In 1989, Bill "Calvin and Hobbes" Watterson gave a famous address at Ohio State U.'s Festival of Cartoon Art:
"The Cheapening of the Comics" (transcript). Twenty-two years later, successful webcomic artist Dave Kellett (of
"Sheldon" about a boy and his non-imaginary talking duck, and
"Drive" a sci-fi comic with a convoluted premise and funny aliens) offered a new-generation response at the same venue: "The Freeing of the Comics" (YouTube part
1,
2,
3,
4,
5). While Watterson told how and why newspaper comics were (and are) dying, Kellett explained how webcomics can (and do) replace them (although not necessarily for Watterson).
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posted by oneswellfoop
on Mar 11, 2011 -
28 comments
Calvin & Hobbes
will be put on a
U.S. postage stamp, honoring "Sunday Funnies," along with Garfield, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, and Archie. Although there has been no end to the
homages and
unlicensed materials regarding his beloved characters, creator Bill Watterson, "the only cartoonist who resented the popularity of his own strip," has expressed his
disapproval of third-party appropriation in detail:
A wordy, multiple-panel strip with extended conversation and developed personalities does not condense to a coffee mug illustration without great violation to the strip's spirit. The subtleties of a multi-dimensional strip are sacrificed for the one-dimensional needs of the product.
Even if Watterson hasn't approved, nothing in the
USPS committee's selection criteria requires artist approval.
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posted by jabberjaw
on Jan 6, 2010 -
99 comments
The Calvin & Hobbes Extensive Strip Search (C.H.E.S.S.) is a wonderfully obsessive database of every Watterson strip indexed by keyword & description, with each strip scanned, as well as a book & page # listing of which collection the stip appears in (and original newspaper publication date). It's wildly in violation of copywrite, but it's also very cool.
and the geek in me wonders how they do the cool right-mousebutton trick when you click on the strips
posted by jonson
on Mar 2, 2004 -
36 comments
