Bill Watterson
William B. "Bill" Watterson II is the author of the
comic strip Calvin and Hobbes was a daily comic strip [i] written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson [i] ...
and a few poems .
Watterson was born in
Washington, D.C., where his father, James G. Watterson , worked as a patent examiner while going to law school, before becoming a patent attorney in 1960. The family moved to
Chagrin Falls, Ohio when Bill was six years old; his mother Kathryn became a city council member. He has a younger brother, Tom, who is a high school teacher in
Austin, Texas.
Encyclopedia
William B. "Bill" Watterson II is the author of the
comic strip Calvin and Hobbes was a daily comic strip [i] written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson [i] ...
and a few poems .
Watterson was born in
Washington, D.C., where his father, James G. Watterson , worked as a patent examiner while going to law school, before becoming a patent attorney in 1960. The family moved to
Chagrin Falls, Ohio when Bill was six years old; his mother Kathryn became a city council member. He has a younger brother, Tom, who is a high school teacher in
Austin, Texas.
Early career
In 1980, Watterson graduated from
Kenyon College in
Gambier with a degree in political science. Immediately the
Cincinnati Post is an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio [i]. ...
offered him a job drawing
political cartoons for a six-month trial period:
Bill Watterson designed grocery advertisements for four years prior to working on the strip which made him famous,
Calvin and Hobbes.Rise to success
Calvin and Hobbes was first published on November 18, 1985. Bill Watterson wrote in his
Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book that his influences include
Charles Schulz, for his work in
Peanuts;
Walt Kelly for his comic,
Pogo was the title of a long-running daily comic strip [i] created by Walt Kelly [i], as well as the ...
; and
George Herriman for
Krazy Kat is a comic strip [i] created by George Herriman [i] that appeared in U.S. ...
. Watterson's style also reflects the influence of
Little Nemo in Slumberland, a popular early 20th century comic strip by
Winsor McCay.
Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics. He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined, and that the space they occupied in newspapers continually decreased, subject to arbitrary whims of short-sighted publishers. Furthermore, he opined that art should not be judged by the medium for which it is created .
Watterson opposed the structure publishers imposed on newspaper cartoons: the standard cartoon starts with a large, wide rectangle featuring the cartoon's logo, and the strip is presented in a series of rectangles of different widths, limiting the cartoonist's options of allowable presentation. Watterson managed to gain an exception to these constraints for
Calvin and Hobbes, allowing him to draw his Sunday cartoons the way he wanted. In many of his strips, the panels overlap or contain their own panels; in some the action takes place diagonally across the strip.
Watterson also battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something that he felt would cheapen his comic. He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that pasting
Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially-sold
coffee mugs,
stickers and
t-shirts would devalue the characters and their personalities. He also refused to allow the strip to appear as an animated series.
Watterson was awarded the National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1988, and awarded the society's Reuben Award in 1986 . In 1988, Watterson received the Reuben award again, and he was nominated again in 1992. Following his 1992 nomination, the National Cartoonists Society declared that no artist could win the award more than once.
Watterson wrote a brief, tongue-in-cheek autobiography in the late 1980s.
Retirement
The last strip of
Calvin and Hobbes was published on December 31, 1995. Since retiring, Bill Watterson has taken up painting, often drawing landscapes of the woods with his father. He has also published several anthologies of
Calvin and Hobbes strips.
Living in relative seclusion in Chagrin Falls with his wife Melissa, Watterson refuses to sign autographs or give interviews, emerging only occasionally into the public eye. web
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| title=Some Thoughts On The Real World By One Who Glimpsed It And Fled
| author=Bill Watterson
| work=Kenyon College Commencement
| date=May 20, 1990
| accessdate=2006-03-17
}}
On December 21, 1999, a short piece called written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip
Peanuts was a syndicated [i] daily comic strip [i] written and drawn by American [i] ...
, was published in the
Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper [i] published in Los Angeles [i], ...
, and most recently in October of 2005, Watterson answered fifteen questions submitted by readers. The Wattersons have been seen sometimes roller skating at the rink in Chagrin Falls.
Trivia
- He is a good friend of Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse is a comic strip [i] by Lynn Johnston [i] that began in September 1979 [i].
...
.
- Was vocally critical of Jim Davis and his decision to license his strip Garfield is a comic strip [i] created by Jim Davis [i], featuring the cat Garfield, the p ...
to so many different things, saying that it "cheapened" the originality of the strip. - First cartoonist to use the word "booger" in a comic strip.
- His interests currently include 15th century Dutch art.
- Watterson's cat Sprite very much inspired the personality and physical features of Hobbes.
References
See also
External links
- Includes information about Bill Watterson, as well as speeches and interviews.
-
- - Washington Post book review of "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes", October 2005, including broad look at Watterson's career.
-
- - Watts Hoffman law firm bio of Bill's father
- - Picture of Bill's father
