New Bill Watterson interview

[RJDiogenes]

It's like anything else. People watch TV. They don't read.

Sometimes it works in reverse, though. I remember back in the 60s they did a Road Runner comic book. For some inexplicable reason, instead of being silent Road Runner spoke in rhyme.

I think he had kids or nephews or something, too.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

It's a Catch-22, I think. On one hand, the animated specials and movies have left a pretty big imprint on pop culture, but they've also undoubtedly driven more people to the strip than would normally have read it.

When I was learning to read, I wore out a copy of the Peanuts Treasury, but I'm sure I saw the animated specials first, like most kids.

Calvin and Hobbes is unique in that its popularity is so huge despite never being animated. I'm sure a movie would only make its stamp in the public consciousness even larger, but fortunately, it seems like that doesn't matter very much to Watterson.

Of course I'd be curious to see one, but it'd make me a bit sad, too, for some reason. An actor might do a fine job voicing Hobbes, but it'd still be odd. And I wouldn't want that voice to become associated with the character's voice in my head, if that makes sense. Like the way Lorenzo Music's voice became so associated with Garfield. Fortunately, that doesn't matter to me so much, since Garfield has never really had anything to say.

I'm reminded of the Opus special, A Wish for Wings That Work. After years of reading Bloom County, Opus's voice sounded weird and kind of wrong, even though Michael Bell's performance was fine and even matched the character. But it still seemed weird.

I liked the special, but it still feels to me like an alternate universe's Opus.

 

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

God bless him.

Amen.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I liked the special, but it still feels to me like an alternate universe's Opus.

I can dig it. This is why I'm always lukewarm at best to adaptations of a concept into another media-- whether it's comics to movies or TV shows to books or whatever-- it seldom captures the "feel" of the original.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I agree, though there are obviously plenty of exceptions to the rule, like Jaws. Though, heck, I'm sure there are huge fans of the novel who might disagree.

I think it's mostly because, in the case of most well-regarded works, at least, the creator is using the strengths (or limitations) of his or her medium to get their idea across. When the same idea is dropped into a different medium, it doesn't always fit.

Heck, even the Charlie Brown specials were usually just a series of strips mashed together, giving them a gag every few minutes. It might be arguable that it would have been better to adapt the strip into a tighter storyline for most of them, but then you run the risk of it going too far from the source.

Which would be another problem with adapting Calvin and Hobbes, really. If they made a movie, they'd have to come up with a plot, which makes it go counter to the strip right from the start. There were storylines in the strip that would go on for a couple of weeks, but nothing really resembling a plot structure. So to make it more like the strip, you'd have to go the Charlie Brown route and string together various sequences of Calvin and Hobbes philosophizing in the woods, playing Calvinball, etc. And that doesn't sound like a very interesting movie.

 

[Christopher]

So to make it more like the strip, you'd have to go the Charlie Brown route and string together various sequences of Calvin and Hobbes philosophizing in the woods, playing Calvinball, etc. And that doesn't sound like a very interesting movie.

Might make for some cool live-action role-playing, though...

 

[barnaclelapse]

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

God, I do miss Far Side.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

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

God, I do miss Far Side.

Me too. It's made worse by a lot of one-panel strips that try to duplicate it. None of them really come close.

 

[Gaith]

Of course I'd be curious to see one, but it'd make me a bit sad, too, for some reason. An actor might do a fine job voicing Hobbes, but it'd still be odd. And I wouldn't want that voice to become associated with the character's voice in my head, if that makes sense.

Indeed. If I were directing a C&H movie, I wouldn't use voice actors; I'd go with subtitles, and give the whole thing a jazz-heavy score.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I think it's mostly because, in the case of most well-regarded works, at least, the creator is using the strengths (or limitations) of his or her medium to get their idea across. When the same idea is dropped into a different medium, it doesn't always fit.

Yeah, and also most strong concepts have very distinctive creators-- whether it's a writer like Bradbury, an artist like Eisner or an actor like Harrison Ford-- and it's very hard to translate the nuances into another medium. That's why the Hellboy movie was meh, but the Amazing Screw-On Head cartoon was pretty cool-- the former, as live action, was unable to capture the feel of Mignola's art, but the former, as a cartoon derived from that art, was able to somewhat capture his style.

Heck, even the Charlie Brown specials were usually just a series of strips mashed together, giving them a gag every few minutes. It might be arguable that it would have been better to adapt the strip into a tighter storyline for most of them, but then you run the risk of it going too far from the source.

This reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon we had back in the early 70s; it was called something like Archie's Sunday Funnies and it featured a bunch of the popular comics of the day, like BC and Broom Hilda. They were only about a minute long and were basically animated strips, and they worked pretty well.

God, I do miss Far Side.

Me, too. There's another guy like Watterson who seems to be doing nothing. He did that one book about a worm and that was it.

Me too. It's made worse by a lot of one-panel strips that try to duplicate it. None of them really come close.

Bizarro is great, but has a completely different ambiance than Far Side.