Tale of Two Comic Strip Authors

Bill Watterson, the author of the Calvin and Hobbes, was an Arts major. He hated the constraints and rules imposed on comics by the newspapers (size, panels, rules for Sunday strips etc) and the syndicates. He stuck to his guns and the result was, well, the greatest comic ever.

Watterson’s work was, of course, utterly comprehensible and full of deep significance. It remains popular even today, long after he stopped drawing them.

 

Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, on the other hand is an MBA. When he started Dilbert, it got published via one of the syndicates. And after a year, it was just stagnating in a handful of newspapers. So Adams did what his MBA training had taught him: seek the customer’s feedback, and the customer is always right.

It was the start of the Internet age, and so Adams added his mail ID next to the strip. Voila! The feedback came in bucketloads and Adams learnt that people loved the strip when the main character was in office, not outside. Until then, Adams had been drawing Dilbert mostly outside of office! He made the change to the strip and the rest is history.

 

I guess the Watterson way is how artists operate. And MBA’s tend to work the Adams way. And both techniques work.

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