Big fan of Bill. As a kid I used to read comic strips of calvin and hobbes in our daily newspaper. That comic section was the only reason I bought the newspaper. When they stopped publishing the stips I stopped buying the paper :)<p>Most of us who read calvin and hobbes know that how philosophical it can be. Nuggets of wisdom can be found beneath the funny quips.<p>> Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world. Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria!
The actual interview:<p><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson#ixzz2hzMknayX" rel="nofollow">http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...</a><p>It was submitted earlier today but never got to the front page.
Shame. From what I understand, this guy is incredibly hard to get an interview with. So they manage to score one, and perform the mother of all rookie interviews.<p>Rather than ask followup questions on any of the interesting things the subject has to say, the interviewer seems to almost want to cut him short to ask the next unrelated question from his list. Terrible.<p>Watterson: <i>..It was a grim, sad time. Desperation makes a person do crazy things...</i><p><pregnant pause><p>Interviewer: <i>Great. So what kind of car do you drive?</i><p>I really wish we could get a do over on this one.
This one paragraph summarizes everything that I love and respect about Bill Watterson:<p>> had signed most of my rights away in order to get syndicated, so I had no control over what happened to my own work, and I had no legal position to argue anything. I could not take the strip with me if I quit, or even prevent the syndicate from replacing me, so I was truly scared I was going to lose everything I cared about either way. I made a lot of impassioned arguments for why a work of art should reflect the ideas and beliefs of its creator, but the simple fact was that my contract made that issue irrelevant. It was a grim, sad time. Desperation makes a person do crazy things.<p>I also highly recommend reading his 1990 commencement speech at Kenyon College (his alma mater): <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/wa/HOBBES/info/speech1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.angelfire.com/wa/HOBBES/info/speech1.html</a><p>I first read that years ago, and one line has always stuck with me: "Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you're really buying into someone else's system of values, rules and rewards."
I wish you had linked the actual interview [0] because it took me way, way too long to find it in the linked article, which only offers two select quotes from said interview, and spends way too long praising the guy that got it for how rare a privilege it is.<p>[0] - <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watte...</a><p>Edit: I'm slightly mistaken -- one of the quotes is actually from his previous interview, here:<p><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson" rel="nofollow">http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...</a>
For those in Boston interested in seeing the full story, I note that mental_floss is one of the digital magazines Boston Public Library now provides patrons through Zinio[1]. Unfortunately, I still see the November issue, but hopefully the December issue will show up soon.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.bpl.org/collections/zinio.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.bpl.org/collections/zinio.htm</a>
Seriously. Of all the uncompromising, highly-principled characters amidst the vast depth and breadth of all English literature... why would anyone ever compare the guy to some fictional Randroid character like "Howard Roark"?<p>What an awful, awful choice. What kind of stupid shit <i>IS</i> that?