
Bill Watterson talks - danso
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/03/09/bill-watterson-talks-this-is-why-you-must-read-the-new-exploring-calvin-and-hobbes-book/
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archagon
This is tangential, but for those of you looking to fill the Calvin and Hobbes
hole in your life, I highly recommend the illustrated weblog of French
cartoonist Boulet. It's really amazing. (And it's pretty clear that C&H was a
huge inspiration for him.)

[http://english.bouletcorp.com/2012/12/05/the-warrior-
never-r...](http://english.bouletcorp.com/2012/12/05/the-warrior-never-rests/)

[http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/10/08/our-toyota-was-
fant...](http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/10/08/our-toyota-was-fantastic/)

[http://english.bouletcorp.com/2012/02/01/darkness/](http://english.bouletcorp.com/2012/02/01/darkness/)

[http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/02/04/paola-4/](http://english.bouletcorp.com/2013/02/04/paola-4/)

~~~
egypturnash
And to add to this tangent: my friend Dana Simpson does a strip for Universal
called "Phoebe and her Unicorn", about a girl whose best friend is... well,
the title kind of gives it away. When the strip launched, they sent her the
gigantic collection of All The C&H; she's never quite decided if it was in
celebration, or a threat that she had to live up to that standard.

[http://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-
unicorn](http://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn)

~~~
Arubis
Is that the same Dana Simpson that was once the author of Ozy & Millie? That
was my longtime C&H holdover.

~~~
egypturnash
Yep! If you're around Seattle, she'll be sharing a booth with me at ECCC later
this month.

------
sharkweek
I admire very few people as much as I do Bill Watterson.

He had a major part in my childhood as I tore through each and every one of
his books, read the 10th anniversary and all its commentary _at least_ a dozen
times and still find myself opening my entire collection on occasion when I
stumble across them in my "box of stuff I hope to one day pass my kid." I
remember checking "Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat" from our school library in 5th
grade only to have my dog chew the cover. I was secretly so happy because it
meant I got to keep the book (while my parents were stuck paying for it).

The guy has stuck so clearly to his principles when he was surely presented
multiple opportunities to make far more money licensing his product. I cringe
every time I see a poor unlicensed Calvin relieving himself on various truck
logos, I can't imagine Watterson is a fan of that.

I have zero qualms with artists making money off something they create (duh),
but it is refreshing when a Watterson comes along and makes a clear choice to
keep his creation untouched by anyone other than himself.

All that to say, can't wait to read this.

~~~
senthil_rajasek
>I have zero qualms with artists making money off something they create (duh),

It's also perfectly alright for artists to give away their creations for free.

~~~
sharkweek
I'll never judge an artist's 1) desire to make money 2) desire to give their
work away for free. That's such a personal decision, and entirely up to each
individual. We all value different things, there isn't a "right" thing to do
here.

------
samspot
TLDR: Bill Watterson did an interview and you can buy it. It was great. It was
great. It was great.

What an empty article. I kept reading hoping to get some information. I guess
they were worried the would get in trouble for quoting any of the interview?

~~~
jeorgun
No kidding; so far as I can tell, the first ~15 paragraphs are all essentially
paraphrases of each other. I like C&H as much as the next guy, but is this
much... breathlessness really called for?

~~~
diydsp
FWIW, it's the age we're in. The previous generation's culture is just grist
for today's commerical engines. Consider the implications when a publication
informs us:

"For any true fan of cartooning, it is a must-read, a must-buy, a must-pick-
up."

This is the manufacture of a social standard for fandom, placing the power of
identity outside of the individual and replacing it with consumer choices.
It's that old mentality Adbusters fought so hard against: "Buy this product to
get this identity."

Back to my Atari 2600 now, stay off my lawn.

~~~
positr0n
Ironically, there are a few Calvin and Hobbes comics about this:
[http://i.imgur.com/nv6mLAE.gif](http://i.imgur.com/nv6mLAE.gif)

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6stringmerc
I have severely mixed emotions about Bill Watterson, mostly in a philosophical
frame.

On the positive side, I am a great fan of his Calvin and Hobbes work over many
years, and would quickly state that it had a significant influence on my
developing worldview. As I grew both as a person and artist, I took great
interest in his pushback against commercialism, and later, his efforts with
the Sunday comics. There was a fighting spirit, a man of principle, who
leveraged his success in ways that may seem trivial or needlessly difficult to
regular business people, but are fundamental in the creative sphere where
exploiting an artist's work for maximum profit is typically the norm. For
these aspects of his career, I'm eternally grateful.

