• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dear Mr. Watterson- A documentary about Calvin & Hobbes. Out Nov 15th

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Article link. Trailer link. Go here to preorder. The doc is $13.

What’s your favorite Calvin & Hobbes comic? You have one. Everyone has one: the Snow Goons, or the Transmogrifier, or Spaceman Spiff, or careening through the woods on that little red wagon. People love Calvin & Hobbes with unique ferocity. So it’s no surprise that the documentary Dear Mr. Watterson, available in select theaters and video-on-demand on November 15, is above all a love letter to Bill Watterson’s beloved cartoon about a boy and his tiger.

Rooted in filmmaker Joel Allen Schroeder’s lifelong adoration of the strip, Dear Mr. Watterson explores the influence Watterson and had not only on dozens of cartoonists, but a generation-spanning legion of fans and readers. Calvin & Hobbes has always found an audience where no other books could: problem students and reluctant readers, families in mourning, alienated kids who felt more at home in their own imaginations than beside their peers.

Bill Watterson himself doesn’t appear in the documentary, but he doesn’t really need to. Watterson is notoriously reclusive, “the Sasquatch of Cartoonists,” in the words of the film. Schroeder’s Watterson is a negative image, defined by the impact he’s had on both fans and other artists. From Fox Trot‘s Bill Amend to Berkeley Breathed of Opus and Bloom County, cartoonist after cartoonist speaks to Watterson’s legacy as one of the last of the truly great comic-strip draftsmen in the tradition of Windsor McCay and George Harriman.

Watterson’s career also offers Schroeder a vehicle to explore the evolution and current state of comic strips. Calvin & Hobbes, for all its timelessness — bereft of pop culture signifiers, it’s as relevant now as it was 20 years ago — has always been something of an anachronism. Watterson was one of the last really great innovators of newspaper comics, the only member of his or any subsequent generation who could ever have stonewalled the shrinking of the funny pages, insisting on Calvin & Hobbes’ glorious half-page Sunday strips in defiance of the traditional syndicate grid.

As a cultural artifact, Calvin & Hobbes is inseparable from its medium. Its tremendous impact was a product of its quality, but also of its ubiquity – everyone read Calvin & Hobbes. The field of today’s comic strips extends further than it did in 1985, but it’s also become more diffuse and curated by individual readers’ tastes and frames of reference. It’s harder to happen across something like Calvin & Hobbes, to open the Sunday paper and stumble headfirst into the vivid adventures of a kid and his stuffed tiger.

But Calvin & Hobbes has neither waned along with newspapers, nor carved out a digital home alongside strips like Doonesbury. In a medium where strips often outlive their creators, passed to new teams or extended through decades of reruns, Watterson made the rare choice to give Calvin & Hobbes a definite and distinct ending. Calvin & Hobbes is unusually finite in other ways as well. In an era when cartoonists’ income is tied increasingly closely to licensed products, Calvin & Hobbes remains a rare outlier: In accordance with Watterson’s wishes, his syndicate has never licensed a single Calvin & Hobbes product.

This last choice is among the most controversial of Watterson’s career, and one that’s set him at odds with many of his contemporaries. It’s also emblematic of his approach to comics, as a man whose body of work represents an eloquent and compelling case for the comic strip as high art — and man who rejected the commercial licensing embraced by cartoonists like Charles Schulz and Jim Davis that’s propelled more and more of the comics economy. Calvin & Hobbes is, fundamentally and exclusively, a comic strip; despite frequent homage and a cottage industry of bootleg products, the characters have never existed officially independent of Watterson’s pen.

That Calvin & Hobbes continues to endure, still a favorite even among a generation of kids who never saw it syndicated, is testament to the timelessness of Watterson’s work. We grow up, we grow old; newspaper clippings yellow and fade; but somewhere, always, Calvin will be six years old, sledding down a hill with Hobbes at his back. That, ultimately, is the theme of Dear Mr. Watterson: Calvin & Hobbes’ enduring legacy as the strip that speaks to the kids we were — and always will be.
Click to expand...

deluxe bundles

Select any format of the film you want (Download, DVD or Blu-ray) plus get the soundtrack, a poster, and a GoComics subscription all in one bundle!

