Dear Mr. Watterson Page #3

So many of Calvin's adventures

take place in far away worlds.

But his everyday reality

looks so familiar to me.

His backyard and the woods

he explored probably looked

just like home to a lot of readers.

And they looked a lot like

the small town

that Bill Watterson grew up in

near Cleveland, Ohio.

We're just outside

of Chagrin Falls.

And we're about to head

to the Fireside Book Shop

where we are going to meet up

with Nevin Martell,

who recently wrote a book

about Bill Watterson.

And if you look around, this is

the type of scenery that you see

in Calvin and Hobbes.

The landscapes, the trees,

the colors, the hills,

these are the landscapes

as you see Calvin and Hobbes sledding

or wagoneering in their backyard.

You look around and it's like

this is the strip in real life.

It's great.

When I first drove into Chagrin Falls,

it was like walking

into a Calvin and Hobbes strip,

because the road in which

I happened to come in on

happened to be from the

same perspective of the image

of Calvin rampaging through

the triangle at the center of town,

while holding the Popcorn Shop

above him like he's a giant Godzilla.

So when I drove into town,

I knew exactly where I was

because I'd seen that before,

except I'd seen it

as one of Watterson's watercolors.

The view is from above

the clock tower here,

at the south end of town,

looking north.

Bandstand...Fireside

is roughly right here.

And Popcorn Shop, which is

just around the corner,

on the same side as Fireside.

And is usual per Bill, he has

almost completely done

the architectural details

exactly as they are.

I'm not sure what's on fire

back here,

but this is probably

the most popular book we sell

simply because of the local drawing

on the back.

- You came to Chagrin Falls,

the hometown of Bill Watterson,

as a part of your journey.

What was that like?

- When I pitched the book,

I'd always pitched it with the trip

to Chagrin Falls.

And I always knew

that I wanted to come.

When I had pitched it,

it was just kind of like,

and in a dream world,

we'll go to Chagrin Falls

and we'll knock on doors

and we'll talk to people

and we'll see things that have

never been seen.

And so I didn't really know

what I was going to get.

And it turned into a minor bonanza.

I mean, it was a major bonanza

in terms of insight and material.

The book would have been thinner

without it.

- I started at the library here

about three years ago.

And I walked into my office,

and it turns out I've got

an original Calvin and Hobbes

about Calvin going to the library

and having an overdue book.

I was very excited by it.

And as you can tell,

by looking at it really close,

you can actually even see

Wite-Out on it.

- This is the first original

I've ever seen.

It's like the movement.

He decided that he didn't

want you to see that.

The size is so much bigger

than how they're printed

in the newspapers.

You have no idea when

you're reading them in the paper.

And there are papers that would

have printed them smaller than this.

- And there's some pretty

cool stuff on the back, too.

- Bill Watterson grew up

in Chagrin Falls.

His otherwise civic-minded parents

encouraged Bill's slothful habits

until the youth was fit

for no respectable work

and had to go into cartooning.

Calvin and Hobbes was syndicated

a year ago this month,

and now appears in newspapers

across the world

wherever better comic strips are read.

Value $200, and now it says $500.

- We have the Chagrin Herald.

They're bound newspapers

from the 70s and earlier.

In the 70s you'll find some

of Bill Watterson's earlier work.

We'll go back here and see what

we can pull off the shelf for you.

So down here in the catacombs

of the library.

- 1976.

That's a very early one,

Thursday, August 26.

- The kids are going back

to school.

- So, going back to school.

"Coming straight from vacation,

squealing into school."

I gotcha.

Calvin would be headed

the other direction.

So this is January.

- 1978.

- Through December of '78.

There we go.

- Look at that.

- "Watterson on Watterson."

"The Herald Sun's award-winning

cartoonist, Bill Watterson,

turns his satiric pen on himself."

Much longer hair then,

ink all over,

Peanuts,

and then his signature.

That almost looks gothic

in a way, or something.

Do you have any 1982?

- Yeah.

Oh, there we go.

They pop out to you.

"He knew the risks when he put

the garbage out early, ma'am."

This actually reminds me

of the Sunday strip,

when the deer pop in with rifles

and shoot Bill or Phil or some guy.

His signature here is a lot more

like his signature

with Calvin and Hobbes.

In the early '80s, Watterson did have

a few opportunities to showcase

his drawing skills

for various publications

while he endured repeated rejection

from the syndicates.

But while he worked hard to make

a living as a cartoonist,

his talents were often wasted

on laying out advertising

in order to pay the bills.

Within months, however,

of quitting that job,

Watterson was becoming

one of the cartoonists

who other professional

and aspiring cartoonists

were looking up to.

It's probably hard to name an artist

who came along in the 1990s onward,

a comic strip artist,

who wasn't influenced in some way

by Calvin and Hobbes.

You can definitely see

his impact in comics today.

And it's not that anyone is

copying his comics, specifically,

or trying to do

exactly what he did.

But you can clearly see that

the creators who are younger

and who are introducing

new comic strips,

you can clearly see that they've read

Calvin and Hobbes

and are influenced by that.

I can tell you when I saw Calvin,

I saw the very first day

in the L.A. Times, I liked it.

And you don't like strips

very often from the first day.

I remember looking at comics

in the newspaper and thinking,

you know, I could probably write

and draw as well as these guys.

I should give a comic strip a shot.

After Calvin and Hobbes came out,

I sort of modified it to,

well, I could probably write and draw

as well as most of these guys.

I had sort of written off

the comic strips at that point.

And when Calvin and Hobbes

came fresh on the scene,

it was brand new

and it was funny.

It captivated me

right off the bat.

I knew that was a good strip,

I said I knew it was a funny strip.

I couldn't wait to read

that strip every single day.

- There was a unique perspective,

a unique voice to it.

That it wasn't generic,

formula gag stuff,

which permeates

most of the comic page.

In every way, shape, and form,

and on every level

it was like comic strip perfection.

And it still is.

- One of my favorite lines came

from Lynn Johnston

who was doing For Better or For Worse,

and she said,

"He inspires all of us

to do a little bit better."

And I think that, on the one side

was a beneficial impact that he had,

not only among artists

who were working at the time,

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