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Tips On Creativity From The
Creator Of Calvin & Hobbes
The famously media-averse cartoonist bill watterson on his work habits,
the power of comic strips, and how to create art.
Dan Nosowitz
Bill Watterson, the creator of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes,
is famously media-averse. He’s given two interviews, total
since he retired his strip in 1995. Reporters have staked out
his home in Ohio to no avail. The man just prefers not to
be a public figure. But in the documentary Stripped (which
you can buy or rent on iTunes), Watterson not only gives an
interview, he drew the art for the poster--the first Watterson
cartoon to be published in nearly 20 years.
Stripped features interviews with just about every major
cartoonist still alive, including Cathy Guisewite (Cathy), Bill
Amend (Foxtrot), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Jim
Davis (Garfield), Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey), and a host of
web comic artists, including Kate Beaton (Hark, A Vagrant!),
Matt Inman (The Oatmeal), and many more. But th e coup
is assuredly Watterson (even though only his voice is in the
movie.)
Watterson is the creator of one of the most beloved pieces
of comic art, and most of his fans have probably never
heard him speak before. He turns out to be much like you’d
expect: thoughtful, articulate, with an artist’s mentality, but
extremely firm in his beliefs. Watterson is known for refusing
to compromise his vision of his work. He demanded a change
to the Sunday page, for example, to make room for larger
art. He refused to license his work, which is why you’ve never
seen a Calvin & Hobbes movie or even an official Calvin &
Hobbes T-shirt. He retired at the height of his popularity, after
only 10 years--a short time for comic strip artists (Garfield,
for example, has been eating lasagna and hating Mondays
for 36 years). His retirement letter to newspaper editors was
brief and said, in part, “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.”