Posted on 10/23/2005 6:26:43 PM PDT by flixxx
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (AP) - Maybe someday, officials will put up a statue marking this quaint village of 4,000 people 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 of 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.
Watterson has acknowledged satirizing his father, who is now a 73-year-old 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.
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.
His former editor, Lee Salem, also remains mum.
"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 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.
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 says 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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
For the last couple of months, they've been rerunning it in the "Connecticut Post". I've missed it badly!
(nutmeg: ping; if You're a Fan too)
I guess 'search' is still ill...
You may get a kick out of reading the posts on the other thread ... they are a microcosm of who finds what funny ... I mostly posted my comment so others could find them. And, too, I had never posted a link ... and wanted to try it out.
Cheers!
What an inventive guy. I never tired of his cartoons and the world is a little sadder without Calvin and his trusty sidekick.
As I post, my living, breathing Hobbes is sound asleep at the foot of the bed ... {Smile}
My nine year old son has started reading the Calvin and Hobbes books we have, and he's grousing that it came to an end and there will be no more.
I have many, many Calvin and Hobbes cartoon books, along with many, many Far Side cartoons, which I re-read often. Loved them both. I was very sad when they both stopped.
I hope he and Gary Larson are both very happy with their lives now, and I wish them both well.
I have to say that I share your sentiment. He gave millions of people a laugh, his comic took on a life of it's own. I admire him for his accomplishments, and wish him well.
This is indeed NOT the Golden Age of comics; not like the 80's when we had such stellar work as Gary Larsen (Far Side), Berkley Breathed (Bloom County, Farside and now Opus) and Bill Watterson bringing laughter and tears to the live's of millions. I think something inside went to sleep as each of these people retired; and I know it's not dead. When I saw Mr. Breathed artwork in 'Second Hand Lions'; I KNEW his work from the instant it flashed on the screen.
I hope they find as much laughter in their private lives, as they have given me and my family.
Could you pick up copy for me, too?
Thanks.
I find that personally interesting. MY favorite childhood comic was Peanuts also.
Calvin and Hobbes is considered to be in a class by itself in our house. { probably because my son played this role so well, as did his father }
Gwad, How I miss C & H!!
A great interview question would be, "If you were Calvin, who would be your Hobbs?"
Didnt' the guy from The Far Side also quit abruptly?
Charles Schultz died on the same day as my Dad. I can't read Peanuts anymore without crying. Isn't that bizarre?
Yes, and it broke my heart!
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