All language subtitles for Dear.Mr..Watterson.2013.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].eng

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-A comic strip, to me,
is a story

and a real brief story.

It's like having the opportunity

to get a peek
into people, characters' lives.

And they can make you laugh.
They can make you cry.

They just have an impact on you.

For the time that you read it,
it's a world unto itself.

-My mom was always trying
to get me to read,

and I wasn't really into books
with "words," so to speak.

-My dad brought home a couple
of "Calvin and Hobbes" books.

-And he showed me some comic
strips of "Calvin and Hobbes,"

and I was like, "whoa!"

-And I can remember
opening it up,

I turned the page, and Hobbes
wanted me to have this.

And from that point on,
it was me, Calvin, and Hobbes.

-I met Calvin and Hobbes
in the paper, I think,
the way most people did.

-Looking through the comics,

and "Calvin and Hobbes"
was always one that stood out.

-My grandmother is a huge fan
of "Calvin and Hobbes."

-My first and only crime --
I shoplifted this book.

[ Chuckles ]

-And I found this book
of "complete Calvin and Hobbes."

It was in English,
but I said, "I don't care.

I'm gonna learn this language
just to understand this book."

-I was babysitting,

and a couple of the kids
that I babysat,

they had some books.

-All the books got passed to me

and ended up in my room
for awhile.

You know, we'd be trading them
back and forth.

-I hadn't seen the strip before,

but I saw the book
in a bookstore.

-And it was on sale. It was like
$3 or something like that.

So I was like, "all right.
I'll look at it."

Pulled it open, and the first
thing I saw was the snowmen.

-And I burst out laughing

and proceeded to get in trouble
in English class.

-I remember just reading that
thing over and over and over.

-Even now, I reread them,
and I continue to reread them.

I discover so many layers now,
and it's never boring or old.

It's just like a living thing,

and I just discover it
and appreciate it more.

-Calvin is like the kid
you want to be, you know?

Even if
you're a 300-pound black kid,

I mean,
you still want to be Calvin.

-Ididwant to be Calvin.

I felt like iwascalvin.

We were both six years old
in 1985.

We liked tigers, space,
playing in the snow,

had fathers
who loved building character,

and I took pride in the fact

that my first hairstyle
was quite Calvin-esque.

But the truth is
that I don't really remember

when I first met
Calvin and Hobbes.

I'd like to think I was a reader
from day one,

but I know that isn't possible.

My hometown newspaper didn't
even start carrying the strip

until spring of 1988.

The earliest memory
that I can stamp with a date

would be third grade
in Mrs. Smith's classroom,

when I saw
a "Calvin and Hobbes" collection

in the scholastic book catalog.

But if I examine my books,

I find that the only one
with a scholastic logo

is "scientific progress
goes 'boink, '"

with a copyright of 1991.

If I didn't discover
"Calvin and Hobbes"

until that late in life,
I'm secretly embarrassed.

And I would also
blame my parents.

-That little boy
seemed kind of naughty,

and I didn't know

if I wanted my son interested
in a naughty comic character.

-Apparently,
no thanks to my mom,

Calvin and Hobbes
were just always there,

and I don't really remember life
without them.

I may have fallen in love with
"Calvin and Hobbes" as a kid,

but it's one of
those rare things

that still holds great
significance to me as an adult.

I really can't think of
anything else from my childhood

that has retained so much value.

I don't claim to be an expert
on comics --

I'm not even close.

I never read comic books,

I haven't read the newspaper
comics regularly for years,

and I'Ve only recently started
to reacquaint myself

with what the comics
have to offer now.

But for years, I read and reread
my "Calvin and Hobbes" books,

which always
put a smile on my face.

And the strip
still holds meaning

for so many other readers
around the world.

I know
because I'Ve heard from them,

and they'Ve sent me
their stories.

Many people have tried
to track down bill watterson

over the years.

But I'm not so interested
in the man himself

but why his simple comic strip
about a boy and his tiger

could somehow have such meaning

and have had such a personal
impact on so many people.

Just as people
often find it a challenge

to describe the strip itself,

I think
anybody would have a hard time

distilling the ingredients
that made it what it is.

But we can be sure
of one thing --

on November 18, 1985,

bill watterson's creation
debuted

in just a few dozen newspapers,

and it left an enormous imprint
on countless readers

from across the globe.

-Well, the very first
"Calvin and Hobbes" strip --

Calvin off
to check his tiger trap

that he rigged up
with a tuna fish sandwich,

and sure enough,
in the last frame,

we see that Hobbes
has fallen for the bait,

and he has his very own
tiger friend for life.

And that is our intro
to "Calvin and Hobbes."

-I'Ve never met anyone

who doesn't like
"Calvin and Hobbes."

So, I can't say that
about any other strip.

And there are other strips
that are very, very popular,

very successful.

Most people love them,

but, invariably,
I'll run into someone that says,

"I just don't get that strip,"

or, "I really don't like
that strip."

With "Calvin and Hobbes,"
it's different.

It just seems to appeal to
all different audiences --

young and old and men and women

and people in the country,
people in the city.

I mean, really,
just all demographics.

It seems to speak to people.

-Everyone, you know, is united
by their love for this strip,

but everyone has a specific
thing that they love about it

or specific things
that they love about it.

And it's not
always the same thing.

-Well, I grew up
in a Mexican neighborhood.

I went to a white school,
and I was like 300 pounds,

so I didn't really fit in,
but neither did Calvin,

and, like,
it wasn't really a problem.

He was just, "I'm weird,
and that's the way I am,

and that's the way
I'm gonna be."

And I think
that's one of the things

that really kind of attracted me
to the character.

-What really resonated to me

was the whole imagination aspect
of it

and how he just created it
in his head,

and he didn't even see
his teacher or his principal.

He just saw saw aliens,
and he was spaceman spiff.

-It's a very deep,
very philosophical experience

reading
a "Calvin and Hobbes" book,

even though, on the surface,
they're just cartoons.

-He's really created characters
that, I think,

have a lot of depth and
are interesting to read about.

- "Calvin and Hobbes"
is such a subversive comic.

But it has a purity to it
that most comics don't,

because it is so joyful

and very much in the imagination
of this kid,

and yet he is hyperaware
of world events

and pop culture and ironies
and social concepts,

and I just found that
really, really exciting.

-My mom died about 11 years ago
of a heart attack,

and my husband is a huge fan
of "Calvin and Hobbes,"

so he had a lot
of the paperback collections

laying around the house,

and I would just sit at night
and look through those.

And that's how I came to know
"Calvin and Hobbes"

is through those first three
or four months after she passed.

It's just finding a place
to laugh again.

-So I moved down here
in this brand-new state,

this brand-new house,
brand-new neighborhood,
and I knew nobody.

So I was looking for something

to gravitate towards
or associate with,

and "Calvin and Hobbes" became
something I could bond with

on a daily basis
when the newspaper would come.

-I didn't understand, sometimes,

the significance
of his statements,

but that really pushed me
into research

and go to the dictionary
or really looking for meaning.

-It's one of those things that,

when you find it,
you want to share it.

And as soon as
he could start reading,

I wanted to give him the books.

And just like I thought
it would --

I mean, there's times now

where he'll be reading it
in his bedroom,

and I'll just hear him laughing.

And just that simple act
of hearing him laugh

as I know what he's reading,
it's like, "there you go.

That's what I was hoping for."

-I don't know if you know
how Israel was in 2002, 2001.

It was pretty crazy.

You opened the newspaper,

and you saw another bombing
every day.

It was really intense.

So I looked forward
to the Sunday paper

because
they would run the strip,

and I'd cut them out and
would hang them up on my wall.

Even if there was
something horrible in the paper,

I would still get my smile
and, you know, that good feeling

from just reading that.

It just relieves the stress of
living in that kind of a world.

When we need something
to smile about,

you just pull out
one of the old comics,

and you just read it,
and it brings you back.

And that's the beauty of comics,
especially "Calvin."

[ Chuckles ]

-For those of you
who don't know him,

Calvin is a 6-year-old

who some might call
a bit of a troublemaker.

But he's also
extremely intelligent,

with an endless imagination
and an incredible lust for life.

