New Bill Watterson interview

[Spaceman Spiff]

Right. He still had plenty to say, and he said it well, but there is a detectable tonal shift. He probably could have kept putting out strips for a couple of years, and the quality still would have been there, but I'm not sure it'd be as fondly remembered.

 

[Gaith]

If it's a C&H thread, I've got to plug the great Slate photo essay it inspired, which includes some thoughts on the last year not feeling as fresh...

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

Thanks for the link to the essay Gaith. I enjoyed reading that.

Edit: I'll add that I'm also glad the essay provides me with the opportunity to link to this strip and I hope to find multiple occasions to do so. It is not one the better Calvin & Hobbes strips by a long shot, but I enjoy how delightfully silly it is. Whenever something in a movie or TV show or my imagination is simultaneously awesome and dumb, I think of Tyrannosaurs in F-14s!

 

[John Picard]

I was deeply saddened when it was announced that Calvin and Hobbes would be ending. I should get some of the books, both for nostalgia, and for my 15-year old. He would appreciate it.

 

[Christopher]

If it's a C&H thread, I've got to plug the great Slate photo essay it inspired, which includes some thoughts on the last year not feeling as fresh...

Great photo essay. But though they talked about the Peanuts influence on C&H, they neglected to mention one other influence. In the first color strip in the photo essay, the water-balloon strip, the wicked grin on Calvin's face at the end of the top row is pure Chuck Jones.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

In the Tenth Anniversary book, Watterson says he was also heavily influenced by Pogo and Krazy Kat.

 

[D Man]

I wish he could have had the free-form Sunday format from the beginning, because those later Sunday strips are really quite amazing. And every so often I chuckle at the memory of my personal favorite strip...Calvin calls home from a payphone after climbing out his window: "Hello Dad, it is now three in the morning. Do you know where I am?"

 

[M'Sharak]

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.

And good to see. I think he made the right choice then and he clearly still thinks the same now. I liked this little bit:

I just tried to write honestly, and I tried to make this little world fun to look at, so people would take the time to read it.

That honesty, I think, plus a good eye for detail coupled with a drawing style that was both surprisingly simple yet at the same time quite dynamic, is what ultimately made Calvin & Hobbes as effective as it was.

Edit:

If it's a C&H thread, I've got to plug the great Slate photo essay it inspired, which includes some thoughts on the last year not feeling as fresh...

This also was well worth a look. At around page 8, you begin to get a sense that Watterson was becoming perhaps more conscious of the machinery than he wanted to be -- the sense of fun was in the process of being edged out by something which felt a little too much like a grind to be good for the process.

 

[melancholymecha]

was he into paleontology? His dinosaurs were beautifully drawn and accurate...

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'm sure he was. He could do some nice intricate cartooning. His color, multi-page stories were great. I really wish he would do comics or graphic novels or something....

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Thanks for the link to the essay Gaith. I enjoyed reading that.

Edit: I'll add that I'm also glad the essay provides me with the opportunity to link to this strip and I hope to find multiple occasions to do so. It is not one the better Calvin & Hobbes strips by a long shot, but I enjoy how delightfully silly it is. Whenever something in a movie or TV show or my imagination is simultaneously awesome and dumb, I think of Tyrannosaurs in F-14s!

Thank you for this link. A wonderful slide-show essay. I love Watterson's view about the possiblity that Hobbes is actually real. Who would create an imaginary friend who doesn't always agree with you?

If it's a C&H thread, I've got to plug the great Slate photo essay it inspired, which includes some thoughts on the last year not feeling as fresh...

Great photo essay. But though they talked about the Peanuts influence on C&H, they neglected to mention one other influence. In the first color strip in the photo essay, the water-balloon strip, the wicked grin on Calvin's face at the end of the top row is pure Chuck Jones.

In the Tenth Anniversary book, Watterson says he was also heavily influenced by Pogo and Krazy Kat.

Damn, you beat me to it, Argus. As a huge fan of Pogo, I often see how Watterson was influenced by that strip.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I love Watterson's view about the possiblity that Hobbes is actually real. Who would create an imaginary friend who doesn't always agree with you?

Have you ever read Oddkins by Dean R. Koontz? I have always been of the opinion that Hobbes was an Oddkin.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I love Watterson's view about the possiblity that Hobbes is actually real. Who would create an imaginary friend who doesn't always agree with you?

Have you ever read Oddkins by Dean R. Koontz? I have always been of the opinion that Hobbes was an Oddkin.

No, I haven't. Is it related to his Odd Thomas books? I've read the first one of the series and loved it.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^As far as I know, Oddkins is a standalone.

http://www.amazon.com/Oddkins-Fable-Dean-R-Koontz/dp/044651490X

It looks like a fable for children, but there are a few parts that are a little intense for younger readers.

Basically, it's about a toymaker who makes magic toys for troubled or mis-treated children. After the toymaker dies, the toys are left to fend for themselves against the evil toys until they can find the new magic toymaker.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'd rather have pedantic and tired Calvin and Hobbes than the unfunny and stupid Lio anyday of the week.

 

[Gaith]

^^ IMO, Lio is the best strip in the papers today. Sure, it's a bit repetitive; that's the downside of not using words, but in not using words it also manages to be original and distinctive. It may not be a great strip like C&H, but it's a good one, and in my paper at least, that makes it extraordinary.

 

[Trekker4747]

^^ IMO, Lio is the best strip in the papers today. Sure, it's a bit repetitive; that's the downside of not using words, but in not using words it also manages to be original and distinctive. It may not be a great strip like C&H, but it's a good one, and in my paper at least, that makes it extraordinary.

Lio is crap, not nearly as crap as Pearls Before Swine or, shudder, Prickly City or even Cul de Sac.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

It's funny, then, that Watterson wrote the introduction to Cul de Sac's first collection, singing its praises.

To each their own, but I think Lio, Pearls Before Swine and Cul de Sac are among the best strips being published today. Someone must agree, since all three are Reuben award winners.

Edit: Lio won this last year's award, and Pearls has won a couple of times. Cul de Sac hasn't won one yet, but it's so well-regarded in the cartoonist community that it's bound to sooner or later.

 

[Trekker4747]

None of them have ever made me laugh or chuckle. Maybe an airy sniff.

I prefer Dilbert, Zits, Get Fuzzy, Candorville and... I think that's all of the daily comics I read.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The only current strips that I enjoy anymore are Frazz, Non Sequitur, Pearls Before Swine, and Doonesbury. I liked Lio at first but then I got bored with it after awhile. I much prefer Mark Tatulli's other strip, Heart of the City. Unfortunately, I've only ever seen it online.