Where is Bill Watterson?

Here’s an article about Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. He hasn’t made a public appearance in 15 years and as Watterson himself was unavailable for interview, the article has to content itself with speaking to his parents.

The photograph of him used in the article is almost 20 years old.

The new anthology has now made the New York Times best sellers list as this extract attests.

On the hardcover miscellaneous list, "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes," a thick anthology of Bill Watterson's comic strips, makes its debut at No. 4 - surprising only because, at a list price of $150, it is one of the most expensive books ever to make the Times list. Watterson retired the strip in 1996, and it has clearly been missed. In an interview posted recently on his publisher's Web site, the reclusive Watterson gave some laconic answers to questions posted by fans.

One of them asked what led him to resist merchandising his characters. His response: "For starters, I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo. . . . Actually, I wasn't against all merchandising when I started the strip, but each product I considered seemed to violate the spirit of the strip, contradict its message and take me away from the work I loved."

Here’s an appreciation of Calvin and Hobbes.

And here’s another nice article that tells the story of the day Bill Watterson told Steven Spielberg ‘no.’