Thursday, February 04, 2010

Tiger

Now that J.D. Salinger is dead, I guess Bill Watterson is the closest thing we have to a celebrity recluse.

Maybe he's not too too reclusive if you know where he lives. And I do. Oh, I do.

There was a nice, but slightly odd article/interview regarding the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, in which he breaks a 15 year silence.

Calvin & Hobbes ranked up there with my favourite strip ever. Doonesbury, the Far Side and Bloom County would be the others. Oh and Mark Trail. HA! Just kidding on that last one. I do own every strip he's done.

It's not like I'm stalking the man, by the way. Watterson took refuge in my hometown. Not Cleveland proper, but a farther out suburb known for nothing more than really being the home of Tim Conway.......and me. He became (or perhaps always was) quite the eccentric around town.

As luck interest would have it, one of my cousins bought Watterson's house after he shut down his strip and opted to move. Dan said he was just very strange to deal with, but it is kind of a cool house.

As weirdness would have it, Watterson moved from that house, and to one next to a great friend of mine. More tales of weirdness abound. Since Bob has to live next to him and who knows who Gooooogles what, I won't go into specific stories, but it is safe to say that what's normal to you and I might not be normal to Bill W.

I try not to let those stories colour my good thoughts on Calvin and his life long pal. They were fun, funny and insightful. Sometimes just silly - but that's what I needed for the 10 years they were in existence.

I've passed my love of the strip along to my youngest niece and nephews. So hopefully for a few more years, Calvin & Hobbles will be live in the hearts and minds of the next generation.



Song by: Paula Cole

5 comments:

Larry Ohio said...

You brought back some fond memories of Calvin & Hobbes for me. Thank you. I never knew Watterson was local.

Birdie said...

Calvin and Far Side are the two strips I still read as an adult. (What's it say that both of them are retired?) My son has read every single Calvin book, the only books he's read willingly. In elementary school, he used to painstakingly copy Calvin strips freehand. Weird or not, I want to thank Mr. Watterson for giving my kid something to enjoy during some pretty painful times.

anne marie in philly said...

nothing like calvin and hobbes...nothing ever will be...gone too soon...

Tony (LT) said...

I think you have to be abnormal to have that kind of creative genius...and to know to stop producing it before it dies before your eyes.

cb said...

Other than the Far Side, C&H was the only strip I ever thought was really great.