Bill Watterson talks: Calvin and Hobbes

[Onkel Neal]

One of my favorite cartoonists is Bill Waterson, of Calvin and Hobbes fame. (The other is Torplexed, of course). As you may know, Bill did C&H for 10 years then withdrew from public view. Almost no interviews since he retired. Now he has provided a really lengthy interview in a new book, Exploring Calvin & Hobbes

For years, the cartoonist didn’t make public comments. Now, in a single wide-ranging and revealing and illuminating and engrossing and self-deprecating and poignant and, of course, deeply funny interview, Watterson has proved more generous than we perhaps could have ever hoped for.

Bill Watterson has delivered a gift, a trip down memory lane that is populated densely on each side with personal and professional insights — some grippingly specific, some that ring universal, many that resonate as both.

I have not read the interview yet, but there is a snippet I found particularly interesting:

Watterson’s path to syndication, littered with rejection notes, is still a great object lesson in persistence and self-conviction (no selling-out of his vision in order to draw suggested robot characters), and in wise recognition of smart syndicate advice (the bangs over Calvin’s eyes were removed at the last minute before launch)

I wonder how an artist, say an author or musician, decides which professional advise to accept and which to reject? Gene Roddenberry was counseled by NBC many times to change Mr. Spock, which resisted, thankfully. But he also felt that any storylines should have an overall Peaceful Theme where the crew never had any conflict, which is necessary for any good story.