Bill Watterson is one of the most elusive characters in modern American letters. His Calvin & Hobbes strip is an embarrassment of riches, but the man himself has valued privacy above all, largely fading to a quiet existence following his strip’s much mourned retirement. However, Mental Floss scored a very rare interview (all done via email) with him, and it reveals Watterson to be every bit the kind, intelligent, articulate soul his fans always suspected he would be. Here’s a few excellent quotes.
On why he won’t allow anyone, even Pixar (who has begged him for the rights), to adapt his characters.
The visual sophistication of Pixar blows me away, but I have zero interest in animating Calvin and Hobbes …As a comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes works exactly the way I intended it to. There’s no upside for me in adapting it.
Why he won’t honor his fans’ requests to write more Calvin and Hobbes:
Well, coming at a new work requires a certain amount of patience and energy …You can’t really blame people for preferring more of what they already know and like. The trade-off, of course, is that predictability is boring. Repetition is the death of magic.
On rumors that a toymaker once sent him a plush creation of Hobbes, which he promptly set on fire:
Not exactly. It was only my head that burst into flames.
Read the whole thing here …