Hobbes is his ballast,
his voice of reason,

his coconspirator,
and loyal companion.

There's mom and dad, susie,
rosalyn, moe, Mrs. Wormwood,

and a few other characters.

But nobody else sees
and understand Hobbes

the way Calvin does,

and it seems the reverse
is probably true, as well.

-If I actually met someone

who had never read
"Calvin and Hobbes,"

which does occasionally happen,

I would probably immediately
just go to my desk,

pull a book off, and say,
"here, take this.

[ Chuckling ]
This will change your life."

It's so hard to just sum it up,

other than to say,
"this is every one of US."

-Certainly, it's a family strip.
It's a kids' strip.

In some senses,
it's a gag-a-day kind of strip.

You know,
there's always a punch line,

some kind of gag at the end.

But in other ways, I think it
transcends all of those things,

because there is a little bit
of philosophy in it.

There's a little bit
of commentary about society.

Certainly,
there is a lot of humor.

You know,
it's a very funny strip.

So it really, I think,
defies categorization.

[ Chuckles ]

-There have been a lot of strips
out there

about younger people --

you know,
"Dennis the menace" --

a whole school of strips
that try to recall youth

and make it relevant to readers
across different ages.

But bill's take
was so fresh and so simple.

Here he just took this idea

and just blew it up into
this wonderful relationship.

It's the only strip
we'Ve ever launched

that we had editors who hadn't
seen it yet, calling US, saying,

"hey, we'Ve heard about
this thing called
'Calvin and Hobbes.'

we want to be sure
we get to see it."

-I was just blown away
immediately.

It was one of those things
that was so much fun to read.

It drew me in right then.

I remember
getting to the end of the set

and thinking,
"where is the rest of it?

I want more. I want more."

-Here was a strip

that was much better-drawn
than anything in the papers,

that had
a really fresh perspective,

and it just took off.

Within less than a year,
Calvin was taunting susie.

He was playing
at being spaceman spiff.

I think it was within the first
year that he started g.R.O.S.S.,

the get rid of slimy girls club
in his tree fort.

And when you look at
other strips,

it generally takes an artist
much longer

to reach that kind of maturity
and that kind of understanding

of who his characters are,
what their strengths are,

what their potential is
for humor and for interaction.

And watterson just, you know,
had the penning equivalent

of hitting the ground running.

-This was my bedroom
when I was a kid.

When I was like 10 years old,

my brother moved to another room
in the house,

and this became my room,

and my dad
put in this corkboard wall.

And I had it plastered
with things

that sort of represented
who I was.

And the main thing

was "Calvin and Hobbes"
Sunday strips.

I would get the Sunday paper --

dailies, too,
but mostly the Sunday --

and I'd go,
and I'd get it right away

and cut out "Calvin and Hobbes,"

and it would go
right on the wall.

And even at the end,

like the ceiling,
like all along here,

this was all comic strips
like the whole way

and even on the other side.

Oh, man.

Just plastered, plastered
with "Calvin and Hobbes."

-You know,
Calvin's world is just huge.

It doesn't stop.

There was spaceman spiff.

There was susie.
There were the snowmen.

-I loved the snowmen stuff.

I loved the dinosaur stuff,
totally.

-He turns into the t. Rex
at recess a lot.

And then he's going...[ Roars ]

-Well, there were the snowballs,
as well as the snowmen.

-Oh, and then there were

the mutant-killer-monster
snow dudes,

and that just cracks me up.

-Oh, and then they're in
the infamous red wagon.

-There he was getting jumped
by Hobbes.

- Monsters under the bed.
- Tracer bullet.

-And you see him in
black-and-white with the hat on,

and, "the dame walked in.
She was hysterical."

-He'd go on a space adventure.

-And the time-machine parts.

-Stupendous man.

- "Safari al." [ Chuckles ]

-Then you have
the transmogrifier,

when he duplicates himself.

- There was g.R.O.S.S.
- Get rid of slimy girls.

-Calvin going with his parents
on vacation and going camping.

-Those soap-opera-esque ones.

-He would draw like "Mary worth"
or "Rex Morgan, m.D."

Or some ultrarealistic comic.

-One of my favorites, actually,
with the teacher

is, he's in the classroom,
he's doing whatever,

the teacher calls on him,

and he's imagining, you know,

that he's being sentenced
to death,

and he runs out of the classroom
and hides in a cave.

And you see just his eyes
and, you know, a black screen,

and he says, "what's the smell?"
Or "what's that noise?"

And, all of a sudden,
you just see the lights go on,

and there are like
10 hideous monsters behind him,

and he runs out.

Then it cuts back to reality,

and he's snuck into
the teachers' lounge,

which he thought was a cave.

And there's just a little quote,
you know, a little bubble

that says, "who was that?"

That stuff cracks me up
because it's so dramatic.

Everything is so dramatic
in Calvin's mind.

And to everyone outside,

it's just like,
"what's that little kid doing?

That little kid's
kind of weird."

-So many of Calvin's adventures
take place in faraway worlds,

but his everyday reality
looked so familiar to me.

His backyard and the woods
he explored

probably looked just like home
to a lot of readers,

and they looked a lot like
the small town

that bill watterson grew up in,
near Cleveland, Ohio.

We're just outside
of chagrin falls,

and we're about to head to
the fireside book shop,

where we are going to
meet up with nevin martell,

who recently wrote a book
about bill watterson.

And if you look around,
this is the type of scenery

that you see
in "Calvin and Hobbes" --

the landscapes, the trees,
the colors, the hills.

I mean,
these are the landscapes

as you see Calvin and Hobbes
sledding

or, you know, wagoneering
in their backyard.

It's just, you look around,

and it's like this is the strip
in real life.

It's great.

-When I first drove
into chagrin falls,

it was like walking into
a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip,

because the road in which
I happened to come in on

happened to be
from the same perspective

of the image of Calvin rampaging

through the triangle
at the center of town

while holding the popcorn shop
above him

like he's a giant Godzilla.

So when I drove into town,
I knew exactly where I was,

because I had seen that before,

except I had seen it as one of
watterson's watercolors.

-The view is from
above the clock tower here

at the south end of town,
looking north.

Bandstand.

Fireside is roughly right here.

And popcorn shop,
which is just around the corner,

on the same side as fireside.

And, you know,
as is usual for bill,

he has almost completely done
the architectural details

exactly as they are.

I'm not sure
what's on fire back here.

But this is probably
the most popular book we sell,

simply because of
the local drawing on the back.

-You came to chagrin falls,
the hometown of bill watterson,

as a part of your journey.

What was that like?

-When I had pitched the book,

I had always pitched it
with the trip to chagrin falls.

And I always knew
that I wanted to come.

When I had pitched it,
it was just kind of like,

"and in a dream world,
we'll go to chagrin falls,

and we'll knock on doors,
and we'll talk to people,

and we'll see things
that have never been seen."

And so I didn't really know
what I was gonna get.

And it turned into
a minor bonanza.

I mean, it was a major bonanza,

in terms of, like, insight
and material.

Like, the book would have
been thinner without it.

[ Chuckles ]

-We started the library here
about three years ago.

And I walked into my office,

and turns out I'Ve got
an original "Calvin and Hobbes"

about Calvin
going to the library

and having an overdue book.

I was very excited to buy it.

And as you can tell,
by looking at it really close,

you can actually even see
wite-out on it.

-And this is the first original
I'Ve ever seen.

- It's like the movement.
- Mm-hmm.

-He decided that he didn't
want you to see that.

-Mm-hmm.

-The size is so much bigger

than how they're printed
in the newspapers.

You have no idea when you're
reading them in the paper.

And there are papers

that would have printed them
smaller than this.

-Than that. Yeah.

And there's some pretty cool
stuff on the back, too.

-"Bill watterson
grew up in chagrin falls.

"His otherwise
civic-minded parents

"encouraged
bill's slothful habits

"until the youth was fit
for no respectable work

"and had to go into cartooning.

"'Calvin and Hobbes' was
syndicated a year ago this month

"and now appears in newspapers
across the world,

"wherever better comic strips
are read.

Value -- $200."

And now it says $500.

-We have thechagrin herald.

They're bound newspapers
from the '70s and earlier.

