I knew it! The style is unmistakable. I thought maybe Pastis was imitating the style.
Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
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Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I could do better if I had more space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_a...
Someone should introduce the man to the internets capabilities. Bill Waterson can have all the space he needs.
I don't presume to speak for Bill Waterson or anyone else (and I don't mean this to be specifically about comics), but having all the space you need is, creatively, usually worse than having not enough space.
There's a sweet spot in the middle where you have enough freedom to realize the gist of a vision, but also a number of unwavering hard constraints to rein you back in.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#73If a penguin shows up in the next strip I think we'll all know what's up.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
From what I've heard, dude is basically kinda done with the comics grind. Which is not surprising. I do a webcomic, and have no day job to distract me from it, and yet sometimes I can't even manage one page a week, let alone the six B&W strips and one Sunday strip that being a Syndicated Cartoonist involves. I have a friend who's doing the syndicate gig right now[1] and she's basically impossible to get ahold of beca…
I am sure there are pretty tough pressures on your friend, or any other SC. I am sure there are lot of others to replace them. But this man is not a SC. He is Bill Waterson. If he wants to have a panel once a week, in full color, only on thursdays any newspaper editor who turns him down is an idiot. As for making him a web cartoon artist, all you need would be hosting somewhere, a server that can handle the traffic a…
Your ingredients list for getting Watterson on the web is missing one important thing: him wanting to start showing his work to the public again.
Who knows? Maybe this little thing he did with Pastis was him testing the waters. He might have been asking himself "Do I still have it? Do I still WANT to have it?" by drawing these. Maybe he's toying with some sort of return. Maybe he's about to drop some awesome personal graphic novel that's been brewing this 20-year-sabbatical. I know damn well Universal/Gocomics would kill to set up a new presence for him on pretty much any terms he wants. Half the web cartoonists he met via showing up on Stripped! would probably do it for free.
But does he want it again?
I mean, he retired into aggressive anonymity for twenty years. He might have recharged. He might still be completely burnt out.
We can't know. And that's entirely what it rests upon.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am sure there are pretty tough pressures on your friend, or any other SC. I am sure there are lot of others to replace them. But this man is not a SC. He is Bill Waterson. If he wants to have a panel once a week, in full color, only on thursdays any newspaper editor who turns him down is an idiot. As for making him a web cartoon artist, all you need would be hosting somewhere, a server that can handle the traffic a…
Your ingredients list for getting Watterson on the web is missing one important thing: him wanting to start showing his work to the public again. Who knows? Maybe this little thing he did with Pastis was him testing the waters. He might have been asking himself "Do I still have it? Do I still WANT to have it?" by drawing these. Maybe he's toying with some sort of return. Maybe he's about to drop some awesome personal…
Yeah, but that's the thing. With a web comic he can do whatever he wants. Pure freedom. What he wants, when he wants. Hundreds of people would pretty much work out all the details for him just to put it on a page somewhere, I would imagine. And it's not like he'd have to come out of hiding, either. The web pretty much allows you to do as you like in that regard as well.
Sure, it's just wishful thinking, but it wouldn't be that hard to give him an outlet to do as he pleases, assuming he wants to do something.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#76I've always wished I could draw. Even XKCD's minimalist art style is still an artist drawing stuff which is beyond me. I can't draw a straight line with a computer (they're very heavy). C&H was not only great art, it was an amazing look on adult life despite it being about a kid and a stuffed tiger.
I don't consider myself artistic, but for a few months in college took up sketching and found I could produce serviceable impressions of still-lifes and even a self portrait, after a fashion. Practice. It works.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#77Holy shit. I did not expect this to ever happen, but I am mighty glad it did.
And thank you for C&H, Mr. Watterson.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
And Jeph Jacques, from the aforementioned Questionable Content: http://www.patreon.com/jephjacques Keep in mind these people also still have their other sources of income: book runs, merchandise, etc.
Yes, Patreon is really transformative for those people who haven't had other means of monetizing. I really think that in the long term Patreon is more important than Kickstarter for the arts. Kickstarter by its nature is much splashier and makes the big news articles, but it's Patreon that changes lives by chugging along month after month after month after month. Can you imagine what Watterson could get directly from…
I was thinking that exact same thing (re: Watterson and Patreon) after I wrote that.
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#79I wonder if Watterson really believes the gag line for the third strip, "Nah, the art form's dying"? He might, being (apparently) a neo-luddite of some sort. But there has never been as many, or as good, comics as there are now, or as many busy, thriving comic artists. Hint: they are not found at gocomics.com.
In his interview on Mental Floss he states:
"Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. Obviously the role of comics is changing very fast. On the one hand, I don’t think comics have ever been more widely accepted or taken as seriously as they are now. On the other hand, the mass media is disintegrating, and audiences are atomizing. I suspect comics will have less widespread cultural impact and make a lot less money. I’m old enough to find all this unsettling, but the world moves on. All the new media will inevitably change the look, function, and maybe even the purpose of comics, but comics are vibrant and versatile, so I think they’ll continue to find relevance one way or another. But they definitely won’t be the same as what I grew up with."
http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...
Re: Ever Wished Bill Watterson Would Return to the Comics Page? He Just Did
#80Whoah. Second panel of the second Watterson strip. Chills.
I had every single C&H book growing up. I wish he'd draw again... maybe they can teach him how to make a webcomic? No confining panel structure here...
Judging from what some other webcomics do, it would be beautiful. This webcomic shows how much freedom can be had with paneling, and how detailed the art can be: http://dresdencodak.com/2010/07/10/dark-science-03/