I respect his stands on all of that. On the nature of the medium. On the subject of licensing. And on retiring. Doesn’t mean I don’t miss it all the time, though.
It’s a particular joy watching my girlfriend’s son fall in love with the books over the last couple of years, while my son still picks them up at his age. They are 9 and 13, respectively.
Cleveland.com just published a collection of editorial cartoons by Watterson, when he was the editorial cartoonist for Sun Newspapers in Ohio. I couldn’t get the specific page link to work, but go to the main page and scroll down to “100 years of Cleveland editorial cartoons.”
Watterson attended Kenyon College where my father-in-law taught English. He liked to tell the story of Bill skipping out on classes because he was busy recreating the mural from the Sistine Chapel on his dorm room ceiling. The college had him paint it over when he moved out.
That’s interesting that good ol’ Bill is listed as the writer there and not the illustrator. I wonder if their partnership was like the Coen Brothers, where they both did everything but Joel was listed as director and Ethan was listed as a producer.
The description of the book by the publisher has this intriguing explanation:
For the book’s illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.
That’s some good marketing right there. I’m perspicacious! I can be one of the people that can comprehend the end results of their mysterious process. I will be one of those people!
Not sure how much flexing will be happening in a 72 pg book where he’ll write a sentence or two on half the pages. Calvin & Hobbes is an absolute favorite of mine but this just seems like a quick fairy tale. Maybe 30-40 sentences for the whole book based on the preview?
Long ago, the forest was dark and deep.
So the Knights set off into the misty forest. Year after year they searched.
After years of waiting and hoping for more C&H, I guess this just isn’t what I’d want from his big return.