In the '70s, you'll find some of
bill watterson's earlier work.

We'll go back here

and see what we can
pull off the shelf for you.

So down here
in the catacombs of the library.

-1976.

-Yes.

-Oh.

-Oh.

- It's a very early one.
- Yeah.

-Well, "Thursday, August 26th."

-The kids
were going back to school.

-So going back to school. Yep.

Coming straight from vacation,
squealing into school.

I got you.

Calvin would be headed
the other direction.

-[ Chuckles ]

-So this is January...

-'78.

- To December of '78.

- Oh.
- There we go.

-Oh, look at that.

-"Watterson on watterson --

theherald sun'saward-winning
cartoonist, bill watterson,

turns his satiric pen
on himself."

Much longer hair then.

-Mm-hmm.

-Ink all over.

And "peanuts."

And then his signature.

That almost looks gothic
in a way or something.

Do you have any 1982?

-Yeah.

-Oh. There we go.

-There you go.

-They pop out to you.

"He knew the risks when he put
the garbage out early, ma'am."

This actually reminds me
of the Sunday strip

when the deer pop in with rifles

and shoot bill or Phil
or some guy.

His signature here

is a lot more like his signature
with "Calvin and Hobbes."

-Mm-hmm.

-In the early '80s, watterson
did have a few opportunities.

To showcase his drawing skills
for various publications

while he endured repeated
rejection from the syndicates.

But while he worked hard to make
a living as a cartoonist,

his talents were often wasted
on laying out advertising

in order to pay the bills.

Within months, however,
of quitting that job,

watterson was becoming
one of the cartoonists

who other professional
and aspiring cartoonists

were looking up to.

-It's probably hard
to name an artist

who came along in the 1990s,
onward --

a comic-strip artist --

who wasn't influenced
in some way

by "Calvin and Hobbes."

-You can definitely see
his impact in comics today,

and it's not that anyone is
copying his comic specifically

or trying to do
exactly what he did.

But you can clearly see that
the creators who are younger

and who are
introducing new comic strips,

you can clearly see that
they'Ve read "Calvin and Hobbes"

and are influenced by that.

-I can tell you
when I saw Calvin --

I saw the very first day
in thel.A. Times.

I liked it, and you don't like
strips very often

from the, you know, first day.

-I remember looking at comics
in the newspaper

and thinking, "you know,

I could probably write and draw
as well as these guys.

I should give a comic strip
a shot."

After "Calvin and Hobbes"
came out,

I sort of modified it to,

"well, I could probably
write and draw

as well as most of these guys."

-I had sort of written off
the comic strips at that point.

And when "Calvin and Hobbes"
came fresh on the scene,

it was brand-new,
and it was funny.

It captivated me
right off the bat.

I knew that was a good strip.

I said
I knew it was a funny strip.

I couldn't wait to read
that strip every single day.

-There was a unique perspective,
a unique voice to it,

that it wasn't
generic formula-gag stuff,

which permeates
most of the comic page.

-And in every way, shape,
and form, on every level,

it was like
comic-strip perfection.

And it still is.

-One of my favorite lines
came from Lynn johnston,

who was doing
"for better or for worse."

And she said,

"you know, he inspires all of US
to do a little bit better."

And I think that,
on the one side,

was a beneficial impact
that he had,

not only among the artists
who were working at the time,

but on younger people
who were reading comics,

that there was this opportunity

to do different things
with the art

and try to push the boundaries
a little bit.

-My initial impression
when I saw him was,

"the guy is making it harder
for the rest of US,"

'cause he is setting

this ridiculous standard
of excellence

that hadn't been seen
since the "pogo" years,

in drawing.

-Most of the time, I was just
trying to meet my deadline.

For bill, it wasn't enough
to just meet the deadline.

You had to sort of, you know,
move the bar a little bit

over what you'd done previously.

-It was
a completely different approach

to the traditional
four-panel strip.

There was
just something about it

that was just
very, very magical --

the way he drew trees,
the way he drew water,

the way he drew movement.

-The brushwork
just continues to amaze me,

and his writing,
which is so concise

and yet so deep
and philosophical.

-You know,
his approach at philosophy

and sort of representing
the human condition

was something
that was always bigger

than just a little comic strip.

The conversations
had so many layers of meaning.

And if I could even come close
to that,

I would be absolutely thrilled.

-Bill watterson showed me

that a great, amazing comic

is great writing
that can stand on its own

and great drawing
that can stand on its own.

You know, you take out
either one of those

from
a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip,

and it's still great
to look at.

It's still funny to read.

Put them together,

and you have one of the greatest
comic strips of all time.

- "Calvin and Hobbes,"
as far as a comic strip goes,

was such a huge influence on me
wanting to become a cartoonist.

It was everything
a comic strip should be.

It's very dynamic. It's funny.
It's got a strong voice.

You know,
the artwork is fabulous.

There wasn't anything
not to like about it.

-If he's not
the most cited influence,

he's certainly second,
behind schulz and "peanuts."

But he's up there.

And I think we get so many
submissions that say, you know,

"I'Ve always been a big fan
of 'Calvin and Hobbes, '

so I wanted to try and do this."

-I think you can see

an influence
of "Calvin and Hobbes,"

to a degree, in "zits,"
a strip I like very much.

There is a kind of
Calvin-esque feel

to the way that Jim borgman
and Jerry Scott

will play Jeremy Duncan's
fantasies against the reality.

-As a professional cartoonist,
I read it now,

and you just see
a master at his craft,

you know, someone that
[Chuckles] puts you to shame

as far as what you're able to do
in comparison.

-I actually have a comic that I
had to do for a class in college

at the school of visual arts.

So we had to do a comic
about our biggest influence.

Of course, what else would I
pick but "Calvin and Hobbes"?

One of the things that I feel
that I gained the most,

as a cartoonist,
from reading this strip,

is learning how to do
such wild and crazy expressions.

And sometimes
it's not just the writing.

It's just
the simplest, crazy drawing

that will make you laugh or
smile and really influence you.

So I was very happy
to get my inner Calvin on

[chuckles]
While working on the strip.

-I got a lot of attention

for a resemblance
to "Calvin and Hobbes."

And some of it
was very, very flattering,

and some of it
was less flattering,

and some it was flat-out mean.

I tried
not to take it personally.

I mean,
the people who were outraged

that my strip might bear
any resemblance

to "Calvin and Hobbes,"

I think that was done mostly
out of a passionate love

for "Calvin and Hobbes."

And anything that you write
is gonna be autobiographical

at its heart.

Same with "frazz."
You know, frazz is me.

He's cooler than I am,
because I can make him that way,

but he's me.

And, likewise,
if I learned a whole bunch

from "Calvin and Hobbes,"
from bill watterson,

I'm not gonna cover that up.

Honestly,
I think it would be rude

to try and say, "oh, no,
I did this all on my own.

This is all me. I didn't
learn this from anybody."

No. We're all standing on
the shoulders of giants.

-Watterson certainly left US
a legacy of great ideas,

great drawing,
great, great comics,

but he was last in a long line

of really amazing cartoonists
from the 20th century,

since the real blooming
of the comic-strip art form.

And he very much valued the work
of Walt Kelly,

one of the cartoonists that I
loved to read when I was a kid.

If you look at "pogo,"

you can see that
he very strongly influenced

not only bill watterson

but also Jeff Smith,
who does "bone."

"Pogo" was this world similar
to what watterson created,

where there were these animals
and these characters,

and they spoke about things

much bigger than the swamp
that they lived in.

They were possums and alligators
and chicks and all these things,

but they were politicians
and philosophers,

and they commented heavily
on society.

So I can imagine

why watterson found "pogo"
fascinating to look at,

and it's beautifully drawn,
and Walt Kelly --

you know, just no end of genius
in how he created "pogo."

-Schulz is, of course,

such an important cartoonist
and such a great one

that, I think,
pretty much any comic strip

that began after the early '50s
was influenced by it.

The scale of the stories
he would tell,

the intimacy of the strip
and of the settings,

the observations
of children's lives,

all I think, again,

can be seen as influences
on "Calvin and Hobbes."

