New Bill Watterson interview
- Thread starter the 4th hanson bro
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Lio is my favorite of all the contemporary strips, hands down. Pearls Before Swine is definitely up there, too. I could never get into Get Fuzzy, though-- something about it puts me off-- and I've never heard of Cul De Sac.
Lio reminds me very much of myself when I was a kid (which includes now, of course
). This is the quintessential example of a Lio strip; it's exactly the sort of fantasy I would have at that age:
While the other kids were all playing war and fighting monsters, I would be making friends with everything.
Lio reminds me very much of myself when I was a kid (which includes now, of course
). This is the quintessential example of a Lio strip; it's exactly the sort of fantasy I would have at that age:
While the other kids were all playing war and fighting monsters, I would be making friends with everything.
Okay, that's a bit surreal. I'll go back and read more....
I'll go back and read more....
I love Lio. While I had never heard of Cul de Sac before this thread, I like what I saw in Spaceman Spiff's link.
I also think Dilbert is hilarious.
I also think Dilbert is hilarious.
He also said a lot of the same things in his introduction to The Complete Calvin & Hobbes. But it's a fun read anyway - thanks for posting it, Hanson. Gosh, but I do love that strip. I just reread Complete a couple months ago.
None of them have ever made me laugh or chuckle. Maybe an airy sniff.
I prefer Dilbert...
Dilbert?
Seriously...Dilbert?
Dilbert!?!
Dude, Dilbert is the most boring, unfunny, most repetitive tripe there is out there.
Pearls Before Swine for me.
And Foxtrot, of course. But only on Sundays. 
I agree. I don't really care for Dilbert these days; even the good strips are basically rehashes of old strips.
It's a shame, because I like Scott Adams a lot. He's used his clout to get newcomer strips into papers (including, ironically in light of Trekker's post, Pearls Before Swine, which is Adams's favorite strip right now).
I have to admit I don't get why Trekker doesn't like Pearls Before Swine, because it seems right up his alley.
I mean this in all seriousness and not in a snarky way, but Rat is practically a cartoony little Trekker. When Stephan Pastis wants to rant about minor day-to-day annoyances, he uses Rat to do it.
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I'm not a huge fan of Pearls Before Swine -- I don't care for the crocodile characters and the cartoonist really overuses the self-referential gags -- but I do like the feghoot-style lengths he'll go to in order to set up an elaborate pun.
I'd never heard of Lio prior to this thread, but I've been reading it and it's pretty good. It's kind of repetitive after a while, but it has made me laugh a number of times, which is more than most comic strips these days can say. And I do appreciate the distinctiveness of it. It's kind of like if Charles Addams and Gahan Wilson collaborated on Calvin and Hobbes.
I took a look at Cul de Sac, and it did nothing for me.
I think my favorite current comic strip is Frazz. It's one of the few currently active strips I read other than Doonesbury. I'm also a lifelong devotee of Frank and Ernest, a strip which is almost entirely based on puns. It's not as hilarious as it used to be, and the Sunday strips rarely work well because it's a strip that works best as a single gag at a time, but it still has the occasional effective groaner.
I'd never heard of Lio prior to this thread, but I've been reading it and it's pretty good. It's kind of repetitive after a while, but it has made me laugh a number of times, which is more than most comic strips these days can say. And I do appreciate the distinctiveness of it. It's kind of like if Charles Addams and Gahan Wilson collaborated on Calvin and Hobbes.
I took a look at Cul de Sac, and it did nothing for me.
I think my favorite current comic strip is Frazz. It's one of the few currently active strips I read other than Doonesbury. I'm also a lifelong devotee of Frank and Ernest, a strip which is almost entirely based on puns. It's not as hilarious as it used to be, and the Sunday strips rarely work well because it's a strip that works best as a single gag at a time, but it still has the occasional effective groaner.
Calvin and Hobbes is by far my favorite comic strip.
I purchased the hardcover edition that includes all his strips so I can reread them for years to come.
I purchased the hardcover edition that includes all his strips so I can reread them for years to come.
I get a kick out of Scott Adams. He's kind of the anti Bill Watterson. Bill Watterson refused to do absolutely any merchandising beyond the books, but Scott Adams would sell anatomically correct Ratbert blow-up dolls if he thought he could make a buck.
I don't blame him for a second. More power to him. 
It's also a slightly different world for cartoonists now than it was for Watterson. Mark Tatulli, for example, has the two strips mentioned here, Lio and Heart of the City, and as I understand it, he was only able to quit his "day" job about a year or so ago.
It's just the state of publishing right now, unfortunately. Even book deals aren't as guaranteed as they used to be. Lio gets collected editions regularly, but there hasn't been a collection of Heart of the City since the first one years ago.
So I can't blame him for being in negotiations to put together an animated Lio movie, as much as I would have hated a Calvin and Hobbes one.
It's just the state of publishing right now, unfortunately. Even book deals aren't as guaranteed as they used to be. Lio gets collected editions regularly, but there hasn't been a collection of Heart of the City since the first one years ago.
So I can't blame him for being in negotiations to put together an animated Lio movie, as much as I would have hated a Calvin and Hobbes one.
^I don't think it was any guaranteed gold-mine during Watterson's day. I'm sure he would agree that his success was a combination of talent and a lot of luck. Most comic artists (of his era) would have been more than happy with the kind of syndication and books deals Watterson eventually received.
His decision (not to "sell out") is a bit of luxury regardless of the era.
His decision (not to "sell out") is a bit of luxury regardless of the era.
I thought I read that the Lio movie was being developed as live-action. Which makes no sense to me, but then, Hollywood gave Foundation to Roland Emmerich and The Last Airbender to M. Night Shyamalan, so I kind of expect them to do things that make no sense.
As for C&H, I have to admit, I sometimes think it might've been cool to see them done in animation. I think my preferred voices would be Tara Strong as Calvin and John Goodman as Hobbes.
I recently read the first year of Lio. There's not a lot of talking, so the movie is a bit of a creative leap regardless of the live-action/animated decision.
Oh, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I meant that as hard as it was in Watterson's day, it's much harder now. I can't really blame creators for wanting to merchandise these days. I would probably do it, with the right creative control.
Watterson stated that he didn't want an actor voicing Hobbes, which I get.
I also get the understandable worry that the strip will take a backseat to animated projects. Peanuts had its heyday before any of the animated specials existed, but I think it got overshadowed to a degree once they were produced. That is, when you ask a lot of people on the street about it, their memories tend to be centered around those more than the strip. It's still Charles Schulz's creation, but the strip was where he put his focus.
It reminds me of a time I was talking to a friend about a Peanuts strip. I mentioned some joke that Snoopy made, and she asked how the heck Snoopy could make a joke. I told her it was in his thought bubbles, like always, and she said, "No, Snoopy just makes that 'aaaaagh' sound." I told her the strip wasn't like that at all, and told her how verbose Snoopy's thoughts have been for decades, and she shrugged and said, "That's stupid."
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