and the high school, where the mascot is a tiger.
As a child, Watterson knew he would be an astronaut or a cartoonist. "I kept my options open until seventh grade, but when I stopped understanding math and science, my choice was made," he wrote in the introduction to "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes."
He loved "Peanuts" as a child and started drawing comics. He majored in political science at Kenyon. Thinking he could blend the two subjects, he became a political cartoonist but was fired from his first job at the Cincinnati Post after a few months. So he took a job designing car and grocery ads, but continued cartooning, even though several strip ideas were rejected.
But Universal liked "Calvin and Hobbes" and launched its run Nov. 18, 1985, in 35 newspapers. Calvin caught Hobbes in a tiger trap with a tuna sandwich in the first strip. He spent the next 10 years driving his parents crazy, annoying his crush, Susie Derkins, and playing make-believe as his alter egos Spaceman Spiff and Stupendous Man.
Many of the best moments, though, were time spent alone with his pal, Hobbes.
"The end of summer is always hard on me, trying to cram in all the goofing off I've been meaning to do," Calvin tells Hobbes in an Aug. 24, 1987 strip, the two sitting beneath a tree.
Watterson ended the strip on Dec. 31, 1995, with a statement: "I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises."
The last strip shows Calvin and Hobbes sledding off after a new fallen snow. "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy ... let's go exploring!" Calvin says in the final two panels.
Fans cried out in letters for Watterson to change his mind. Some, like Watterson's parents, say the funny pages haven't been the same since.
"It was like getting a letter from home," Jim Watterson says of reading his son's work each morning.
People continue to ask the Wattersons if their son will ever send Calvin and his buddy Hobbes on new adventures.
"He might draw something else, but he won't do that again," Kathryn Watterson says.
.....The last strip shows Calvin and Hobbes sledding off after a new fallen snow. "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy ... let's go exploring!" Calvin says in the final two panels........
I still have it in my "OutBox"
I can't believe the damn thing's been there ten years!!
The other thing I can't believe is that C&H did not run concurrently with Free Republic.
What passes for comics in my local paper is pretty sad. Rarely do they invoke a laugh or even a smile.
"Helloooo, Zeeba neighbah!"
You and me both. That had to be one of the most wonderfully creative ideas I've ever seen, and his timing was perfect. We keep our books in an easy-to-grab location, just in case we need a good laugh. They're like comfort food, only with less calories.
I never got the feeling Calvin was lonely. I grew up with a brain a lot like Calvin's (without the desire to get into trouble, though). School and the other kids were an endurance and being alone was a LOT more fun. Other kids intrude on your imagination.
In one of his compendiums, Watterson explained that early on he wanted Calvin to interact with other kids, which is why he once went camping with a bunch of Cub Scouts. Watterson decided that Calvin wasn't the sort to join in group activities so he dumped the concept.
Calvin had his own sports. Who can forget "Calvinball"?
Ahh, Cutter John and the USS Enterpoop! Those were among my favorites. I loved the Charles and Diana strips too, but when I look back on them they're bittersweet.
Favorite comic out there now? The Lockhorns.
Ditto. I went through a period of mourning when he retired the strip.
Then I bought all the Calvin and Hobbes books available.
Steve the batchelor lawyer with NO scruples. OMG he cracked me up.The best Steve-arc was when the aliens swapped his brain and he became an Alan Alda type, until some woman messed him up and the "old" Steve returned.
Though Bloom County's finest hour was at exactly the same time Doonesbury jumped the entire shark pond at Sea World....when Gary Hartpence got busted. Breathed had heavy metal singer Bill the Cat get caught in moral circumstances and try to weasel his way out of it.
-Eric
About Watterson, I've always thought of licensing as his 2nd peeve. His big protest was against the shrinking size the papers alloted the strips.
> Why would you want to do that? Calvin and Hobbes is the best reading primer a child could have. There's no inappropriate content--although some of Calvin's schemes might give little gremlins a few ideas!
It's the idea-giving that's the rub. There are strips like the one where Calvin is pounding nails into a coffee table and the Mom comes up and says, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?" and Calvin says, "Is this a trick question?"
Funny, but I think his mom would kill me if I gave some C&H to him ;-).
>>It is not legitimate to say they don't like Achewood without reading at least 6 months or so.
> Bullpucky. I don't like it, and I have no intention, desire, nor reason to read it further. And it is quite "legitimate" for me to say so.
I think what we have here is the creator of the strip, or close friend and family of the creator.
Sorry. To me, the strip stinks.
Dilbert isn't a comic strip. It's a documentary.
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/
I think DAY By DAY is hilarious. Welldrawn and funny.
"NO sport is less organized than Calvinball!"
Foxtrot is pretty funny. The youngest kid Jason has Calvinesque moments for sure. Bill Amend is very talented. One of my favorites was when little Jason went to his parents saying "All Your Base Belong To Us" and busted up laughing. His parents obviously didn't get it. Still do miss C&H though. Also Bloom County as mentioned by many others. Hysterical.
Lol. True, that. I don't think people reading that strip realize that 'Dilbert' only covers the milder forms of insanity that one truly sees in the business world.
Not only did the Dilbert strip track exactly what the new company was doing it was within a one day window of them doing it for each little bit of insanity.
This went on for months.
Since we were in Dublin CA, Scott's home town, we ended up calling him and asking him if he had the place bugged!
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