Just the notion of the world
from a child's point of view

was something that schulz took,

and while other artists
had done things with it before,

schulz did it so much better
and had so much influence

that, once again, you can see it

flowing into
"Calvin and Hobbes."

-Well,
I don't know bill watterson,

so I don't want to
speak to his motives,

but it appears to me,
in reading his essays

and seeing some of his
interviews about "krazy Kat,"

that "krazy Kat" set a bar
that he judged his own work by

and would not be satisfied
with his own work

if it wasn't as idiosyncratic,
as imaginative,

as personal as "krazy Kat" was.

Watterson said,
in his first hiatus,

he started paying more attention

to what herriman was doing
on those full pages,

when the newspaper page
was a blank canvas

and he could have form
be dictated by content

instead of the other way around,

instead of saying,
"you'Ve got eight panels here.

You know,
that's gonna be your narrative."

Instead,
he could blow it wide-open,

have the panels not be panels,

you know, have the adventure,
the narrative flow

follow whatever course,
artistically,

that he wanted to take.

All that stuff that herriman
gave himself license to do

is right there on the page.

So I think, for a cartoonist,
it represented freedom.

It represented personal,
artistic, visionary freedom.

I think he saw that and saw
this was what he could do, too.

-There is something else deep
in the basement of the library

in chagrin falls.

Watterson
lent his photography skills

to his high-school yearbook,

and his cartoons
are scattered throughout.

One of his drawings

is a depiction of
the four photographers on staff,

as the caption reads,

"watterson is the one
on the far right, blinking."

Perhaps this drawing foreshadows
watterson's future reputation

for being a man who shied away
from the spotlight

and very much desired
his privacy.

-I think, initially,
he was pleased

that so many papers
were signing on.

He started getting
a lot of fan mail.

He got a lot of press attention,

and he realized, I think,
pretty quickly on

that he had done something
special.

And I think
it didn't take him long

to become a little unnerved
and taken aback by it.

-Even with
a tiny amount of success,

it's a little daunting how much
feedback and comment and request

you get from the general public.

So I can only imagine
if I'm bill watterson

and I have millions and millions
and millions of adoring fans.

-Nobody knows bill watterson.

There's like three
people on the planet
who have ever seen him.

He won't talk to anybody.

He's the sasquatch
of cartoonists.

You know,
people have seen his footprint,

but nobody has ever
gotten a picture of him.

-He just wanted
to draw his comic strip.

He didn't really
want to be famous.

He didn't want all the trappings
that went with it.

He just wanted to do a good job
drawing a comic strip.

-Cartooning attracts
solitary people,

quiet people, insular people.

Because, if you were gonna
spend time at your drawing desk,

you weren't the kind of person
that dated well in high school.

You know what I mean?

You weren't the kind of person

that was the captain
of the football team.

For the most part,
it's people that use their art

to make their voice
to the world, you know?

So it doesn't surprise me
that he errs on the shier side,

the introverted side,
the reclusive side.

Because that's probably what his
life framed him as, you know?

He was probably always shy
and introverted and reclusive,

or else he wouldn't have
spent the decades

crafting his abilities
as an artist, you know?

He would have
been out socializing

and become
a regional sales manager

for midas car parts, you know?

I mean, it would have been
a different path in life.

-Luckily, watterson didn't
end up selling car parts

and he did create
"Calvin and Hobbes."

By the end
of its decade-long syndication,

it was in over 2,400 newspapers
worldwide,

with a daily readership
of millions.

Watterson won the Reuben award
for cartoonist of the year

in 1986 and 1988,

the Harvey award
for best syndicated comic strip

seven years in a row,

and "Calvin and Hobbes"

was loved by readers and critics
alike.

18 "Calvin and Hobbes"
book collections

have been published in the u.S.,

selling 45 million copies,

and dozens more have been
published internationally

in at least two dozen languages.

There are frequent homages
and spoofs on the comics pages,

and the strip
has been referenced

in numerous American TV shows,

including "family guy,"
"the big bang theory,"

"parks and reaction,"
"portlandia,"

and "robot chicken."

But bill watterson
doesn't seem to care too much

about the numbers or the awards
or the accolades.

His focus
was on the comic strip itself,

which, despite being something

that watterson has said
he did for himself,

had become very important
to readers worldwide.

-Bill watterson saved
almost all of the original art

from "Calvin and Hobbes,"

both the dailies and the sundays

and all of the book art
that he did,

and he put it on deposit here

at the Billy Ireland
cartoon library & museum.

So were are the caretakers,

and we make sure that
it's preserved and kept safe

and, also, that it's accessible
to researchers and scholars.

So if somebody wants to come and
actually see the original art,

they can come to our
reading room and request it,

and we'll bring it out,
and they can look at it.

So this is
what we call the stacks,

and this is obviously where
we keep all of our collection.

We operate
like a rare-books room,

so nothing circulates,

nothing actually leaves
the cartoon library.

If anybody
wants to use something,

they have to actually come here
and request it,

and then we bring it out,
and you can look at it.

So we have
over 400,000 original cartoons,

including, of course, the bill
watterson deposit collection.

We have many, many books
about cartoons, periodicals.

We have comic books.

We also have archival material,

so we collect the papers
and letters of cartoonists

and other people
related to the business.

This is gonna be all of
your books about cartoons,

anthologies, reprint books,
how-to books,

journals likepokkorjudgethat
have a lot of cartoons in them.

And then, over here,
we have our flat files,

which is
all of the original art.

So, this is
one of my favorite drawers.

This is our "little Nemo"
by winsor mccay.

And these are
just absolutely spectacular.

-That is massive.

-Yes.

Of course, the newspaper pages
were bigger themselves,

at the time,

but it would have been smaller
than he did it as the original.

"Little Nemo," of course,
is a wonderful comic strip

about a little boy
who goes to sleep every night,

and he goes to slumberland

and has
all these amazing adventures.

And then, always
on the last panel, he wakes up

and is back in his bed
and is back into reality,

and so you can see how this
influenced bill watterson

with "Calvin and Hobbes."

There are a lot of strips
that are like that,

where he's in
kind of a fantasy world,

and then, in the last panel,
he wakes up

or comes back to reality.

-If you had the chance
to view a selection

of "Calvin and Hobbes"
originals,

how would you pick
which strips to see?

Would you pick specific examples
of panel layout

or use of black-and-white
or line techniques?

Maybe a daily and a Sunday
from each year?

Or would you just narrow it down
to your absolute favorites?

No matter
what you finally decide,

once you put on the white gloves
and sit down with the strips,

I don't really think
you can go wrong.

It's admittedly
a strange experience.

You can examine
each line and letter

and mistake and alteration.

And you can
compare the originals

to the printed newspaper
or book version.

The dailies look much
as you might expect,

but the Sunday strips
are another story.

You can explore watterson's
lush watercolor art,

but the Sunday originals
are black-and-white.

They're incredible to see,
despite the missing color.

But the experience
got me thinking

about the art
of the comic strip.

Comics
are a bit of a unique medium

in that it can be difficult
to define

exactly what the final piece
of art actually is.

Watterson's originals
are probably worth

tens of thousands of dollars
apiece.

But it isn't until

the Sunday strips are printed
in the paper or in books

that they reach their final,
intended state.

If you think for just a moment
about how prevalent comics are

and how many millions of prints
of each daily strip

are distributed
across the planet,

it might be easy to understand

how comics might be often
categorized as low art,

but it's hard to deny
their high impact.

-I think he very quickly grew
from,

"let me get a package together
that a syndicate will pick up,"

to, "gosh, I got picked up,
and I'm gonna be syndicated,"

to, "now I have this opportunity

to kind of explore these
different artistic options."

But I think he quickly picked up
the opportunities

with color on sundays,

the ability
to push out the boundaries

on that piece of canvas
on the sundays.

And, also, on the dailies,

he tried so many different
things in the dailies

as just from the perspective
of an artist.

-Cartoon art and comic art
is something that, you know,

was originally seen as kind of
trashy, populist stuff,

almost very childish.

And then,
as the years have gone on,

you know, people have started
to see the worth in it.

And that's because comic strips
have tackled heavier subjects.

The artwork has been elevated to
a massive degree in some cases.

-I don't understand the
distinction that people make.

