I recently found my old copies of the Calvin & Hobbes collections (The Days are Just Packed, etc.). I read them when I was around 8, and I have a son due next year. Can't wait to pass it on.
An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
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Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#12Side note, but every time I DON'T see a Hobbes plushy, a Calvin bauble head, the Calvin and Hobbes TV series, etc. I'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. He maintained such a high standard for his comic right unto the end. Not everything in this world needs to be commoditized to death. "But how will new generations learn about Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin and H…
I have immense respect for Watterson. He's the only artist I can think of to achieve that level of fame and success and not sell out. Selling out is barely even a concept any more because it's simply assumed, and Watterson is still out there in a cabin in the woods, communicating only by mail and refusing every corporate offer that comes his way.
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#13I grew up on Calvin and Hobbes and reread the comics every 5-10 years or so. It is sad that Watterson no longer makes these comics, but I've scratched my itch by reading "Phoebe and her Unicorn". You can read it free online I think, but my daughter and I read the paperbacks. It's not quite the same (the unicorn is real), but shares a lot in common. I just thought I'd add this for any fellow Calvin and Hobbes fans on…
You'd be keen to know that, a year or two back, Watterson published his first piece of work since C&H ended. It's great - short, sweet, but great. :)
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mysteries/Bill-Wa...
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#14Man was Calvin & Hobbes awesome. IMNSHO every comic strip currently in print still lives in its shadow. C&H had it all - good illustration, good writing, life insight. It was a real life line for weird kids.
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#15Side note, but every time I DON'T see a Hobbes plushy, a Calvin bauble head, the Calvin and Hobbes TV series, etc. I'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. He maintained such a high standard for his comic right unto the end. Not everything in this world needs to be commoditized to death. "But how will new generations learn about Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin and H…
The counterpoint is how many children would love their own stuffed Hobbes to be sitting next to them as their parents read a few comics to them. You can merchandise things without going overboard and losing your soul.
You're definitely right that children would love that sort of thing.
My perspective, as a parent of a 2 and 4 year-old, is that it would just be another stuffed animal. Both of my kiddos have their own massive pile of stuffed toys that people have given to them over the years. Much of them are forgotten about, and new stuffies are replaced after a short amount of time when a new one comes along or when they get bored of it. I can't tell you how many character stuffies my kids have been excited about only to all but forget about two days later.
My kids would love it, sure, but for them it's just the security of a soft cozy friend that seems to be the most important thing. What it looks like/who it is seems to be secondary and entirely mood dependent. There's never been a moment where there's felt like a void because Hobbes isn't in bed with us, and he wouldn't be accomplishing anything that the rest of their stuffies aren't doing already, save for padding Watterson's retirement - which I think is part of his point.
But everyone's different, so YMMV.
Edit: I suppose if one of my kiddos asked for one and it was super important to them, it would be kind of fun for us to make one from scratch!
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#16Side note, but every time I DON'T see a Hobbes plushy, a Calvin bauble head, the Calvin and Hobbes TV series, etc. I'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. He maintained such a high standard for his comic right unto the end. Not everything in this world needs to be commoditized to death. "But how will new generations learn about Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin and H…
Whenever the topic of copyright comes up on HN, the prevailing view in comments section is that copyrights should be relatively short and cultural artifacts should be available to everyone to use as they please.
So I find it interesting ("interesting") how people seem to universally appreciate that Calvin & Hobbes are protected from any 3rd-party use, meanwhile they universally revile Disney for not allowing people to do what they want with (and to) Mickey Mouse.
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
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Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
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Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#19Side note, but every time I DON'T see a Hobbes plushy, a Calvin bauble head, the Calvin and Hobbes TV series, etc. I'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. He maintained such a high standard for his comic right unto the end. Not everything in this world needs to be commoditized to death. "But how will new generations learn about Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin and H…
"unto the end" and "commoditized to death" made me briefly paranoid that Mr Watterson had died, but thankfully he is still quite alive: "Watterson lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio as of January 2024"
Even better, last year he published "The Mysteries", which to my understanding is his first book since Calvin & Hobbes ended!
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mysteries/Bill-Wa...
Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
#20Side note, but every time I DON'T see a Hobbes plushy, a Calvin bauble head, the Calvin and Hobbes TV series, etc. I'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. He maintained such a high standard for his comic right unto the end. Not everything in this world needs to be commoditized to death. "But how will new generations learn about Calvin and Hobbes without Calvin and H…
Whenever the topic of copyright comes up on HN, the prevailing view in comments section is that copyrights should be relatively short and cultural artifacts should be available to everyone to use as they please. So I find it interesting ("interesting") how people seem to universally appreciate that Calvin & Hobbes are protected from any 3rd-party use, meanwhile they universally revile Disney for not allowing people t…
Well, life is incredibly nuanced, there's no black and whites and we often have to deal with double-edged swords. :)
To me, there's a bit of a difference between the two. In one instance, you've got a single corporation owning all the rights to a property and getting all of the cash from the sale of goods related to that property. This is a single party who gets to decide what to do with the IP, and often times this can irk fans and rub them the wrong way.
In another instance, you've got C&H released from copyright. Nobody owns the rights, so anybody can do anything with it - assholes can make cheap merchandise for the sake of fast cash the way Disney might with its own IP, but now that there are plenty of other vendors making like-products, we have choices and don't have to buy from one person. The alternatives available are also likely to be made by actual fans with a passion for the project. Broadly speaking, fans can't get irked the way they do when Disney makes a change, because whatever is out there by a third-party is just their creative take on it, not the single rights holder going, "This is the way the IP's universe is now, and what has been canon for thirty years is no longer so, please keep giving us cash".
You're right - one decision impacts another in a less than ideal way. But there's a balance and we have to find the right balance. :)