Bill Watterson, creator of beloved 'Calvin and Hobbes' comic strip looks back with no regrets
Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?
This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say.
It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.
I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.
I've never regretted stopping when I did.
Bill Watterson is somewhat of an artistic hero of mine. As much as I loved and truly miss Calvin & Hobbes, I think he made the right decision. Especially considering the shameless throwaway garbage that other strips continue to flog over an over, when they should have exited gracefully long ago. Calvin and Hobbes was a strip with, not only great artwork, but quality writing, and a core of integrity. I think this is why it remains so beloved today for so many fans.