So you can have fine art.

You can have these amazing
images that people acknowledge,

you know,
can speak about any topic

and say great things

and reflect
what the artist is trying to do.

You can have literature
that does that, too.

You can have a great novel
that people respect

and they understand.

But, somehow, if you combine
the words and the images,

all of a sudden, all you get
is something for kids.

And why is that?

If you read through
all of "Calvin and Hobbes,"

you'll see that he really has
very interesting things to say

about society, about humanity,

about relationships,
about the world.

And there's no reason why he
can't do that in a comic strip.

That's a perfectly valid form.

And I'm thrilled
that he chose that form,

because I think he could have
done probably anything.

He could have been
just a fine artist.

He could have written books.

But he actually chose to do it
as a comic strip,

and I'm grateful to him
for that,

because he did it so well,

and he showed
how it could really be done.

My favorite strip, which
probably doesn't surprise you,

is the one where Calvin
and Hobbes are looking at art,

and they're talking about
comics versus art

and how you can have high art,
like a painting,

and then you have low art,
which is the comic strip,

and it's commercial
and it's hack work.

And then he kind of shows
how absurd that is

by saying, "a painting
of a comic strip panel --

that's sophisticated irony,
philosophically challenging.

That's high art."

And so then Hobbes says,

"well, suppose I draw a cartoon
of a painting of a comic strip."

And, you know, at that point,
it's just absurd,

but Calvin says,
"no, that's sophomoric.

It's intellectually sterile.
It's low art."

So he's commenting here
exactly on this debate --

you know, what's high art?
What's low art?

And why, just because it's
printed in a newspaper
and it's a comic strip,

is it automatically low art?

I don't think anybody would
look at "Calvin and Hobbes"

and say that it's not art
or say that it's low art.

But that seems to be
a distinction

that comic-strip art
has been stuck with.

-Comics are self-expression.

Self-expression is art.

I don't give a...

About what an art critic
might say art is

because I know
that I'm creating something.

Art is about
creating something -- the end.

-If you actually
still have a subscription,

you can probably tell
newspapers are hurting

simply by stepping out
on your porch to get yours.

Nearly 100% of the time,

it isn't the front page
that greets me

but a full-page ad
for a sports-equipment retailer.

Then, the state of the perceived
value of the comics is clear

when you try to find
the comics section.

When I was growing up,

depending on how your paperboy
put together your paper,

the Sunday comics section
was often the front page
of the Sunday newspaper

when it arrived at your door.

It was the first thing you saw.

Now it takes me a couple minutes
just to locate it.

In looking back
at comics sections of the past

in comparison,

it's clear just how much
the comics are being trimmed.

A typical "Calvin and Hobbes"
from the 1990s.

Wouldn't even fit
in todays Sunday funnies.

Watterson
had more space on the page

than "stone soup,"
"in the bleachers,"

"candorville," "frazz," and half
of "non sequitur" combined.

-The comics page was shrinking
in the 1980s.

It was getting smaller
and smaller and smaller,

and cartoonists were rebelling.

It was getting tougher
and tougher

to fit really quality content
into the strips.

-I typically avoided
looking at comic pages

because I so hated
how mine looked on a page.

Your strips look so beautiful
as they head out.

You know, you draw them
this big, and they're gorgeous.

And you see them, especially
25 years ago, 30 years ago,

reproduced this big
on bad newsprint,

often out of alignment,
and it was depressing.

It was like,
"why am I in this business?"

-The smaller and smaller
reproductions

meant there was less chance
for visuals,

less chance to draw well,

less chance for the audience
to appreciate

good drawing
and imaginative visuals.

If you are working
to create a graphic entity,

a pictorial representation
of something,

you don't want to see it
shrunk down to a postage stamp.

-Some of the first comic strips
in america in the early 1900s,

some of those
were like full-page comics.

And, like, those artists had
just huge palettes to work with,

and the art
was really, really important.

Whereas now, some people
are working with, like, this,

and it's black-and-white,

and everything
is about the simplicity of it.

-Clearly,
his focus was on the sundays.

So he approached the sundays

as an opportunity
to do some dynamite art,

which in the comics, has been
a dying thing for decades.

-You almost cry a little
when you look at the old comics,

when they had a full page
to do whatever they wanted.

You know, again,
the "Nemo" in slumberland,

I mean, good heavens,
it was just unreal.

-When you look at
the great strips of the past,

not only mccay and herriman
and milt caniff and Walt Kelly,

the general standard
of draftsmanship

used to be much higher.

You couldn't have
"Terry and the pirates"

the same way you did
in the '30s and '40s.

-The biggest and most popular
strips were the story strips.

They needed that space
to move the story along.

Well, as they shrunk the comics,
there wasn't that space anymore

for both the art
and the dialogue.

-Bill's particular problem was
that, with the Sunday format,

it could be chopped up
to fit different sizes --

either a half page or a third of
a page or a quarter of a page --

and he felt
trying to configure it

so that it fit
into all those sizes

was really
an obstruction for him.

So he came back with one-sized
proposal, and that was it.

-Once the sundays were totally
in watterson's control,

they didn't get moved around
or chopped up,

or they wouldn't
lose the top bar.

That really opened up
a whole new world,

in the sense that the artwork
could go to another level,

because he was working
with a really huge palette

where it was uninterrupted,
unbreakable half pages.

That was amazing to watch

because it really allowed him
to work in a way

that just freed up
his creativity.

-Every three years
at Ohio state university,

the cartoon library & museum

hosts
the festival of cartoon art,

which brings together scholars,
cartoonists, fans,

and industry professionals
from around the world

to celebrate comic creators
and their work.

In 1989, bill watterson

was a featured speaker
at the festival,

and he took the opportunity

to talk about the power
and possibilities of comics

and how the current climate
for cartoonists

was failing the art form.

-He gave a speech titled
"the cheapening of the comics,"

which was really his way
of drawing a line in the sand

and saying, "if we are
to take this art form seriously,

if we are to serve it best,

these are the things
that we should do."

And it was sort of a series of
seven or eight or nine points

that says,

"look, you cheapen the comics
when you commercialize it.

You cheapen the comics when you
take the artist of the equation.

You cheapen the comics
when you let it go on

a life beyond
what it was intended to do."

"You cheapen the comics
when you give the syndicate,"

which is the publisher and the
distributor, "too much power."

"And if we are
to truly serve this art form,

the artist has to come first,
their voice has to come first,

and the art before commerce
has to come first."

He was essentially
throwing down the gauntlet

and said, "look,
we'Ve lost something

"from the early part
of the 20th century,

"where, you know, the art
was beautifully displayed,

"the artists were given
this truly unique voice,

"and we need to go back
to a different time,

to a different way
of cartooning."

-I think he took a very lofty,
at times even philosophical look

at the art form.

There's nothing wrong with that,

because he held himself
to those own standards,

and I have a lot of respect
for him for doing that.

-I think
it was kind of a brave speech

because mort Walker
took it very personally --

of "beetle Bailey" fame --

and a few other bigger names in
cartooning took it personally,

because they viewed it
as a shot across the bow

of the way
they handled their business,

the way they handled
their cartooning.

-Within the crowd,
my recollection was

that there was a strong split
among those who were,

"yeah, go get them.
Go tell them the way it is"

and the other side,
which was, you know,

"who is this kid
to tell me how to do my art

and do what I want
with my life and my business?"

-Watterson was coming out of
more of the artistic tradition

and just, "look,
we can raise this art up."

And others were coming from,
"look, it has always been

this intersection
of art and commerce,

so you cannot deny that."

You know, I'Ve talked to
Jeff Smith of "bone" about it,

and he said he literally walked
out of that hall and said,

"I realize that 'bone' cannot be
what I want it to be

in a comic-strip form.

I have to forge my own path.

I have to take 'bone'
elsewhere."

-My relationship with bill
was one of letters.

And it's not unique
to cartoonists

that we draw
in our letters to each other.

But it's unique that he would

spend as much time as he did
on his drawings,

which is just like him.

He didn't do anything
like I did,

which was
by the seat of the pants

and extremely quickly.

The source of much of the energy

with the letters
and the drawings,

to me, was at my expense.

