Calvin & Hobbes' Bill Watterson Returned to Comics - In Secret!

The Escapist ^ | 7 June 2014 | Bob "MovieBob" Chipman

[ShadowAce]

15 

The reclusive comics legend ghost-wrote/drew a fellow artist's strip for three days

Bill Watterson spent ten years writing and drawing every installment of Calvin & Hobbes, considered by many to be the single greatest comic strip in the history of the medium. During that period he experimented with daring new art techniques, negotiated unprecedented levels of creative independence from his publisher and famously resisted merchandising or "franchising" his characters; making him a hero to fellow comics professionals and something like a god to legions of devout fans.

Then, at the height of his fame, he walked away.

Since then, Calvin & Hobbes (the adventures of a young boy and his stuffed tiger, who is either secretly alive or imagined to be thus) has only grown in stature - it's hard to find a writer, artist or filmmaker of even vaugely-related material who doesn't cite it as a key influence. But Watterson has remained not only retired but practically invisible; refusing almost all interviews, seldom ever seen or even said to have been seen. In an age where some authors trade quips with fans daily on social media, he's essentially a ghost.

Until now.

Stephan Pastis, author of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, has now revealed that - unknown to the rest of the world (but suspected by a few dogged comics fans) until today - a just-concluded three day Pearls "meta-story" in which a (supposed) 10 year-old fan swapped-out Pastis usual art with her own Watterson-esque whismical fare was actually executed by Bill Watterson Himself under the condition that the truth not be known until it was concluded.

The three strips now mark the first new newspaper comics work that Watterson has published in almost two decades, though he has contributed a handful of forewards to comics collections and posters made for charity and the documentary Stripped.

[dadfly]

thanks for the post! big fans here.

[ShadowAce]

As are we in my household.

[InvisibleChurch]

F o r l a t er

[GeronL]

click link in #3. It is an awesome homage to Calvin and Hobbs. Honest

[dadfly]

one thing though, we did have to ban our kids from reading and re-reading the compiliations after a while... :).

[ConservingFreedom]

Thanks for the link! Excellent tribute!!

[dfwgator]

This is still my all-time favorite.

[ConservingFreedom]

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/04#.U5NXqSimXjJ
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/05#.U5NXwCimXjJ
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/06#.U5NX0iimXjJ

[GeronL]

It really is.

[ifinnegan]

I was assigned, and read, Canticle for Liebowitz.

Never knew the author did such a thing. The anecdote you relate makes me see him as an ultimate Richard. What a horrible hateful thing to do to people.

[ifinnegan]

“...considered by many to be the single greatest comic strip ...”

Well, there is this one some people have heard of called Peanuts.

Just saying.

[Bon of Babble]

Thanks. That's long been one of my bookmarked FReep articles.

The snowmen are awesome.

My kids are too young to remember Calvin & Hobbs so I've bought all the books and read them with them at bedtime.

I've also got my dad's Herman compilations, he requested them when he was in the hospital before he died.

[married21]

Thanks for posting this. We are huge fans of both strips.

[School of Rational Thought]

Calvin and Hobbes best comic street ever published. True genius.

[Bon of Babble]

One more, my favorite one of all time:

[GeronL]

lolz

[Norm Lenhart]

Definitely one of the best. I would have loved to have seen his take on this admin. But I guess BC was a product of it’s time. But oh what a time ;)

[RingerSIX]

I've always been a Mr. Boffo fan.

[RingerSIX]

[vladimir998]

Walter Miller became a troubled man as he got older. He abandoned Christianity and embraced eastern philosophies. By his end he seemed to be very bitter if the letters he wrote are anything to go by. I think his mind was ravaged by depression. Tragic story.