Exploring Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Though it’s been nearly 20 years since “Calvin and Hobbes” last graced us with a new tale, the last strip promised readers that his characters would continue to find new adventures.Comprised of exclusive chats between cartoonist Bill Watterson and The OSU Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum curator, Jenny Robb, Exploring Calvin and Hobbes is the longest interview with the widely beloved Watterson ever to be published. “A comic strip, like anything else, has a natural life span,” he said in a rare interview featured in the book “Exploring Calvin and Hobbes.” It’s not understanding what makes the strip work.”ĭespite the comic’s popularity, Watterson ended the strip himself after a little more than 10 years. “But it seems that with a lot of the marketing stuff, the incentive is just to cash in. “I’m very happy that people enjoy the strip and have become devoted to it,” Watterson told The Los Angeles Times in 1987. Watterson also famously resisted merchandising the brand and its characters - a deal which estimates say could’ve netted him and the Universal Press Syndicate as much as $400 million. After returning from the first of his two sabbaticals, he negotiated an unprecedented half-page layout for his Sunday “Calvin and Hobbes” strips, a move - he wrote in the collection “Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995” - that rekindled his enthusiasm and “gave newspapers a better product and made the comics section more fun for readers.” Watterson, like Calvin, also fought against rules numerous times.

By the time its final strip was published on December 31, 1995, Watterson’s work had been published in as many as 2,400 newspapers worldwide. A year into its syndication, “Calvin and Hobbes” was being featured in 250 newspapers. The trap was not a fluke: readers were ensnared into the daily adventures of the duo for just more than a decade. The syndicated comic strip first introduced readers to mischievous six-year-old Calvin, excitedly explaining to his dad about his tiger trap, and Calvin’s tiger companion Hobbes, happily munching away on the trap’s tuna fish sandwich bait. 18, 1985, Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” made its debut in newspapers across the country. Who can blame Hobbes for falling into Calvin’s tiger trap 30 years ago - we all were captured too. 30 years ago today (November 18, 1985) we first met a boy and his pet tiger.

Exploring Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson