New Bill Watterson interview

[the 4th hanson bro]

A new interview with the creator of Calvin and Hobbes has been published. It's believed to be his first since 1989.

It's fairly short piece.

He says he chose to end the strip because after 10 years he'd said everything he had 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, 10 or 20 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.

 

[Roger Wilco]

He's absolutely right imo.

 

[TheBrew]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Corran Horn]

Thanks for sharing. That picture sure shows who the model was for Calvin's father.

 

[1001001]

My 7 year old had been devouring these books over the past several months. They're like crack to him.

Great strip. Probably the greatest.

JMHO

 

[T'Baio]

God bless him.

 

[Mysterion]

I miss Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, and The Far Side. At least we're still getting fresh Doonesbury.

 

[Brikar99]

'Calvin and Hobbes' is by far my favorite comic strip ever.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Calvin & Hobbes will forever be my favorite comic strip. While I dearly miss new strips, I full support Watterson in his decision to end the series. It's better than watering it down and have it slowly becoming crap (like Peanuts).

 

[milo bloom]

I saw this somewhere else and read it, great interview, all that.


But I kept thinking he had done another interview in the past couple of years, just a small one for a magazine or something, and it's bothering me that they're calling it the first interview in "ten years". Am I crazy? Does nobody else remember something from Watterson in the past few years?

 

[Turtletrekker]

^I remember something recently where Watterson commented that he had sorely underestimated the appeal of Calvin pissing on Toyota logos.

 

[RJDiogenes]

While I don't agree with all of the decisions Watterson has made, he is certainly a man of great integrity. I never saw any sign that Calvin & Hobbes was becoming stale, but he would know best.

I really wish he would publish more work, though.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

But I kept thinking he had done another interview in the past couple of years, just a small one for a magazine or something, and it's bothering me that they're calling it the first interview in "ten years". Am I crazy? Does nobody else remember something from Watterson in the past few years?

I found this article in which he answered questions from readers in 2005, and it is an interesting read (it seems to be the source of what Turtletrekker is remembering). I would be interested if anyone has links to other interviews.

 

[Gepard]

I never saw any sign that Calvin & Hobbes was becoming stale...

Exactly. Isn't that the point?

 

[Gaith]

Aye, it's nice to hear from him, but that's nothing he didn't say before. Wish he'd been asked if he ever intends to release anything - a picture book, painting anthology, whatever - to the general public again.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I never saw any sign that Calvin & Hobbes was becoming stale...

Exactly. Isn't that the point?

Well, that's his point. My point is that I don't think he was done yet. But, of course, that's up to him.

 

[Gepard]

It's Catch-22, though. The only real way for the audience to be sure he was out of ideas is if we see the strip start to repeat itself – and by design, Watterson wanted to bow out before that happened. There's no way for us to evaluate his claim that he was on the cusp of that other than to take him at his word.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I don't think he was getting stale, but there was something about the last year or so where it seemed like he wasn't having as much fun with the strip as in previous years. That's just the impression I have from re-reading the collections, anyway.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Well, if he wasn't having fun, then I suppose the end of inspiration was in sight.

It's Catch-22, though. The only real way for the audience to be sure he was out of ideas is if we see the strip start to repeat itself – and by design, Watterson wanted to bow out before that happened. There's no way for us to evaluate his claim that he was on the cusp of that other than to take him at his word.

That's absolutely true.

 

[Timby]

I don't think he was getting stale, but there was something about the last year or so where it seemed like he wasn't having as much fun with the strip as in previous years. That's just the impression I have from re-reading the collections, anyway.

I've been re-reading them myself, and I have to agree. Collections like There's Treasure Everywhere and It's a Magical World just don't have the same feel as Yukon Ho!, The Revenge of the Baby-Sat or Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons. There was a certain ... I don't know, whimsy that was missing from the tail-end of the strip's run.