A DVD, Blu-ray or Download of the Film - all versions including
104 minutes of bonus features!
High quality 320 kbps MP3 Download of the Dear Mr. Watterson soundtrack, available for download on November 15, 2013
Official Poster - choose between a 18"x12" or larger 27"x40" version
GoComics Subscription: 1-Year subscription to the web's largest
catalog of syndicated newspaper strips and web comics, offering new, fresh and free content every day
Click to expand...

So brought.
 
jadedm17

jadedm17

Member
Yes please. Was permission given for this? Personal interview? I love Calvin and Hobbes but i remember him being fairly private. Its a shame, id love to buy some C&H shirts and toys at Hot Topic but hes always turned down merchandising deals.
 
C

Christine

Member
The most incredible thing to me is that it ran only one decade. It's been almost two since the strip ended. Yet it is probably the second most beloved and influential strip after Peanuts, which ran 1950-2000.
 
B

Black Door

Banned
I wish Watterson wasn't so crazily reclusive and didn't hate technology. It would be interesting to see C&H as a webcomic (which would give him all the freedom from publishers he said he wanted all the time back then)
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
No, he's not in it. I doubt he will ever officially go on record to respond to the film to anyone.

I'm not mad at him for stopping the comic, creative people gotta do what creative people gotta do and it had a great run. I'm not angry at him for being principled and not allowing C&H merchandise to be made. I AM really frustrated with him for hiding from the world the way he does.

Most of what I read about him, I get the feeling that if you bumped into him on the street and mentioned that you loved his comic, he'd roll his eyes and try to get away from you as fast as possible, and consider moving to a new town.
 
F

FutureZombie

Banned
Christine said:
The most incredible thing to me is that it ran only one decade. It's been almost two since the strip ended. Yet it is probably the second most beloved and influential strip after Peanuts, which ran 1950-2000.
Click to expand...

What's so special about Watterson is that he had the integrity to retire on top of his game, leaving millions on the table. So few people are capable of doing this and leaving an untarnished legacy.
 
M

makingmusic476

Member
I spent my entire childhood collecting all the Calvin & Hobbes compilations that had come out, and I read them over, and over, and over again.

It was an incredibly influential part of my childhood, and it's hands down my favorite comic strip.
 
way more

way more

Member
Reposting from this thread I made that apparently nobody cared about.


On his cartoon blog Zen Pencils, Gavin Aung Than turns inspirational quotes into comic strips. For his newest strip, he illustrated a quote from Bill Watterson’s 1990 speech at Kenyon College in the style of Calvin and Hobbes
Click to expand...

Just click on the link because it works better larger, like actual Calvin and Hobbes was.

http://zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice/ - and site of the creator.

oDRgGlw.jpg
 
I

iddqd

Member
What was the name of that other documentary where they actually got him on the phone? It was also on kickstarter..
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
UncleSporky said:
No, he's not in it. I doubt he will ever officially go on record to respond to the film to anyone.

I'm not mad at him for stopping the comic, creative people gotta do what creative people gotta do and it had a great run. I'm not angry at him for being principled and not allowing C&H merchandise to be made. I AM really frustrated with him for hiding from the world the way he does.

Most of what I read about him, I get the feeling that if you bumped into him on the street and mentioned that you loved his comic, he'd roll his eyes and try to get away from you as fast as possible, and consider moving to a new town.
Click to expand...

I don't begrudge him his privacy. His entire approach to Calvin and Hobbes was to let the art speak for itself. He has no obligation to engage with anyone, especially now that he is no longer publishing new C&H material.
 
way more

way more

Member
iddqd said:
What was the name of that other documentary where they actually got him on the phone? It was also on kickstarter..
Click to expand...

Really? That's awful, leave the man alone. "Let's invade and disrespect the one thing my icon values most!"
 