He and I
were the yin and the Yang

of the comic strips in the '80s,

because I was making these,
and he was not.

And as he would draw me,

I was taking the money
and buying gasoline with it

and pumping it
into my speedboat,

which he used to
put on the bottom

almost of each of the letters
he wrote me.

And the person handing me the
money was the syndicate boss,

who he had no appreciation for.

So that's how he saw me, and
it's how he saw the syndicate,

and that's how he saw the
exploitation of one's characters

in a comic strip,

all nicely personified
in one drawing.

-We realized
that "Calvin and Hobbes"

was gonna be huge in licensing.

'Cause we could just tell
by the signs,

the response from the public.

But bill made it clear that
he was just not gonna do it.

-Watterson, obviously,
had very strong feelings

about merchandising
and the commerce side of comics.

I mean,
he participated in a way,

just being in a newspaper,
as part of that.

But he clearly had
very specific ideas

about how merchandising
can change the characters

or change the art

or change the creator
and what their vision is.

-The idea of, you know,

a stuffed Hobbes
sitting on a shelf somewhere

would basically
answer that question

that's always
hanging over the strip --

you know, is Hobbes real?
Is he a stuffed toy?

Well, there's a stuffed toy,
you know?

-We have seen
many comic-strip characters

go from being, you know,
figures you see in the paper

that may give you a laugh,

to being kind of
a national blight

in the case
of something like Garfield,

that at one point was on, I
think, 5,000 different products.

And the character
becomes ubiquitous

and begins to feel like a pest
or something you can't escape,

rather than something you
look forward to encountering.

In a society
that is as media-obsessed

and money-obsessed
as ours is and was then,

his decision seemed strange,
if not almost UN-American.

He walked away from literally
tens of millions of dollars

in merchandising,

because everything
that snoopy was on,

I'm sure he was offered
for Hobbes.

- "Sparky" did feel protective

about being criticized
for licensing,

because he said,

"people don't realize, you know,
how it all started

and that everything
was somebody coming to me,

wanting to use the characters.

I drew it for them."

And it had an aspect
of kind of fun,

an entrepreneurialism about it

that was not to do
with business.

It was to do with
extending your art,

extending your sentiments.

-When "sparky" did what he did,
"sparky" had no template,

and I'm talking about
the licensing.

Like, Percy Crosby
had licensed "skippy,"

and, you know,
"blondie" had been licensed,

but nobody -- nobody --

had been licensed
anywhere close,

before or since.

You know, you're talking
$40-million-a-year empire.

In so far as that includes

a snoopy plush
that a kid could hold,

that looks like snoopy

and doesn't have
sort of a bullshit smile

that snoopy doesn't have,

it's great.

In so far as the "peanuts"
characters speak for metlife.

Or any corporation,
I always cringe.

It just strikes me wrong.

I don't want to see snoopy
selling me insurance.

It's sort of like a cousin
who got really close to you

and you spent all this time
together

and you think
you really know him,

and then you're fishing with him
one day, and he says, "you know,

I never said this to you before,
but I sell life insurance."

And your stomach
would just drop,

because you'd say, "god,

has the whole relationship
been based on that?

Like,
were you building to this point?

Was it all b.S.?"

Something strikes you as false,

and you question
the whole friendship.

And I think
when a character advertises,

sells you insurance,

I think that hurts your
relationship to the character.

When watterson did what he did

and he said
no licensing whatsoever,

to the extent he meant,

"I don't want my characters
speaking for everybody.

I don't want my characters

to be on every lunchbox
and every shirt,"

I totally understand.

That makes a lot of sense,
'cause it lessens the character.

In so far as he took the stand,
"there can't be a Hobbes doll,"

I will never understand that.

If they made a Hobbes doll
and he had control over it --

it could look exactly
like he wanted it to look --

every kid in the world
would have loved it.

Has there ever been a character

who was more built for licensing
than Hobbes?

It's a stuffed animal
in the strip,

and the kid's imagination
can make it come alive --

you know, the whole bit.

What would the harm
have been in that?

And I can't see it.

This leads to my theory

of what it is
that watterson might be doing,

and I suspect that some of it
is about control.

Comic strips
are all about control.

It's the one art form
where you have full control.

It's not collaborative
like a film.

It's not collaborative
even like a book,

where your editor
changes things.

I really don't even have
an editor. It's just me.

It's not collaborative
like a TV show.

It's not collaborative
like a record album.

It's you -- it's just you.

When you wander into licensing,
it becomes a collaboration.

Somebody at your syndicate
has to approve it.

Somebody at your syndicate
gives suggestions.

Somebody at your syndicate says,
"you know, that's nice,

but it'd be better if he smiled
on the package, right?

Smiling sells more."

Then it gets in the hand
of the designer.

The designer has their own ideas
how the character should look.

The designer knows
what material sells.

The designer knows
what materials are safe.

Then
there's the designer's boss,

who may have different ideas,

'cause they gave it
to the salesman,

and it didn't sell well.

So I'Ve just introduced
seven people into my life

that weren't in my life before.

I don't particularly like
any of them.

They're not my kind of people.

They're commercial people,

and they make your stomach hurt
when you're with them.

So I'Ve introduced an element
into my life

of a whole bunch of people
I don't like.

I'Ve got to overcome them all,

even if it's so much
as just saying,

"I don't think
we should do this,"

and they say yes, I still have
to do that to seven people.

And that's all
a loss of control,

a loss of control
that I never had before, right?

And imagine
if he started licensing.

The first lunchbox would have
sold nine billion, right?

The minute that happens,
everybody is gonna be on him

for all the more, like this,
that, and the other --

all represents
a loss of control.

Then they all sit in your head.

Rather than go,
as he probably did,

and walk through the forest
that day,

he took six phone calls
that he didn't want to take.

They interrupted his day.

They're floating around
in his head.

That's all bad.
You know what I'm saying?

And that's control.

That's not about
artistic purity.

No, no.
That's about control.

-Well, contractually,

we had the rights
to license "Calvin and Hobbes"

to anything and anyone
in the world.

We had calls from, you know,
people like Steven Spielberg

and Disney studios
and George Lucas.

I can go right down the line.

The potential for products
worldwide, internationally

was, again, huge,
and we recognized that.

Certainly,
it would have been up there

with the licensing revenues
from "Garfield" and "peanuts."

That was not money just for US.

I mean, all the revenues
would be split 50/50 with bill.

So the fact that we were,

you know,
turning down huge opportunities

also meant that he was turning
down huge opportunities, too.

-Everyone has
a different opinion,

but I think the number is --
oh -- very, very high,

depending on who you're talking
to and what mood they're in.

I'Ve heard many people say
$300 million to $400 million.

I wouldn't be surprised.

It could be more,

depending on how far, you know,
bill was willing to go.

-Our discussions were very
involved and sometimes heated.

It weighed heavily on him,

and I think it became apparent

in some of the ways in which
the script was being worked out,

some of the story lines
that bill employed,

and, you know, the question
of commercialism versus art

and all this stuff

that it was clear that bill
was sending some messages.

And, you know, we realized that
we'Ve got to make a decision

as to, "are we gonna try to
accommodate him and his interest

"in a reasonable way within the
context of running a business,

"or are we gonna, in essence,

"beat up one of
the most important cartoonists

of his generation?"

And we did what we could do

to try to work out
the business arrangement,

and the good news was
we got some more time from him.

But I do believe
he did come close

to just calling one day
and saying, "that's it."

-The cliché of building
an entertainment franchise.

In any medium

is that
you have to merchandise it.

Since he wasn't gonna do that,
he had to confront the notion

that people were gonna be making
their own merchandise.

-My friends and I even made
a personal bootleg Calvin shirt

just for ourselves.

And then you started seeing
Calvin being used

in both religious iconography
on the back of gang vehicles,

I guess,

where it's Calvin
like mourning the cross,

pouring some out
for my dead homies

or Calvin peeing
on whatever import car

the driver doesn't like.

But I just thought,
"who has licensed this?"

And, of course, no one had.

-I remember when I was younger,
thinking,

"I'm really kind of bummed
that there aren't

any 'Calvin and Hobbes' toys
that I can play with."

And I remember thinking,
"I'm a genius.

