'Calvin and Hobbes' Creator Keeps Privacy

Associated Press ^ | October 22, 2005 | Joe Milicia

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Bump for reference.

[Ruth A.]

Sorry, that's just the kind of strip it is; kind of like saying you don't like Shakespeare after not finishing the first act of Richard III.

That is a rather high bar for a comic strip. I didn't enjoy it either. The artwork isn't much to speak of and the strip simply isn't funny to me. That is a legitimate opinion.

[zeugma]

Fair enough then the story I have heard is incorrect, but if he is not doing enough to protect his copyrights in the characters they may well become public domain if they are not now.

I think you are misunderstanding the difference between copyright and trademark. One doesn't have to do anything to keep a copyrighted work out of the public domain. Thanks to our wonderful bought and paid for congressmen and senators, copyright is pretty much perpetual now. (life of author plus 70 years).

Trademarks, however, do have to be protected, or they can be lost. There is a technical term for when a trademark has lapsed due to less than vigorous protection, but I can't think of what it is now.

I think Watterson has decided that it isn't worth the time and effort to go after all those misusing Calvin on those stickers. I can understand his POV. Courts are a moral as well as financial drag.

I respect his desire to not over-commercialize Calvin and Hobbes, but I really wish he'd do a few full page strips for these collections like he did for the "Lazy Sunday" book.

[Ruth A.]

I'm certain all of his books have copyrights.

[AmishDude]

Garfield’s lasagna jokes are (ostensibly) funnier because you know Garfield likes lasagna. Calvin’s tormenting of Susie is funnier if you’ve read a dozen strips on the same subject. The same holds true for Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.

The classic is when a mugger holds up Jack Benny with, "Your money or your life!" After a pause, the mugger says, "Well?" Benny: "I'm thinking it over."

[cayuga]

I think what we have here is the creator of the strip, or close friend and family of the creator.

That's what I saw in Turbopilot's posts.

What I didn't see was the usual disclaimer that he has no connection to the strip or its creator, and he was only a fan of the strip.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Bill Watterson, as others on this thread have noted, chose to quit at the top of his game. As did Gary Larson (The Far Side).

In stark contrast to these short-lived jewels, we have The Family Circus, now in its fifth decade and its second generation of artists, which has never, ever, not once, been even close to funny. It ain't right, I tell ya.

[Mr.Atos]

Best strip of all time, imho. Great tribute. As the father of a very real "Calvin, " I have an eternal degree of respect for the man that both entertained... and ultimately taught me much about myself and my sons.

[Reverend Bob]

Good post on copyrights vs trademarks. Non-enforcement does not void copyrights (except perhaps in exceptional circumstances, none of which I can think of at the moment), nor do they need to be registered with the copyright office unless you're planning to sue someone for infringement. Even then it's seldom worth the bother, for all one is likely to recoup is lost profits.

Titles, however, are not copyrightable. That's where trademarks come in.

[MattinNJ]

No mater how many times I see the horrified looks on the snowmen I can't help but LOL. Agreed, his best ever. Although the time Hobbes recommend that an out of control skateboarding Calvin stop himself by diving onto a gavel driveway is a close second.

[Appalled but Not Surprised]

Foxtrot. Yes. Not C&H, but it has its moments.

Jason:"We must save Middle Earth"

Friend: "Destroy it! Destroy it!"

Jason: ((munch munch munch))

Friend: "Do you think anyone else ever plays 'Lord of the Onion Ring'?"

Jason: "Judging by the looks we're getting...."

or

(Jason and friend are playing Dungeons and Dragons.)

Jason: "I fire my +3 magic arrow."

Friend: "No effect."

Jason: "I pull my +5 broadsword and start to hack at the beast."

Friend: "No effect."

Jason: "I pull my +18 Vorpal blade with two sided cutting edge and follow it with my +24 wand of napalm, followed by my +72 ARC LIGHT strike."

Sister: "WILL YOU GEEKS SHUT UP?!!?!"

