Dear Mr. Watterson Page #10

have been near the success

artistically or financially

for its worth creator

had it run any other time.

Which is both sort of amazing

and kind of sad in a way, you know?

If you would have asked me

the question, ten years ago,

how would his lack of licensing

affect the strip?

I would have said, it's ridiculous,

it's going to fail.

It's going to hurt

the long term legacy.

People will forget

the strip quickly.

Because part of Snoopy's

enduring legacy

is that your four year old

can have a plush Snoopy

and then learn about the cartoons

and the strip.

They fall in love

with merchandising first

and then the characters

and the content and the art.

So I'd say the strip is going to go,

vanish, we'll never hear from it again

and there will be people

like me, 40 years from now,

talking about it the same way

we do about Krazy Kat and Pogo.

Brilliant, wonderful;

the public has forgotten.

Not with Calvin and Hobbes.

It's universal.

It has maintained it's quality

and integrity to the point

that kids today,

coming up, are still reading it.

How do they learn about it?

It's in their school libraries.

That was one of the breakthroughs

is that Calvin and Hobbes

was encouraged by the teachers.

Teachers spotted the child

who was Calvin and said,

"You're Calvin,

I want you to read this."

And it got them reading.

And parents encouraged it too.

So I think that made up for a lot

of the merchandising

that would have helped carry it on.

That made up for the animation

that never happened,

is that the comic was just that good

that it could survive without it.

I don't know that

there's a lot like that.

I've lost track of the number

of six and seven year olds

who list Calvin and Hobbes

as their favorite comic strip

and they know about

the Transmogrifier

and they know about

the time machine

and they know how to turn

a cardboard box

into absolutely anything.

I think there's even a generation

of kids named Calvin

because people my age are starting

to become parents

and all it takes really is seeing

that dog-eared copy

of Something Under the Bed

is Drooling,

or Yukon Ho! at your public library

or on your school bookshelf.

- You know people -- I've heard

questions like why are people

still reading that,

why are the books so popular?

He hasn't been in the newspapers

in 15 years,

why are people still talking

about it?

It's like, 'cause it's transcendent,

that's the beauty of it.

And that's, I think why Calvin

will be around 10 years from today,

25, because he talks to us

on a deeper level than just punchline.

It's kind of reflective in the fact

that people can go back

to Calvin and Hobbes

and read them

over and over and over and over again

and they're always joyful.

Even when you know what

the punch line is gonna be

it's still funny.

I feel inspired when I read

a Calvin and Hobbes strip.

As a human being,

Calvin is enjoying life so much,

I wanna go out

and enjoy life that way.

It can't really be contained

by print or panels.

It's a living, breathing thing

and I think it always will be.

He used ink and brushes

and some watercolors

but he created life with that,

which I think is what

every cartoonist aspires to,

but not many of us ever

get to achieve that.

Calvin and Hobbes, there's not

a single element in it

that isn't kind of as current

as it was when it came out.

It's all about being a kid.

It's all about imagination.

Every single thing that's

referenced I don't have to explain

the context to my kids.

They actually live it

in the same way I did.

That's not changing

and to read Doonesbury

or to read Bloom County

or the other, for me,

the most important things

growing up,

you need to have a sense

of the history.

You need to understand

the pop culture of the time

in a very specific way.

Calvin and Hobbes just kind of

requires that you're alive,

which is quite an achievement.

I've been fortunate to work

with some wonderful cartoonists

and certainly, at the top of that list

has to be Bill because he was

so different, so challenging.

He really caused us as a company

and me as an individual

to rethink the ways we dealt

with cartoonists

and what our role was

in helping them get their work out

into the public.

His creativity and the result

of his efforts were up there

with probably two or three or four

of the greatest strips of all time.

I think Calvin is something

that will last and, heaven forbid,

if newspapers were

to disappear tomorrow

and books were not to be printed,

there would be some way

people would want to find his work

and read it again

because I think it's that strong

and that enduring and that special.

Over the years, my favorite

Calvin and Hobbes strip has changed.

When Watterson was still

writing and drawing

my favorite might change weekly,

especially as he continued

to put out some of his greatest work

in the last few years.

I have my collection

of Calvin and Hobbes strips

that I love for one reason or another.

But, looking back at it all,

as much as I love some of the strips

for the humor or the adventure

or the amazing art

or the imaginative place

that the strip took me,

the strip that I can't really forget

is one that nobody else

has ever mentioned to me

as a favorite or even a notable one.

When I've described it to other fans,

I don't often get a look

of recognition.

But, for me, it's unforgettable

and it has a special meaning.

I'll never know exactly what

Bill Watterson's intentions were

with this strip.

I myself can see a few different

possible interpretations.

But I can no longer look at it

without feeling like I've glimpsed

beyond the surface of a comic strip

filled with imagination

and magic and joy and adventure

and friendship

and seen instead a hint

of tremendous disappointment and loss.

Watterson conceived of this strip,

he wrote it, drew it and inked it

using the simplest of tools;

Bristol board, 2H pencils,

a sable brush and India ink.

He handed it over to his syndicate

for publication

in newspapers worldwide

and millions of readers discovered it

in the paper or in one of his books

where we all brought

our individual experiences

and perspectives into the equation.

And Bill Watterson has repeated

this process 3,160 times.

Each of these strips holds

the potential to touch someone,

somewhere, in a unique

and personal way.

Many of Watterson's strips

mean something special to me.

Some bring a huge smile

to my face.

Some challenge me to think.

And a few are more melancholy.

I see some strips differently now

than I did as a kid.

And for me, looking back,

this strip foreshadows the end

of Calvin and Hobbes.

Ijust, I remember

the announcement.

I remember reading

the final comic.

I remember knowing that

that was going to be it

and it was a really poignant way

to end it

and true to everything

he built up before it.

I certainly remembering opening

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