Bill Watterson

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William B. "Bill" Watterson II
Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes at his studio
Born	July 5, 1958 (age 48) Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Cartoonist
Spouse	Melissa Watterson

William B. "Bill" Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and a few poems (which are mostly embedded in his works).

Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., where his father, James G. Watterson (1932 – ), worked as a patent examiner while going to law school, before becoming a patent attorney in 1960. The family moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio when Bill was six years old; his mother Kathryn became a city council member. He has a younger brother, Tom, who is a high school teacher in Austin, Texas.

[edit] Early career

In 1980, Watterson graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier with a degree in political science. Immediately the Cincinnati Post offered him a job drawing political cartoons for a six-month trial period:

The agreement was that they could fire me or I could quit with no questions asked if things didn't work out during the first few months. Sure enough, things didn't work out, and they fired me, no questions asked.

My guess is that the editor wanted his own Jeff MacNelly (a Pulitzer winner at 24), and I didn't live up to his expectations. My Cincinnati days were pretty kafkaesque. I had lived there all of two weeks, and the editor insisted that most of my work be about local, as opposed to national, issues. Cincinnati has a weird, three-party, city manager-government, and by the time I figured it out, I was standing in the unemployment lines. I didn't hit the ground running. Cincinnati at that time was also beginning to realize it had major cartooning talent in Jim Borgman, at the city's other paper, and I didn't benefit from the comparison.

—Watterson explaining his short career with Cincinnati Post ^[1]

Bill Watterson designed grocery advertisements for four years prior to working on the strip which made him famous, Calvin and Hobbes.^[2]

[edit] Rise to success

Calvin and Hobbes was first published on November 18, 1985. Bill Watterson wrote in his Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book that his influences include Charles Schulz, for his work in Peanuts; Walt Kelly for his comic, Pogo; and George Herriman for Krazy Kat. Watterson's style also reflects the influence of Little Nemo in Slumberland, a popular early 20th century comic strip by Winsor McCay.^[3][4]

Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics. He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined, and that the space they occupied in newspapers continually decreased, subject to arbitrary whims of short-sighted publishers. Furthermore, he opined that art should not be judged by the medium for which it is created (i.e., that there is no "high" art or "low" art, just art).^[5]

Watterson opposed the structure publishers imposed on newspaper cartoons: the standard cartoon starts with a large, wide rectangle featuring the cartoon's logo, and the strip is presented in a series of rectangles of different widths, limiting the cartoonist's options of allowable presentation. Watterson managed to gain an exception to these constraints for Calvin and Hobbes, allowing him to draw his Sunday cartoons the way he wanted. In many of his strips, the panels overlap or contain their own panels; in some the action takes place diagonally across the strip.

Watterson also battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something that he felt would cheapen his comic.^[6] He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that pasting Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially-sold coffee mugs, stickers and t-shirts would devalue the characters and their personalities. He also refused to allow the strip to appear as an animated series.

Watterson was awarded the National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1988, and awarded the society's Reuben Award in 1986^[7] (he was the youngest person ever to receive the award). In 1988, Watterson received the Reuben award again, and he was nominated again in 1992. Following his 1992 nomination, the National Cartoonists Society declared that no artist could win the award more than once.

Watterson wrote a brief, tongue-in-cheek autobiography in the late 1980s.^[8]

[edit] Retirement

Dear Reader:

I will be stopping Calvin and Hobbes at the end of the year. This was not a recent or an easy decision, and I leave with some sadness. My interests have shifted however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises. I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue.

That so many newspapers would carry Calvin and Hobbes is an honor I'll long be proud of, and I've greatly appreciated your support and indulgence over the last decade. Drawing this comic strip has been a privilege and a pleasure, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Sincerely,
Bill Watterson

—Watterson's letter to newspaper editors announcing his retirement, November 9, 1995

The last strip of Calvin and Hobbes was published on December 31, 1995. Since retiring, Bill Watterson has taken up painting, often drawing landscapes of the woods with his father. He has also published several anthologies of Calvin and Hobbes strips.

Living in relative seclusion in Chagrin Falls^[9] with his wife Melissa, Watterson refuses to sign autographs or give interviews, emerging only occasionally into the public eye.^[6][10] On December 21, 1999, a short piece called "Drawn Into a Dark But Gentle World," written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip Peanuts, was published in the Los Angeles Times^[11], and most recently in October of 2005, Watterson answered fifteen questions submitted by readers.^[12] The Wattersons have been seen sometimes roller skating at the rink in Chagrin Falls.

[edit] Trivia

• Names Charles Schulz as his inspiration to draw cartoons.
• Was vocally critical of Jim Davis and his decision to license his strip Garfield to so many different things, saying that it "cheapened" the originality of the strip.
• First cartoonist to use the word "booger" in a comic strip.
• His interests currently include 15th century Dutch art.^[12]
• Watterson's cat Sprite very much inspired the personality and physical features of Hobbes.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Calvin and Hobbes
• Chagrin Falls, Ohio

[edit] External links

• Bill Watterson page at Calvin and Hobbes Online Museum (information including speeches and interviews)
• Rare Bill Watterson Art at Calvin and Hobbes: Magic On Paper
• "After an Early Bedtime, Calvin and Hobbes Are Up and Running in a New Collection" - Washington Post book review including broad look at Watterson's career
• Interview with Bill Watterson's mother (interview begins around 7:10)
• Of Counsel - James G. Watterson - biography of Bill's father at Watts Hoff
• Picture of Bill's father (the inspiration of Calvin's father) at Chagrin Falls Council