Bill Watterson
Calvin and Hobbes, along with Jim Davis’ Garfield are hands-down the most perennially popular books in my library. The famously private and staunchly independent Bill Watterson ceased the creation of the comic strip in 1995 after a 10-year syndication.
“If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now ‘grieving’ for ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I’d be agreeing with them.” ~ Biography.com
In a rare interview with Mental Floss for their upcoming December 2013 issue, Watterson discusses some of the issues involved with protecting his work from exploitation.
“Years ago, you hadn’t quite dismissed the notion of animating the strip. Are you a fan of Pixar? Does their competency ever make the idea of animating your creations more palatable?
The visual sophistication of Pixar blows me away, but I have zero interest in animating Calvin and Hobbes. If you’ve ever compared a film to a novel it’s based on, you know the novel gets bludgeoned. It’s inevitable, because different media have different strengths and needs, and when you make a movie, the movie’s needs get served. As a comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes works exactly the way I intended it to. There’s no upside for me in adapting it.” ~ Read the rest at Mental Floss
Calvin and Hobbes at Go Comics
More Bill Watterson in this blog here and here