Friend: "Woo hoo! That worked!"

[Lijahsbubbe]

I claim first dibs on this great screen name.

LOL How 'bout these:

Uninformed browser
misplaced browser
apathetic browser
big baby browser
fighting Irish browser.....

[JLS]

You are right, I should have said trademarked. His character apparently was not trademarked or maybe it was. But clearly it is the character that is being infringed on on the back of all the pickup trucks. They are not taking his words, rather the image he created. So it is a trademark rather than a copyright issue?

But symantics aside, I am not sure that changes anything about any of my posts.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

LOL! I loved your responses to Turbopilot. If there's people I hate, it's the holier-than-thou folks.

[Choose Ye This Day]

And the smarter-than-thou.

[ByDesign]

C&H rank up there with Bloom County, for sheer brilliance, but what a difference between the two.

Bloom County skewered the times, and was social commentary - I laughed my butt off at the rotation of the earth's axis at Reagan's election comments, or the campaigns to elect a dead cat as President.

C&H is timeless. There's very little to indicate what year it is, there's no politics, social issues, or agenda, beyond a little boy's life of home, school, and the yard. The snowmen are infamous, and the transmogrifyer series are my favorite, followed by Spaceman Spiff.

The last few times I've read a paper, the strips are stale, boring, or just outright bad. The franchise strips are abysmal. Even peanuts is bad - read the books of the first decade, when Schultz actually wrote and drew them - then they were characters you cared about, and they were funny. The classic era is for me the era of Snoopy's magical doghouse, which served as WWI airplane, and seemed to hold a vast riches of room, with mentions of pool tables, mutiple rooms, and such - Schultz never took us there, but mere mentioning it all was enough. Snoopy was more than just a dog by then...but teh orginal Snoopy, before Woodstock...was just as funny, if not more.

Dilbert comes close...but he's gettings stale too. I worked as a temp at the company where he started that strip, and it was eerie, that place WAS Dilbert.

Life In Hell, by Matt Greonig, was the best in the 80's, it was the Simpsons before there was the Simpsons. All you Achewood fans need to read the original, Achewood is a pale, watered down rip off of Life In Hell.

There's one strip I feel good about these days - the artist is growing in leaps and bounds, if you start at the beginning you can see his style develop, much like I did with Bloom County and Dilbert, and his writig improve. It's funny, topical, has cute girl geeks, and it has Bun Bun.

All fear Bun Bun.

http://www.sluggy.com/

It takes a while to understand what's going on, but it's worth reading from the beginning. He has great characters, great style, and I think this one could end up being great. The strip drips with the enthusiasm and delight that C&H and Bloom County had.

[Colinsky]

Today's comics seem so terribly limited and constrained compared to the comic strips of previous eras. Sure, Pogo and Li'l Abner were stupendous, but they shared the pages with wildly inventive second-line strips. Brick Bradford took his time-top to the farthest reaches of time and space, Mandrake the Magician could accomplish anything by gesturing hypnotically, little boy Barnaby was protected by his fairy godfather Mr. O'Malley, sheriff Rick O'Shay kept peace in the Old West. Terry and the Pirates. Comic strips had a grander scope in the old days.

[IYellAtMyTV]

Saw this pic and instantly thought of Calvin...

Happy Halloween!

[HiTech RedNeck]

I think Watterson has decided that it isn't worth the time and effort to go after all those misusing Calvin on those stickers. I can understand his POV. Courts are a moral as well as financial drag.

The amount he could sue for (statutory damages of AT LEAST $800 PER VIOLATION plus economic loss) would certainly punch out someone chosen as an example. The only possible defense would be the existence of a pre-Watterson Calvin in the public domain.

[MediaMole]

Calvin and Hobbes are copyrighted. The syndicate sends cease and desist letters to anyone they catch making those pissing Calvins.

It is nearly impossible to stop everyone with access to the equipment needed to silk screen a sticker or make a vinyl cutout sticker.