R

rjc571

Banned
In accordance with Watterson’s wishes, his syndicate has never licensed a single Calvin & Hobbes product.
Click to expand...
Why do people keep saying this when it's not true?
nUHMgHv.jpg

F5reXVQ.jpg

YzmdRyd.jpg

SsK4MYL.jpg

All officially licensed
 
E

Empty

Member
ooh this sounds interesting

that he isn't even in it is great. so much love for people like pynchon, malick and watterson who refuse to live their lives in the public eye.
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
GhaleonEB said:
He has no obligation to engage with anyone, especially now that he is no longer publishing new C&H material.
Click to expand...

Of course he has no obligation. I have no obligation to be happy with that, though.

There is such a thing as human decency. When somebody makes a movie about you, it'd be nice of you to tell someone to tell everyone "hey, thanks." You're not obligated to do that, no, but it'd sure be courteous.
 
B

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Zenpencil in general is really awesome. People should check it out.

Empty said:
ooh this sounds interesting

that he isn't even in it is great. so much love for people like pynchon, malick and watterson who refuse to live their lives in the public eye.
Click to expand...

Larson is another fellow recluse. I miss my Far Sides :(
 
S

Snowman Prophet of Doom

Member
I often wonder if Bill Watterson is sitting on a wealth of original material that will only come out after his death, Salinger-style. I'd certainly love graphic novels, artwork, etc.
 
M

Musolf815

Member
Schroeder’s Watterson is a negative image, defined by the impact he’s had on both fans and other artists. From Fox Trot‘s Bill Amend to Berkeley Breathed of Opus and Bloom County, cartoonist after cartoonist speaks to Watterson’s legacy as one of the last of the truly great comic-strip draftsmen in the tradition of Windsor McCay and George Harriman.
Click to expand...

Wait huh? This part confuses me. Everyone says how great his legacy is and that's negative? Am I reading this wrong?

Also I can't help but think of this when I read about Watterson's reclusion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/bill-watterson-writes-illustrates-shreds-new-calvi,21240/
 
P

Platy

Member
Disapointed to see it focused on the legacy.

Always wanted to know more about the inner workings of the comic itself and Watterson
 
P

Paskil

Member
This makes me want to pull out my complete collection. I loved the Sunday strips especially. I would love to just meet him, shake his hand, say thank you, and walk away.
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Platy said:
Disapointed to see it focused on the legacy.

Always wanted to know more about the inner workings of the comic itself and Watterson
Click to expand...

It has a little bit of everything.

For example, they interview the guy at the syndicate who he butted heads with constantly over how much money he could've been making. They refer to various quotes from him and other public arguments that were happening about the state of comics around that time.
 
S

Spring-Loaded

Member
Platy said:
Disapointed to see it focused on the legacy.

Always wanted to know more about the inner workings of the comic itself and Watterson
Click to expand...

I feel the same, but I'm still looking forward to this. Watterson was smart to never market the strip after giving it a definite end (as far as quality goes), yet ever since, I wanted more C&H related media, so this will have to do

Though it can still explore some of the innerworkings without needing to feature Watterson himself.
 
P

Peru

Member
Been pointed out before but Schulz started his strip in a very different time and when the merch cat was out the bag there was no stopping it. I could personally live without Snoopy panties but the important thing, rather than whether there's merch out there or not, is to keep control of your own strip, your own work. Schulz did that, he drew every strip for fifty years, and when he retired the strip retired.
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
Humm. I'm not really sure if I'm interested in seeing a documentary that's self-described as "a love letter." I want to know more about the process and the man himself.

I reread C&H recently and I couldn't help but feel put off by some of the underlying cynicism and misanthropy. There were so many random pithy strips, and when you read the editions where Watterson left notes under each one, you start to notice he really is bitter about some totally random stuff. There's one that sticks out in particular to me: "no matter which way you look at it, comics are incredibly stupid." That was it. That was his gripping commentary, in... comic form. Combined with other weird stuff like "UGH I wish movies didn't have CLOSEUPS!" I feel like a lot of people gloss over the more glib aspects of the comic and just remember the more positive, pretty drawings of forests.

I would love a documentary more about him and the comic, but he'd never allow it.
 