People could actually
make some money

if they made 'Calvin and Hobbes'
action figures."

And, obviously, at the time,

I didn't understand that Mr.
watterson had made a decision

to not license and market
"Calvin and Hobbes,"

and as I'Ve grown up,
I'Ve respected that,

and I realize that
it would probably cheapen it

if Calvin and Hobbes' face were
on my toothpaste or whatever.

Because now, for me,
it exists solely in my books

and with me and my Hobbes
in the backyard.

And I think
that's one of my favorite things

is that it's alive to me
like Hobbes is alive to Calvin.

-He made a point of letting
the comic stand on its own.

I know the colors.
I know the sounds.

I have that all in my head.

And I do really appreciate
that it's remained that.

-It won't be
in the public consciousness,

particularly with young people,

as much as we older folks
think it should.

But it will be remembered
in the "proper" way,

which is based on the work

and not because there are
still Hobbes dolls for sale,

you know, at target.

-I definitely think,

by him not allowing anyone
to merchandise it,

the mystique of it grows

and the desire
for those kinds of things

or the care
with which it's taken by people.

You know, people preserve the
memory of "Calvin and Hobbes"

as something very precious
and personal,

and I think that has a lot to do
directly with the fact

that it wasn't exploited --
stuffed toys or cartoons

or post-it notes
or sleeping bags or anything.

-It's pure in it's purest form.

It's just his lines
and his words

and not
somebody else's interpretation

of how it should look in plastic
or plush or anything.

-I think
it strengthened the strip,

and I think
the legacy of the strip

wouldn't be as strong as it is

if he hadn't focused everything
he had on making that strip

the absolute best strip
that he could make.

-The fact that there isn't

"Calvin and Hobbes" stuff
all over the place is really --

I think that's the reason why
this strip

is still as popular
as it is today.

-There are two ways
to look at bill,

and I try to keep it
as objective as possible

in the book.

There's the people
that look at him

as a curmudgeon
and somebody they resent

for not sharing himself
when he was so famous

and somebody who did not
give them what they wanted.

That might be like the fact

that he never made a, you know,
Saturday-morning cartoon special

that they really wanted to see,

or they didn't allow
a Hobbes doll to be made,

and they always wanted one
as a kid.

There's that group of people.

And then there's the group
of people that look at him,

and, you know, they respect
his choices that he made

when it came to merchandising
and licensing.

They love him as a writer.
They respect him as an artist.

And those are the two people

that I was chasing
at the same time.

You know, there was somebody
who was incredibly principled,

who stuck to it,

and who also happened
to be incredibly talented.

And then there was a guy that,
like, really turns his back

on this whole
public-persona machine

that we'Ve come to expect
as Americans.

So,
over the course of the journey,

I was rooting for the guy
that was so principled,

and yet I was peeved at the guy

that was not giving me
what I wanted.

It was frustrating,
and yet, at the same time,

I couldn't help
but root for him.

You know, I think
that he made his decisions,

and I totally respect them.

And any personal wants
that I have from him

are selfishly motivated,

and so that's up to him.

-I would say my favorite strips
are on my arm.

I made sure I got some snowmen
in there,

making fun of girls,
the silly ones,

some of the imagination stuff,
where he thinks

he's a crocodile here,
and he's just swimming.

I try to get a little bit of
everything -- stupendous man.

When I was getting this tattoo,

I knew a guy
that could get phone numbers,

and I got
bill watterson's phone number.

I wanted to get permission
to get the tattoo

so I wouldn't be just as bad
as the bootleggers.

But [clears throat]
he didn't return my phone calls.

I did get it anyway.

But I feel like
it's not a bootleg.

It's just a labor of love.

[ Up-tempo bluegrass music
plays ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

-People talk about
kind of the death of cartooning

because of, kind of,
the passing of newspapers.

But, really,
we're in a time right now

where it's not just newspapers.
It's media.

Like, media is changing,

and the way we make money
from media is changing.

Newspaper comics are especially
interesting, though,

because they used to be unified.

Like, every day, you'd open up,
and your paper would have

one or two pages
devoted to newspaper comics.

And, first of all, those pages

are getting cut down and shrunk
more and more as time goes on

and as newspaper budgets
keep getting cut.

So you're not coming to the same
collective space every day

to experience the newspaper
and comics.

You know, you can go online,
if you're interested,

and either find the strips
that you already like

or go discover new ones,

but it's not
the kind of same thing.

You have to go to one page
on gocomics.

For "Calvin and Hobbes,"

and then you go to another
independent artist's website

for their web comic,

and then you go to another
website for another web comic.

And, you know, you're surfing.

But you're never
going to one place

to get all those
different perspectives.

And that was the cool thing
about comics.

Whether you liked "Garfield"
or "family circus"

or the "wizard of ID"
or "Calvin and Hobbes,"

you could come to one page
in the newspaper

and experience them all.

And because that medium
is disappearing or shrinking,

that experience is disappearing,
as well.

-There is sort of a high point
for mass distributed arts,

somewhere between
the postwar era

and probably somewhere
in the mid '90s.

And it's been a diminishment
for TV, for films, for albums,

for cartooning, for novels
ever since then.

Because the basic fact is,
as a culture,

the means of distribution
have been so filtered out,

and the means of creation
have been so filtered out

that we're now getting
tens of thousands of blogs,

tens of thousands of web comics,
tens of thousands of small bands

that can distribute directly.

-There simply is no way to
concentrate people's attention,

and when it gets concentrated
on something,

it gets concentrated for
a very short period of time,

probably very intensely.

Everybody is tweeting about it
and watching it on YouTube,

and then it's gone, because
the next thing has come along.

-You're getting
all of these incredible voices

that you never
would have gotten before,

but you no longer have those
water-cooler pieces of art,

where everyone would know,

everyone would
gather around at work

and say, "ah. Yeah.
That's the one."

-There will no longer ever be
a, like, rolling stones.

There won't be the Beatles.

There won't be
an Elvis Presley

for the same reason there won't
be another "Calvin and Hobbes."

The market is digitalizing,
and it's atomizing.

So it's being spread over
a far wider surface

but in a much thinner layer.

-If the "far side" started,

or "Calvin and Hobbes"
started today in newspapers,

it would probably do well,

but I don't think
it would have the impact

that it had in the late '80s.

-If you can name me
a cartoon character

that's been invented since 1985,
that's new --

from comic page,
not on television --

if you can name me
a cartoon character

that is a household term
or a name

throughout this country, truly,

that my mother would know
and that I would know

and that my kids would know

and anyone through Canada
would know,

I would be very shocked.

And I don't think
it's gonna happen again.

So I think Calvin and Hobbes

are the last great
cartoon characters.

So he nailed that.

It's great to be first,
but it's also good to be last.

- "Calvin and Hobbes"
was of its age,

and you couldn't transplant it
elsewhere, you know?

And, thankfully,
itwasof its age,

which is another way
of looking at it.

Thank god that itdidappear
when it appeared,

and thank god that itdidrun
when it ran and where it ran,

because I don't think it would
have been near the success,

artistically or financially,
for its worthy creator

had it run any other time,

which is both sort of amazing
and kind of sad,

in a way, you know?

-If you were to ask me
the question 10 years ago,

"how would his lack of licensing
affect the strip,"

I would have said,
"it's ridiculous.
It's gonna fail.

It's gonna hurt
the long-term legacy.

People will forget the strip
quickly."

Because, you know,
part of snoopy's enduring legacy

is that your 4-year-old
can have a plush snoopy

and then learn about
the cartoons and the strip.

They fall in love
with the merchandising first

and then the characters
and the content and the art.

So I would have said,
"it's never gonna work.

"The strip is gonna go, vanish.
We'll never hear from it again.

"And there will be people
like me, 40 years from now,

"talking about it
the same way we do

"about 'krazy Kat' and 'pogo' --
brilliant, wonderful.

The public has forgotten them."

Not with "Calvin and Hobbes."
It's universal.

It has maintained its quality
and integrity

to the point that kids today
coming up are still reading it.

How did they learn about it?
It's in their school libraries.

That was
one of the breakthroughs,

is that "Calvin and Hobbes"
wasencouragedby the teachers.

