# Interview with Bill Watterson **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289 "2010-02-01T20:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/21 "2010-02-02T00:24:53Z")
> [@](#): > > You can no longer buy Far Side merchandise - no more cups, shirts, calendars, etc. Not sure when they stopped making that stuff. It must have been recently: There was a Far Side page-a-day calendar in the main office last year, but not this year. And I think that C&H could have stayed worthwhile for another 5 or 10 years, but then, I’m not the artist, and if he thought it was starting to get stale, I’m not sure what position I’m in to argue. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/22 "2010-02-02T00:38:55Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Has he been out of the public eye so long that he can blend into a crowd without being recognized? I’d wager that most cartoonist have this ability. Odesio ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/23 "2010-02-02T00:39:18Z")
In a way he’s like Salinger. Found a way to live the life he wanted to live, gave the world something special, and had the integrity to keep the promises he made to himself when he started the journey. I sense less crazy from Watterson, though some of Salinger’s crazy might have come from the impossibility of being left alone. Maybe the interview was flat but I’m not sure what you’d want from the guy. I say it’s part of his integrity. He’s into his work, not himself. He hasn’t cultivated a fascinating persona for interviews. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/24 "2010-02-02T01:40:34Z")
The comic strip that does the best job capturing C&H today is [Frazz](http://comics.com/frazz/). And I have always wondered if it is a coincidence that Frazz looks like an adult Calvin. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/25 "2010-02-02T01:59:14Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Thank you so much for introducing me to this. Some quirky takes on things, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/26 "2010-02-02T01:59:27Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > The comic strip that does the best job capturing C&H today is [Frazz](http://comics.com/frazz/). And I have always wondered if it is a coincidence that Frazz looks like an adult Calvin. I’ve always thought that “Frazz” tries a little too hard to be like C&H. The art style is similar, Caulfield clearly shares some overly-smart-for-his-age DNA with Calvin, and, yeah, Frazz looks a lot like a grown-up Calvin. (I also note that Watterson was an avid bicycler, while Jef Mallett is an avid triathelete, and those both come through in the strips.) Frazz is often funny, but it’s no Calvin and Hobbes, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/27 "2010-02-02T02:50:24Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Peanuts ran for a good 30 years before it became anything remotely resembling tedious. And quite frankly, I find Blondie still makes me laugh more often than not. Peanuts is fucking gold. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/28 "2010-02-02T03:23:44Z")
[QUOTE=Fenris;12063983 Geez…Watterson gives…what? One interview every 10 years? And _these_ are the questions we get? How about "What strips from other authors influenced you?[/quote] Every interview of Watterson ever published disappoints me (for lack of info), but he hasn’t made a secret of what inspired him. [Krazy Kat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krazy_Kat), [Pogo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_%28comics%29), and maybe [Peanuts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts). Read his manifesto in the C&H total collection. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/29 "2010-02-02T03:39:42Z")
…I still feel like pontificating more on the greatness of C&H Watterson badly wanted to have a graphic novel. At the the time, he may not have been familiar with this term. Or even knew what it meant. Earlier comics (see Pogo and Krazy Kat) had achieved this. But the newspaper medium had left this option behind. God bless him - he pushed as hard as anyone could against this transformation. The “comics”, or “funnies” had withered beyond a full page or two that allowed this to a restricted space that allowed only the lazy, talking-head garbage of Garfield, Marmaduke and The Family Circus. It cost him dearly. He could have made 10x the money he ever made if he had been willing to whore C&H out to merchandise, which was becoming the standard model. He refused. He drew a line in the sand. He won some limited freedom. Within this limited form, he made magic. Nothing ever topped his strip. Reading it fifteen years later, it’s still sublime. Beautiful, organic and sparse. Clever, funny, and often melancholy. C&H was the last great newspaper comic strip. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/30 "2010-02-02T03:42:32Z")
I actually stopped reading the comics altogether after Calvin and Hobbes went away. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/31 "2010-02-02T03:57:59Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Peanuts ran for a good 30 years before it became anything remotely resembling tedious. Peanuts stopped being funny when Schulz’s kids grew up. He said, he used to get a lot of ideas from his kids, and it’s apparent the older they got the less funny Peanuts was. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/32 "2010-02-02T04:07:28Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Peanuts stopped being funny when Schulz’s kids grew up. He said, he used to get a lot of ideas from his kids, and it’s apparent the older they got the less funny Peanuts was. I don’t know that it’s prime appeal was being funny (although it often was). IMO, Peanuts lost its soul when it became a brand. You know, Snoopy pimping Met Life. Charlie Brown and Lucy on grade school posters urging me to brush my teeth. And that’s a real pity. I think _Peanuts_ was one of the greats, for a time. It was sad and funny at the same time. Even the later TV specials kept this balance - Great Pumpkin and Christmas are still wonderfully melancholy but beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/33 "2010-02-02T05:13:38Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Peanuts ran for a good 30 years before it became anything remotely resembling tedious. And quite frankly, I find Blondie still makes me laugh more often than not. Our mileages varied. For me, Peanuts was funny and _inspired_ for about ten years. By the time Snoopy became “The Red Baron”, Peanuts had jumped the shark, and never stopped declining. . ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/34 "2010-02-02T05:22:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And I think that C&H could have stayed worthwhile for another 5 or 10 years, but then, I’m not the artist, and if he thought it was starting to get stale, I’m not sure what position I’m in to argue. Eh, I don’t know. As someone who has read every strip a gazillion times (as all the books do rotation in my bathroom as reading material, sorry if that’s TMI), I think that Watterson started to get repetitive somewhere between/during Attack of the Deranged etc etc etc and The Days are Just Packed, so, somewhere between 1990 and 1992. It’s still good stuff, and there are occasional gems, but major themes start to be repeated at this point. He quit at the right time, because Calvin can only flee Miss Wormwood’s classroom so many times before the minor differences between strips blend together. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/35 "2010-02-02T05:23:33Z")
Watterson’s one of the greats… For me It’s always Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, Foxtrot, Peanuts, Doonesbury (only for the epic storylines), and then as a runner up to the top 5: Dilbert. Those are the 5 greatest strips I’ve been reading since I was a kid, and I remember being so angry and frustrated when C&H and Farside stopped going to print… :le sigh: Now of those, only Doonesbury & Dilbert are still around but I don’t really find the time to read them… ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/36 "2010-02-02T05:30:44Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d wager that most cartoonist have this ability. Several years ago I read a newspaper story that said people of course recognize him, but for the most part they don’t bother him. Sounds too good to be true, but that’s what it said. He has his regular stops (ice cream cone shop, for example) where he’s treated like a normal person. > [@](#): > > Maybe the interview was flat but I’m not sure what you’d want from the guy. Agreed. For Chrissakes, **he already gave us ten years of Calvin and Hobbes!** – We should never stop thanking him for that. How can people whine about wanting more from the guy? He wants to be left alone, and has certainly earned that privilege. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/37 "2010-02-02T05:32:41Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > …I still feel like pontificating more on the greatness of C&H > > Watterson badly wanted to have a graphic novel. At the the time, he may not have been familiar with this term. Or even knew what it meant. > > Earlier comics (see Pogo and Krazy Kat) had achieved this. But the newspaper medium had left this option behind. > > God bless him - he pushed as hard as anyone could against this transformation. The “comics”, or “funnies” had withered beyond a full page or two that allowed this to a restricted space that allowed only the lazy, talking-head garbage of Garfield, Marmaduke and The Family Circus. > > It cost him dearly. He could have made 10x the money he ever made if he had been willing to whore C&H out to merchandise, which was becoming the standard model. > > He refused. He drew a line in the sand. He won some limited freedom. Within this limited form, he made magic. Nothing ever topped his strip. > > Reading it fifteen years later, it’s still sublime. Beautiful, organic and sparse. Clever, funny, and often melancholy. > > C&H was the last great newspaper comic strip. Exactly correct. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/38 "2010-02-02T05:49:24Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Our mileages varied. For me, Peanuts was funny and _inspired_ for about ten years. By the time Snoopy became “The Red Baron”, Peanuts had jumped the shark, and never stopped declining. Nitpick: Snoopy was the World War 1 Flying Ace. The Red Baron was his nemesis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/39 "2010-02-02T06:56:25Z")
> [@](#): > > As someone who has read every strip a gazillion times (as all the books do rotation in my bathroom as reading material, sorry if that’s TMI), I think that Watterson started to get repetitive somewhere between/during Attack of the Deranged etc etc etc and The Days are Just Packed, so, somewhere between 1990 and 1992. Except that isn’t really the way a comic strip is intended to be read. A certain amount of repetitiveness is fine, if you’re only reading one strip a day. It’s only when you read them more quickly that it becomes a problem. Or, I suppose, when you’re making your living by drawing them, which is probably why Watterson thought it was starting to stale before most of his fans did. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289/40 "2010-02-02T07:23:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > While I don’t agree at all with his view of merchandising (what harm does it do to have a coffee mug or a t-shirt or something with your characters on them?), I do have to say that I really respect his standing up to his principles. He could certainly have made a ton of money off of merchandise, and chose not to, because he thought it would compromise his art. Even though I think he could have sold stuff without compromising his art, he didn’t, and when he felt he had to choose, chose art over money. ``` I agree. He could have controlled the merchandising so that it remained in good taste, still made a lot of money and made his fans happy. And of course he could have donated the money to whatever causes he supports. But ultimately I respect his choice to stand by his principles. Watterson has discussed the series and individual strips in various collections. Obviously he doesn't have much else to say about it and there is nothing wrong with that. ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interview-with-bill-watterson/527289.md?page=3)