D

Downhome

Member
One of my favorite things I own is the Comics Journal issue #127 with C&H on the cover with the rare print interview with Bill Watterson.

I grew up with C&H from the very start. I read the strip from the start and collected the books as they were released. I wish, at the very least, he would license an official Hobbes stuffed animal. I would take that one thing if I could only pick one item. When my wife and I have our first child, that would be an amazing gift I could give to them. Heck, I'll likely have one custom made when that day comes.

Here is the full interview from CJ#127 for whatever it's worth...

http://ignatz.brinkster.net/ccomicsjournal.html

It's a hell of a read.

I get it, I really do, but I wish he would loosen up at least a bit. Even if it was just him offering certain items for sale himself, just anything. He could control it all himself.
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Peru said:
Been pointed out before but Schulz started his strip in a very different time and when the merch cat was out the bag there was no stopping it. I could personally live without Snoopy panties but the important thing, rather than whether there's merch out there or not, is to keep control of your own strip, your own work. Schulz did that, he drew every strip for fifty years, and when he retired the strip retired.
Click to expand...

Personally I have no trouble separating the merch from the comic. Schultz is the Mr. Rogers of comics, his strips will always be a sort of innocent comfort food. When his characters are used to hawk life insurance, I think shame on that insurance company, not shame on Schultz. The strip isn't cheapened, the company using it is. The art is still pristine and speaks for itself.

Compare to Jim Davis and there is a very noticeable difference.

Basically in my opinion Watterson's work wouldn't have suffered with some merchandise, because I think the strip itself makes his attitudes so clear. In fact, C&H merchandise HAS existed for a long time, licensed or not - the existence of a license doesn't change the fact that it is something outside of the comic that a person can hold. Random people on Etsy make Hobbes dolls, and the comic hasn't suffered for it.

However, I am not saying that he should have had some merchandise or anything like that. I think that his work wouldn't have suffered either way and I'm fine with the way things turned out, a world without Calvin coffee mugs. That's cool too.

In the documentary, Pastis has some things to say on this issue and how he's personally divided on it, especially with regard to the idea of Hobbes dolls.
 
B

Black Door

Banned
XANDER CAGE said:
Humm. I'm not really sure if I'm interested in seeing a documentary that's self-described as "a love letter." I want to know more about the process and the man himself.

I reread C&H recently and I couldn't help but feel put off by some of the underlying cynicism and misanthropy. There were so many random pithy strips, and when you read the editions where Watterson left notes under each one, you start to notice he really is bitter about some totally random stuff. There's one that sticks out in particular to me: "no matter which way you look at it, comics are incredibly stupid." That was it. That was his gripping commentary, in... comic form. Combined with other weird stuff like "UGH I wish movies didn't have CLOSEUPS!" I feel like a lot of people gloss over the more glib aspects of the comic and just remember the more positive, pretty drawings of forests.

I would love a documentary more about him and the comic, but he'd never allow it.
Click to expand...

That's a problem I have with people worshiping his anti-consumerism, anti-technology message and developing this cult of personality around him. He's not doing it because he thinks corporations hurt artists and wants folks to wake up and live free of name brands dominating their lives, but likely because he hates people and thinks he's the only sane man on the planet
 
T

TheXfactor

Member
Can you imagine how much money he would have made from Not just tv shows and movies, but with Stuffed animals? He would be a 100 millionaire no doubt, that comic was ridiculously popular and it still is popular and well known.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
New Calvin and Hobbes book releasing with in-depth Watterson interview
2
67
7K
Small Mailman replied
  • Locked
CONFIRMED: Bill Watterson was ghost-drawing in "Pearls Before Swine" comic
2
52
6K
BronsonLee replied
  • Locked
NBC & ABC's Fall schedules and new shows for 2016-2017
28
4K
sphagnum replied
  • Locked
Is Bill Watterson Ghost-Drawing Pearl Before Swine Strips? Yes.
2 3
115
18K
bodyofanamerican replied
  • Locked
New Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) Art Revealed! (Not Calvin and Hobbes)
2
58
7K
Gazunta replied
Top Bottom