

Our interview with Bill Watterson - rhubarbcustard
http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson

======
brickcap
Big fan of Bill. As a kid I used to read comic strips of calvin and hobbes in
our daily newspaper. That comic section was the only reason I bought the
newspaper. When they stopped publishing the stips I stopped buying the paper
:)

Most of us who read calvin and hobbes know that how philosophical it can be.
Nuggets of wisdom can be found beneath the funny quips.

> Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That’s the difference between me
> and the rest of the world. Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand
> euphoria!

------
jmatt
The actual interview:

[http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-
exclusive-...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-
our-interview-bill-watterson#ixzz2hzMknayX)

It was submitted earlier today but never got to the front page.

~~~
georgemcbay
This is the same link as the one attached to the thread, though this may be
due to after-the-fact HN moderation?

In any case, this is just an excerpt of the full interview which will be
printed in the December issue of the magazine.

~~~
jmatt
Yeah a mod changed it, thankfully.

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jasonkester
Shame. From what I understand, this guy is incredibly hard to get an interview
with. So they manage to score one, and perform the mother of all rookie
interviews.

Rather than ask followup questions on any of the interesting things the
subject has to say, the interviewer seems to almost want to cut him short to
ask the next unrelated question from his list. Terrible.

Watterson: _..It was a grim, sad time. Desperation makes a person do crazy
things..._

<pregnant pause>

Interviewer: _Great. So what kind of car do you drive?_

I really wish we could get a do over on this one.

~~~
sanoli
Maybe it was conducted by email? Could be, so no follow ups were available.

~~~
jccalhoun
from the article:

"Since we’re guessing there are a few Calvin and Hobbes enthusiasts in the
audience, we thought we’d provide a glimpse of the e-mail exchange."

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pstuart
> I figure that, long after the strip is forgotten, those decals are my ticket
> to immortality.

The biggest payout of all.

~~~
chiph
Again, another missed opportunity by the interviewer: Does Bill favor Chevy or
Ford?

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chimeracoder
This one paragraph summarizes everything that I love and respect about Bill
Watterson:

> had signed most of my rights away in order to get syndicated, so I had no
> control over what happened to my own work, and I had no legal position to
> argue anything. I could not take the strip with me if I quit, or even
> prevent the syndicate from replacing me, so I was truly scared I was going
> to lose everything I cared about either way. I made a lot of impassioned
> arguments for why a work of art should reflect the ideas and beliefs of its
> creator, but the simple fact was that my contract made that issue
> irrelevant. It was a grim, sad time. Desperation makes a person do crazy
> things.

I also highly recommend reading his 1990 commencement speech at Kenyon College
(his alma mater):
[http://www.angelfire.com/wa/HOBBES/info/speech1.html](http://www.angelfire.com/wa/HOBBES/info/speech1.html)

I first read that years ago, and one line has always stuck with me: "Selling
out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you're really buying
into someone else's system of values, rules and rewards."

------
toki5
I wish you had linked the actual interview [0] because it took me way, way too
long to find it in the linked article, which only offers two select quotes
from said interview, and spends way too long praising the guy that got it for
how rare a privilege it is.

[0] -
[http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watte...](http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html)

Edit: I'm slightly mistaken -- one of the quotes is actually from his previous
interview, here:

[http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-
exclusive-...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-
our-interview-bill-watterson)

~~~
Fuzzwah
Actually, I think this is the new interview:

[http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-
exclusive-...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-
our-interview-bill-watterson)

~~~
toki5
You're right, I had them backwards. Thanks :)

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cowsandmilk
For those in Boston interested in seeing the full story, I note that
mental_floss is one of the digital magazines Boston Public Library now
provides patrons through Zinio[1]. Unfortunately, I still see the November
issue, but hopefully the December issue will show up soon.

[1]
[http://www.bpl.org/collections/zinio.htm](http://www.bpl.org/collections/zinio.htm)

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caublestone
Is that cover a new Bill Watterson original?

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staleRandroid
Seriously. Of all the uncompromising, highly-principled characters amidst the
vast depth and breadth of all English literature... why would anyone ever
compare the guy to some fictional Randroid character like "Howard Roark"?

What an awful, awful choice. What kind of stupid shit _IS_ that?

~~~
philwelch
The only thing worse than making flame bait comments like this is making
throwaway user accounts to do it. Please don't do this on HN.

And I say this as someone who has criticized Ayn Rand numerous times on Hacker
News. Just in ways that were more constructive and germane to the point.

