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Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

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Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#191

Post by snorremd »

all2 wrote: post #7
dgritsko wrote: post #5

What a brilliantly written piece. Maintaining one's integrity is unfortunately rare enough that it makes Watterson's story so remarkable. I completely respect and admire his dedication to doing something for its own sake, for holding himself to the highest standards imaginable, and from walking away from it all for his own reasons - even if selfishly I'd rather him keep writing so that there would be more to enjoy. T…

I have so much nostalgia for Watterson's work. I occasionally will buy another of the hard bound 3 volume set. I always wind up giving them away and then buying another. A worthy cause, I hope.

The three volume hard-book bound set is one of my favorite possessions. It has been a little while since I read them, but I must have read them cover to cover twice. The print quality and feeling of the hefty books makes them feel like really high end comics in the material sense. I really respect Watterson in keeping the comic pure in the sense that the characters only exist in that one medium.

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#192

Post by ghtbircshotbe »

dhosek wrote: post #140

I model my parenting style on Calvin’s dad. I actually had almost the identical conversation with my kids about why old pictures are in black and white. When they were in fourth grade my daughter came home from school angry at me about having let her and her brother believe for four years that the world used to be in black and white. They haven’t brought up bridges and weight limits yet so I can only assume they stil…

What was the one about bridges and weight limits? I remember the one about the sun being the size of a quarter.

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#193

Post by lproven »

pseudohadamard wrote: post #184
vintermann wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what Jim Davis tells everyone. He always cheerfully said he decided to become a cartoonist in order to make money. When asked about anything related to Garfield, he basically always denies having any artistic ambitions. That surprisingly dark comic which suggested Garfield's entire life with Jon was just the hallucinations of him slowly starving to death alone, for instance? Oh, he saw a market survey suggesti…

> That surprisingly dark comic which suggested Garfield If you think that's dark you should see all the Zalgo Garfield comics Davis did...

> Zalgo Garfield

Those were a fan parody, and were nothing to do with Jim Davis.

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#194

Post by lproven »

rbanffy wrote: post #86
all2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have so much nostalgia for Watterson's work. I occasionally will buy another of the hard bound 3 volume set. I always wind up giving them away and then buying another. A worthy cause, I hope.

It makes everybody’s day a little bit more surreal. Certainly a worthy cause.

For those who do not know, this comment is itself a C&H reference.

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/09/27

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4...

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#196

Post by wodenokoto »

xandrius wrote: post #177
wodenokoto wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was on the front page here a few weeks ago about the creation of garfield. Apparently Davis had been struggling with a previous comic strip and when an editor told him that his characters just weren't what people wanted to see, he rethought his entire strategy and decided to emulate the success of Snoopi: - Cute character, but instead of going for dog lovers, there was a hole in the market for cat lovers -…

You respect someone who plans to be a sell-out more than someone who sells out later for whatever other reason?

Maybe not for what-ever-reason, but I do respect someone who can read the market and build what the market needs, more than someone who stumbles into it. It also means that he stuck with his guns. He didn't "sell out", he decided to just "sell".

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#197

Post by everfrustrated »

ericd wrote: post #114
defen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought my 8 year old daughter the hardcover box set for Christmas. When she opened it her initial reaction was definitely "oh...thanks" (she was clearly not excited about it but wanted to be nice). Within a week it was borderline impossible to get her to put them down and go to sleep at night.

Yeah, our boys read my old C&H collection more than almost any of their modern kids books. Downside, it's inspired all sorts of mischievous ideas. Roald Dahl, too, and the Uncle series. These old books have more of an edge to them that our kids seem to light up at, and I've had a hard time finding modern equivalents. Most of the modern kids books seem too saccharine/sterile by comparison. Maybe it's just survivorship…

Sadly the same happened to modern publications of Enid Blyton. Best to find old editions.

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#198

Post by xavdid »

ghtbircshotbe wrote: post #192
dhosek wrote: post #140

I model my parenting style on Calvin’s dad. I actually had almost the identical conversation with my kids about why old pictures are in black and white. When they were in fourth grade my daughter came home from school angry at me about having let her and her brother believe for four years that the world used to be in black and white. They haven’t brought up bridges and weight limits yet so I can only assume they stil…

What was the one about bridges and weight limits? I remember the one about the sun being the size of a quarter.

There's a sign next to a bridge that says "Weight Limit: 10 tons". Calvin asks how they know the limit and his dad says they build the bridge, then drive progressively heavier trucks across it until it falls down. Then they rebuild it exactly how it was and put up the sign for the how heavy the last truck was.

One of my favorites!

https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/u3dqja/how...

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#199

Post by bombcar »

vintermann wrote: post #166
bombcar wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watterson and Larson (both who retired at or near the "top" of their game) could easily have gone on for a year or two more - or three, or five, or twenty. But they both knew that the font was running low, if not completely dry; likely triggered by starting a joke and realizing they'd done it before years ago. Both have "come back" here and there to dabble, as appropriate for someone who actually knows how to retire…

Schultz, who is still fairly universally beloved (including by Watterson I think?) went on forever . So did Johnny Hart (BC). The trick is that they're not really trying to get a laugh out of you every day. They're a slightly surreal setting with warmth, and a few recurring gags. Larson and Watterson were high intensity in a way classic cartoonists weren't. That's not bad, but most people are probably going to burn o…

I take Schultz as the epitome of the “danger” of going forever - the early Peanuts is substantially different than the later ones.

But he’s also a good example of “growing with his audience” - the latter strips pleased his readers even if they didn’t gain many additional.

I do find that it’s sad that in an era of increasingly cheaper and cheaper printing that comics continue to shrink.

Re: Calvin and Hobbes and the price of integrity

#200

Post by badpun »

tombert wrote: post #50

I think about Bill Waterson a lot. I certainly don't blame Jim Davis for "selling out". He made a marketable character, and I don't blame him for trying to make his money because of it. I don't have a ton of artistic talent but if I created a lovable comic character and someone offered me a dumptruck full of money to sell toys and t-shirts and cartoons, I'm pretty sure I would take it, and I might even take it even i…

> but if I created a lovable comic character and someone offered me a dumptruck full of money

> would like to think I have integrity, and I think I do to some extent (there are certain types of companies I will not work for e.g. casinos)

What if a casino offered you a dumptruck full of money?

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