Here's the part where people look at me like I'm just being a jerk: After
reading as much of his interviews, panel contributions and commencement
speeches as possible, I discovered a profoundly selfish and hypocritical man.
Time and again, he spoke highly of the importance of art, of doing art as much
as possible, and how important his particular art, that of comics, was to the
overall conversation about life. What bothers me the most is that once he
obtained financial stability and security that, roughly speaking, only 1% of
artists in any genre can hope to obtain, he straight up quit. He had, for lack
of a better term, the world as his audience to continue putting out material
on his own terms, and he did nothing. Nothing.

To me, I find that immensely conflicting. I love Calvin and Hobbes and always
will. I embrace many of the lessons that Bill Watterson's career gave me about
success, commercialism, and integrity. All that noted, I will never hesitate
to claim that a real artist doesn't just up and quit and walk away because
they can afford to. A real artist can never afford to quit because it's what
they do, and art without an audience is simply selfish folly.

Will I try to get my hands on this interview? Of course. Will it be painful to
read, simply because of my personal perspective? Absolutely...

~~~
than
Honest question: Why do you feel entitled to more of his work?

I believe it's more useful to be thankful for something that _was_ given than
to be angry that you didn't get _more_.

Watterson:

> This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of ten
> years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say. It's always
> better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's
> popularity and repeated myself for another five, ten, or twenty years, the
> people now "grieving" for Calvin and Hobbes would be wishing me dead and
> cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of
> acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them. I think
> some of the reason Calvin and Hobbes still finds an audience today is
> because I chose not to run the wheels off it. I've never regretted stopping
> when I did.

Source:
[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)

~~~
6stringmerc
Why do you insist this is about me? I'm simply discussing what he said about
his own philosophy and then comparing that with his actions. They don't
reconcile.

Considering how many great artists "die before their time" and combining that
with his own words, I see that as difficult to reconcile. It's one thing to
admit to doing something for a paycheck, and there's pride to be had in honest
work. To me it's dishonest to claim art is the primary driver and then, well,
give up on doing art. What part of that do you disagree with?

Edit:

I never said I expected more Calvin and Hobbes, and if you think you're
putting something forward with that quote I don't already know, you're wrong.

He had a platform to produce all kinds of other creative, influential, or
interesting art, and he chose not to do anything. Well, maybe he did and it's
all up in his attic. What good does an attic full of art do for the world?

~~~
wodenokoto
Maybe he ran out of things to say. Some artist die before their time, others
sadly won't shut up and end up ruining their own art.

Anyway, as far as I am to understand he couldn't see himself escaping the
shadow of C&H, so he secluded himself and put his art in the attic, feeling
that its release wouldn't better the world as long as people would just
respond to it as "this isn't C&H"

~~~
harvestmoon
Case in point The Simpsons. What season are we on, the 25th?

------
jordigh
I expect many of the comments will be adulation for Bill Watterson. I know he
always gets unending praise, and while he did do many great things, I found
his latter C&H strips to be him putting his rants in the mouth of a 6-year-old
boy, where they no longer belonged.

Really, look at some of the later strips. Calvin is frequently frowning or
complaining about something. The earlier strips were more care-free and he
acts more like a 6-year-old albeit with a ridiculously rich vocabulary.

Good for him to quit when he was obviously no longer enjoying the process. Got
to give him that.

~~~
guessbest
I always thought the rants were quite insightful. He did start out as a
political cartoonist.

~~~
jordigh
Well, they weren't what I signed up for when I was a kid. I wanted to see a
kid having fun being a kid, travelling through space and riding dinosaurs. Not
a surly grownup talking through a kid.

~~~
guessbest
In a way Calvin was growing up and becoming a more introspective and thereby
pessimistic person growing into young adulthood, leaving his carefree days
behind. At least that is what I took from it. Then the last panel, if I
remember correctly, was an ode to the carefree days of childhood.

------
endlessvoid94
Does anyone have a link to the actual interview? I can't find it in that
article or any of the linked articles.

~~~
than
It's in the form of a book, which is a companion to an exhibition of his work
at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449460364/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449460364/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1449460364&linkCode=as2&tag=thanland0e-20&linkId=IHUYQYPG2MBLCIUQ)

