Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Why did Bill Watterson fight the merchandising of Calvin and Hobbes so much, so bitterly, asks and answers Matthew Morgan.   One gets a clue from a question fans of the strip asked: Was Hobbes real or imaginary? Here is Watterson’s own Zen koan-like answer: “Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way. I show two versions of reality, and each makes complete sense to the participant who sees it. I think that’s how life works.”   The article summarizes Watterson’s answer perfectly: “You could say Hobbes is both imaginatively real and really imaginary, depending on your perspective. Hobbes can be either, which also means he’s both. Is Hobbes a tiger or a toy? Yes.”   If Watterson looked at Hobbes with this Zen/quantum mechanical duality lens, one can understand: “(Why Watterson was so averse to) some toy manufacturer settle it by turning Hobbes “into a stuffed toy for real, and deprive the strip of an element of its magic”. ...

I found Matthew Morgan’s long post on Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes , refreshing – it provided a new perspective. ~~   The post starts with Watterson in his college dorm (hostel) “thinking that his dorm room needs an amateur rendition of Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”! “What the work will lack in “colour sense and technical flourish” it’ll make up for with comedy — specifically “the incongruity of having a High Renaissance masterpiece in a college dorm that had the unmistakeable odour of old beer cans and older laundry”.” Like all college kids, it’s only when he’s half done that he remembered he should have asked for permission! He goes to ask the housing director. Who immediately guesses the kid’s probably already done it. So the director agrees, on the condition the ceiling be restored to its original condition before the term ends. Watterson agrees, completes his “work”, and then wipes it clean. ~~   Calvin and Hobbes was always a one...