If anyone misses the comic Calvin and Hobbes, you should ask your paper to carry Frazz. Does anyone’s paper run this one? It seems to me to be a borderline Calvin ripoff. Check these links:
for some of the more egregious examples. You’ve got the short, precocious, cynical little kid (Calvin). The taller, more mature mentor-ish type who tries to give some more wordly perspective (Hobbes). There’s the teacher who the kid thinks is some old hag that spends the summer in a coffin when she’s not feasting on blood, but she really just cares about the kids’ education (Ms. Wormwood). There are plenty of bicycle jokes, since in Frazz the title character is an avid cyclist (ala Calvin’s Dad). Much of the time when the kid’s talking you only see his little dot eyes and the top of his head, just like in the great C&H.
Anyway, the overall humor of the strip often seems very C&H like to me. The strip’s funny usually, I’ll give it that, but half the time it makes me wonder “Didn’t I see this strip in Yukon Ho!?” Has anyone else noticed this?
Dear God. Joe K is reading my mind… and Frazz DOES look like older Calvin. This whole strip just sends out very Watterson-ish vibes for me, not to mention the way the shorter kid is drawn. His facial features and general expressions are Calvin reincarnated… This is a bit scary, and yet also a bit awesome… Maybe it is Watterson under a pseudonym.
I hope it isn’t Watterson… I would have expected him to do something completely different after C&H. Still, the expression and gestures are dead on, as is the general humour. A Google search didn’t yield anything useful on Mallett, other than that he’s the “author of Frazz” and “illustrator of children’s books”.
And look at this: http://www.bikereader.com/BikeReader/contributors/mallett/frazz.html
The bike humour is there, and even the way the bike is drawn has Watterson written all over it.
However… look at the bottom of the page Skwerl linked to: “Buy Frazz on a T-shirt, mug, and mousepad”? Watterson hates merchandising.
My opinion? Just someone who couldn’t (or didn’t want to) develop a style of his own and decided to rip off Watterson. That’s not to say it isn’t very well done.
I love Frazz (even better than Get Fuzzy)! Our paper just started carrying it. I had missed the Watterson vibe, but now that it’s been brought up, I agree completely. The humor, the attitude and the art combined. There is no Suzy-type character, though. Hey, whether it’s Ol’ Bill, or whether it’s simply C&H inspired (I wouldn’t call it a rip-off; it’s too good), I’m not gonna complain.
But to think it’s a pseudonym… have a closer look at the line quality and color, for starters. This one’s done wit a felt tip and computer colored - Watterson always used a brush for inking and watercolour.
The art of Frazz is passable. But nowhere near Bill Watterson quality.
Well, if it isn’t him (I still think it may be; the idiosyncratic details are easily variable), then it’s an extremely dedicated underling; perhaps an inker (Maybe he lied about being a one-man operation?). Plus, merch would definitely aid in the make-a-living end of things, and these guys would be a lesser evil to sell than, say, Hobbes.
I’m suspicous as well. Looks like a grown-up Calvin to me. He’s given up Hobbes but has become “Hobbes” to a kid a lot like him.
That’s my theory anyway.
There’s an interesting email exchange between Jeff Mallet and this guy here
That’s really strange, because the thing that’s been going through my head since C&H ended is that the comic Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, is exactly what Calvin and Hobbes would be if he grew up. The pen work is similar but a little more complex; they have a lot of the same kind of humor; they even have the same old tree house in one strip; but the focus on teenagerhood makes it plenty original. Either these guys are huge Watterson fans, or one of them is the real deal. Check it out. http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/zits/about.htm
Well, Greywolf’s link sorta settles it. I don’t think Watterson would ever refer to himself as the Michelangelo of comics, even when he’s using a pseudonym.
I like his line “if you learn from one guy you’re derivative, and if you learn from a dozen you’re original”. I’ll be forced to quote that when the next occasion arrives.
I’m bumping this thread to point out that in today’s Frazz, Bill Watterson is mentioned, and in sort of an odd way. In fact, the joke is pretty self-referential. Suspicious?!
JMHO, but, um…Frazz isn’t in the same league as C&H. Not only is it not nearly as funny, but I disagree with several of the posters above that it has the same humor or the same feel as Calvin & Hobbes. I think the art is similar, but that’s all.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think there’s any way in the world that’s Bill Watterson under a pseudonym. If it were, the strip would be miles better.
