I am amazed that anybody got an interview with Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes. As short as the interview might be, it’s awesome for me to read. Calvin & Hobbes is the reason I do comics today, and it’s an inspiration to hear his thoughts on his comic, and those legacy comics that exist in papers today. He truly created comics for his love of the craft, with the money he made from it being largely incidental. Click him to read it!
Holy crap, he was an adorable geek in his youth. I’ve never actually seen his photo.
Yep he looks awesomely geeky. Actually, take away the moustache and he looks like Calvin’s dad…
Well… in some way… he IS Calvin’s Dad
calvin and hobbes, how awesome are those 2 rascals?
btw love the cream climbing out of the coffee spitting the coffee out
I’d be tempted to taste it.
the last panel of this terrifies me
Hey if it makes you check the expiration date more, I’ve done a good deed. I check them on everything, constantly.
I had to fight back the baby vomit.
I hope you won the fight.
I think I ate there last week. If you think the sweetner is bad you should try the eggs.
Funny, I just looked at the expiration date on my carton of eggs. “Sell by” Jan. 28th. So, as long as I buy them before then, they never go bad? Interesting.
Do they have a salad bar?
I’m sure they have lots of greens of all sorts.
I love Calvin & Hobbes. It doesn’t matter if he’s not making any more of them – the work he did then will stand the test of time and be around forever.
Great strip, as always, today. Dan, of any comics I read, today, your comic remind me the most of C&H. With your strips the writing is superb and there’s so much joy and attention to detail in the drawing of everything as a whole (the characters, the backgrounds – everything).
We used to have a ’50′s diner very similar to this in my city (but the car was inside and you could eat in it). I heard it closed down because the owners not only mismanaged it but didn’t pay their taxes. They ended up skipping the country without paying their employees.
Hey silent rob, thanks for the compliments! Sometimes I wish my strip were more lik eC&H but then I think it’s pretty okay as its own animal. But yes, very much influenced by it.
And eek, skipping the country and not paying their employees? I’d send a PI to go get ‘em.
For some reason that reminds me I need to clean out my fridge. Thanks! (I think)
Hooray! Me too…
It was nice reading about a guy who cared more about the fun of making comics than about becoming a commercialized success. You can tell he just wanted to have fun and leave the business/politics out of the equation.
Oh yeah, he fought his syndicate that wanted to license EVERYTHING about his comic.
Fun fact: Before C&H, he was offered a job doing a syndicated comic that coincided with a toy’s release. He declined, without ever knowing he’d ever have a shot at syndication again. He’s definitely one for the integrity and dignity of the comic strip as an art form, not just a kid’s entertainment medium.
ha ha ha ha, eww.
Was psyched to see that A: my hometown paper the Plain Dealer got a Watterson interview, and..
B: that I “discovered” he was FROM Cleveland, and still lives there! I know where Shaker heights is!
Represent!
Woohoo! Let me know if you get a picture with him.
Wow, I actually had something like this happen to me once, but it was with an apple that came with my “blue plate special” and imploded into brown goo when I took a bite. Perhaps it was a metaphor for the real fifties — shiny surface hiding a rotten core.
Haha wow, now that’s deep.
Wow… now that’s authentic!
And a good excuse to save food costs.
Really nice job with the color, especially in the neon “Diner” sign.
I saw that Watterson interview yesterday. It seemed like he was getting kinda bored with the interview at the end.
Yeah he’s really the type of guy who is reluctant to talk to anyone, especially when it will put him in the spotlight. I’m not sure why he agreed to do the interview in the first place, actually.
EWWWW…. love te first panel!
That was a fun one to draw. I’m still working on incorporating more “mechanical” things into the comic, rather than organic. Buildings, cars, etc., which I don’t like to draw.
I just went through and read all of these in two days. They’re fantastic. Tubular one might say.
Awesome! Let’s bring back the word “tubular.” I’ll start today.
Long live Calvin and Hobbes, and the legions of kids who grew up to become cartoonists because of it!
…and the ancient creamer thing is something I’ve encountered in a real diner once.
Amen, brother. I don’t just say that for effect. If it weren’t for Calvin and Hobbes, there’s a slight chance The Far Side would have inspired me to draw that first cartoon in a box, but I’m not positive. C&H was it.
Same story here (although Gary Larson and Berke Breathed were also close influences). I’m surprised there isn’t some big webcomic collective for cartoonists who became what they are because of ‘Calvin & Hobbes’.
…does anyone want to set that up?
That would be awesome. I know Mike Gruhn of the aforementioned WebDonuts is one of them. I wonder who else…
that would be a much funnier comic of a black guy tried to walk in
Ah yes that might cause a problem in the ’50s…
UGH.
I hate to be an artifact nazi, but cream cartons w/ expiration dates didn’t come out till the late ’70s or so. in the ’50s it would have been a small covered pitcher or a diary cream bottle & you could tell if it was sour by the taste. (ok, actually I love being an artifact nazi)