The world would not have been right if I didn’t talk about Bill Watterson. Born on July 5, 1958, Watterson is another one of those guys that some of you might wonder about, at least until I mention his brain-child. It’s my favorite comic strip of all time…Calvin and Hobbes, which ran from November of 1985 until the last day of 1995.
I absolutely love Calvin and Hobbes. I sit down and re-read the strips and laugh and laugh…and laugh some more. Watterson drew on some of his own childhood experiences to create Calvin, a precocious little boy with a colossal imagination who terrorized his parents, his teacher Ms. Wormwood, his babysitter Rosalyn, and the little neighbor girl Susie Derkins. His constant companion was Hobbes, a stuffed tiger that was alive only to Calvin.
Calvin often struggled with issues like death, the meaning of life, God, commercialism, and modern materialism, and Hobbes was usually there with some response that should have provided (but often didn’t) perspective and resolution to Calvin. The star of the strip possessed a huge vocabulary, but couldn’t be bothered to do the simplest of homework assignments. He spent most school-time hours day-dreaming that he was Spaceman Spiff, saving the galaxies in his spaceship, or Stupendous Man.
I think the comic strip was outrageously funny, and picking my favorites out of 10 years of material is pretty difficult. He and Hobbes play this hysterical make-the-rules-as-you-go game called Calvinball. His creation of a cardboard-box Transmogrifier was hilarious. But I think my favorite strips involved Calvin eating bowls of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and the time when he ordered a beanie with a little propreller that he thought would make him fly.
Watterson created a winner with Calvin and Hobbes, and the numerous awards he won prove it. He steadfastly refused to merchandize the characters, believing that slapping them on a lunchbox or a T-shirt or creating movies about them destroyed the purity of the strip. So the comic strip is all we have. But as far as I’m concerned, the comic strip is all we need.
Happy Birthday, Bill Watterson!!
Recommended Reading: Find any of the numerous Calvin and Hobbes comic strip books at your local bookstore. Better yet, get the complete anthology…I received it as a gift and it’s awesome.
