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An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

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Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#61

Post by nemo44x »

Miraste wrote: post #12
vunderba wrote: post #6

Side 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.

Thomas Pynchon has as well but I guess he’s not as famous. But certainly extremely successful.

I respect him because a theme of Gravity’s Rainbow is the observation that capitalism will absorb anything that is useful and you can’t fight it as the fight against it will be commodified and sold. That you can only fly under the radar and avoid it - to just not create a market potential.

He’s certainly lived by that.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#62

Post by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF »

Suppafly wrote: post #49
vunderba wrote: post #6

Side 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'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. I'm always kind of bummed about it, instead of quality official merchandise there are a bunch of peeing calvin stickers on lifted pickup trucks.

I want a sticker of Calvin peeing on a pickup truck

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#63

Post by khazhoux »

hinkley wrote: post #37
khazhoux wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We don’t revile Disney for not letting us make Mickey Mouse slash fiction. We revile them because in order to protect a 90 year old mouse cartoon they’ve made it so no English teacher below high school can teach any literature that is younger than 100 years old, because it’s too expensive to reprint it.

That is an excellent distinction, thank you.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#64

Post by khazhoux »

endemic wrote: post #59
khazhoux wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watterson is motivated by integrity, I have no doubt of that. But Disney is also motivated --at least partly-- by integrity. Yes, they want to control profits, clearly. But I have no doubts they want to preserve the integrity of their character also. > the creations of others Others? Even after Walt's death, Mickey Mouse has been overseen by a continuous line of people who care about the character's integrity.

Corporations aren't people

Many things are not other things.

In this case, Disney Inc is staffed by people who care deeply about the Disney legacy. You’ll be hard pressed to find a single employee who was not awe-struck walking the halls on the first day.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#66

Post by aidenn0 »

khazhoux wrote: post #16
vunderba wrote: post #6

Side 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…

A couple of points:

1. If copyright lasted 40 years, then C&H would still be under copyright, and the first 46 years of Mickey would be not; The first C&H strip is closer to today than it is to the first Mickey cartoon.

2. There is a difference between picking the rules and picking the preferred behavior under existing rules; if someone thought copyright should only last 20 years, then one reasonably believe both that C&H ought not be under copyright and respect Watterson's anti-merchandising point of view. Plenty of people who say that "Every billionaire is a policy failure" may also laud the donations of particularly philanthropic billionaires.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#67

Post by barbazoo »

dakna wrote: post #23
MikeKusold wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can also make yourself a Hobbes costume and put that on when you read to your kid.

Exactly, doesn't always have to be garbage ordered from China through Amazon.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#68

Post by failrate »

Suppafly wrote: post #49
vunderba wrote: post #6

Side 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'm so thankful that Watterson grimly held onto the merchandising rights of his characters. I'm always kind of bummed about it, instead of quality official merchandise there are a bunch of peeing calvin stickers on lifted pickup trucks.

Those stickers would exist regardless. They are a wild meme from the preinternet.

Re: An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)

#70

Post by alexashka »

khazhoux wrote: post #64
endemic wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations aren't people

Many things are not other things. In this case, Disney Inc is staffed by people who care deeply about the Disney legacy. You’ll be hard pressed to find a single employee who was not awe-struck walking the halls on the first day.

How do you know that? This is a rhetorical question, meaning to elicit introspection and a rare act of thought, prior to speech.
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