Teachers spotted the child
who was Calvin

and said, "you're Calvin.
I want you to read this."

And it got them reading.
And parents encouraged it, too.

So I think that that made up
for a lot of the merchandising

that would have helped
carry it on.

That made up for the animation
that never happened,

is that the comic
was just that good

that it could survive
without it.

I don't know that
there is a lot like that.

-I'Ve lost track of the number
of 6- and 7-year-olds

who list "Calvin and Hobbes"
as their favorite comic strip.

And they know about
the transmogrifier,

they know about
the time machine,

and they know how to

turn a cardboard box
into absolutely anything.

I think there's even a
generation of kids named Calvin

because people my age
are starting to become parents.

And all it takes, really,
is seeing that dog-eared copy

of "something under the bed
is drooling" or "Yukon ho!"

At your public library
or on your school bookshelf.

-I'Ve heard questions like, "why
are people still reading that?"

Or "why are the books
still so popular?"

You know, "he hasn't
been in newspapers in 15 years.

Why are people
still talking about him?"

And it's like,
"'cause it's transcendent."

That's the beauty of it.

And that's, I think,

why Calvin will be around
10 years from today, 25,

because he talks to US
on a deeper level

than just a punch line.

-It's kind of reflected
in the fact

that people can go back
to "Calvin and Hobbes"

and read them over and over
and over and over again,

and they're always joyful.

Even when you know
what the punch line is gonna be,

it's still funny.
[ Chuckles ]

-I feel inspired when I read
a "Calvin and Hobbes" strip.

You know, as a human being,
I'm just like,

"Calvin's enjoying life so much.

I want to go out
and enjoy life that way."

-It can't really be contained
by print or panels.

It's a living, breathing thing,
and I think it always will be.

He used ink and brushes
and some watercolors,

but, you know,
he created life with that,

which I think is what
every cartoonist aspires to,

but not many of US
ever get to achieve it.

- "Calvin and Hobbes" -- there is
not a single element in it

that isn't kind of as current
as it was when it came out.

It's all about being a kid.
It's all about imagination.

Every single thing's referenced.

I don't have to explain
the context to my kids.

They actually live it
in the same way I did.

It's not changing.

And, you know,
to read "doonesbury"

or to read "bloom county"
or the other, you know,

for me, the most important
things growing up,

you need to have
a sense of the history.

You need to understand
the pop culture of the time

in a very specific way.

And "Calvin and Hobbes"

just kind of requires
that you're alive.

[ Chuckles ]
And it is quite an achievement.

-You know, I'Ve been fortunate

to work with
some wonderful cartoonists,

and, you know, certainly, at the
top of that list has to be bill,

because he was so different,
so challenging.

He really caused US as a company
and me as an individual

to rethink the ways we dealt
with cartoonist

and, you know, what our role was

in helping them get their work
out into the public.

His creativity
and the result of his efforts

were, you know, up there

with probably the two or three
or four greatest strips

of all time.

I think "Calvin"
is something that will last.

And, heaven forbid,

if newspapers
were to disappear tomorrow

and books
were not to be printed,

there would be some way people
would want to find his work

and read it again,

because I think it's that strong

and that enduring
and that special.

-Over the years,

my favorite "Calvin and Hobbes"
strip has changed.

When watterson
was still writing and drawing,

my favorite might change weekly,

especially as he continued

to put out
some of his greatest work

in the last few years.

I have my collection
of "Calvin and Hobbes" strips

that I love
for one reason or another.

But looking back at it all,

as much as I love
some of the strips for the humor

or the adventure
or the amazing art

or the imaginative place
that the strip took me,

the strip
that I can't really forget

is one that nobody else
has ever mentioned to me

as a favorite
or even a notable one.

When I'Ve described it
to other fans,

I don't often get
a look of recognition.

But for me, it's unforgettable,
and it has a special meaning.

I'll never know exactly what
bill watterson's intentions were

with this strip.

I, myself,

can see a few different
possible interpretations.

But I can no longer look at it

without feeling like
I'Ve glimpsed beyond the surface

of a comic strip
filled with imagination

and magic and joy
and adventure and friendship

and seen instead a hint
of tremendous disappointment

and loss.

Watterson conceived
of this strip.

He wrote it, drew it,
and inked it

using
the simplest of tools --

Bristol board, 2h pencils,
a sable brush, and India ink.

He handed it over
to his syndicate

for publication
in newspapers worldwide.

And millions of readers
discovered it

in the paper
or in one his books,

where we all brought
our individual experiences

and perspectives
into the equation.

And bill watterson has repeated
this process 3,160 times.

Each of these strips
holds the potential

to touch someone somewhere
in a unique and personal way.

Many of watterson's strips
mean something special to me.

Some bring a huge smile
to my face,

some challenge me to think,
and a few are more melancholy.

I see some strips differently
now than I did as a kid.

And for me, looking back,

this strip foreshadows
the end of "Calvin and Hobbes."

-I just remember
the announcement.

I remember reading
the final comic.

I remember knowing
that that was going to be it

and that it was
a really poignant way to end it

and true to everything
he'd built up before it.

-I certainly remember
opening the comic page

that last Sunday
in thechicago tribune

and seeing it and being like,
"wow. It's over."

You just weren't used to
comics ending, you know?

Like, they kept going.
That was part of the deal.

-The final strip
was the last draw.

All the elements that made
the strip wonderful were there,

including the drawing
that was so much a part of it.

There were very few words.

-Everyone who was
a "Calvin and Hobbes" fan

remembers two strips.

One is that one
that spoke to them individually

and the last one --
"let's go exploring!"

And it was just a wonderful way
for him to end it.

-The way he handled it
was so wonderful

with, you know,
the toboggan ride,

which was very much
a staple of the strip,

going off into just wide-open.

It wasn't nothingness,
as I saw it.

It was everything-ness.

You know, white is not
the absence of color.

White is all colors.

And you could make
whatever you wanted

out of that final episode.

And, honestly,

how else is a cartoonist
going to see the world?

It has to be
a big, wide-open world,

because until you draw
your very last strip,

you'Ve got to come up
with a brand-new story

out of that world
every single day.

-You know, it was an end
posed as a beginning, basically.

-There's just something magical
about that particular strip,

where, you know, it really is

just looking at the world
afresh.

I imagine that's what
bill watterson must have
felt like, you know,

when he finished
that last strip --

"it's a magical world.
Now I can move on.
What's next in my life?"

-He's trying to show US all

that, you know, there's more
to life than a comic strip,

I think,

and trying to make US feel
a little bit better,

but it doesn't work.

It doesn't work at all.
[ Chuckles ]

-It gave the impression

that he was going to be
exploring [laughs] new things,

and he probably is
exploring new things,

but he's not
sharing those publicly,

and so [chuckles]
that's too bad.

-The final strip, for me,

is bittersweet in the sense
that it was the end,

but the thought that,
at the end of it,

you're being told,
"let's go exploring,"

which is something
I think watterson did

throughout his time
in the strip,

whether it was making leaps
in the artwork

so you had to kind of think
what was happening

in the little white space
between the panels,

or whether it was the fact

that an adventure didn't
necessarily end succinctly

at the end of a strip

so you had to kind of imagine

what might have happened
afterwards,

he was always
telling his readers to explore.

-There is still magic
in everyday life

if you know where to look.

And maybe if we look
in the right place,

there is something else as
wonderful as "Calvin and Hobbes"

or something that will give US
that daily magic.

But we have to find it.

It may well be out there,
as Calvin said.

It's up to US to look for it
and to discover it.

-There is that saying that all
good things must come to an end,

but I'm not sure I believe it.

As long as there are new readers

being introduced
to "Calvin and Hobbes,"

watterson's legacy will live on.

And with those final three words

that almost every fan
can recite,

so many new adventures
will begin.

-So here is a question
for you --

have you guys or have you
written a letter to watterson,

and if so, you know,
what was the experience like?

-I never have --
not when I was younger, not now.

-Mm-hmm.

-I have a word file
on my computer,

and it's one line so far.

All it says is,
"dear Mr. Watterson."

-[ Laughs ]
Very fitting.

- There is nothing else.
- Very fitting.

-Not another word.