Bill Watterson turned down fortunes to keep Calvin and Hobbes off lunchboxes
At its peak Calvin and Hobbes ran in more than 2,000 newspapers, and its syndicate was eager to sell plush tigers and cartoons. Bill Watterson fought for years to stop them, won control in 1991, and then walked away from the strip at the end of 1995 anyway.
The characters began as supporting players. While working in advertising, Watterson sold United Feature Syndicate a strip called The Doghouse in which the hero's little brother owned a stuffed tiger. Editors thought that pair was the strongest thing in it and urged him to build a strip around them, then turned the result down for lacking marketing potential. Universal Press Syndicate picked it up, and the first strip appeared in 35 papers on November 18, 1985; within a year it was in about 250.
Calvin is a six-year-old with a wild imagination, and Hobbes is a living tiger to him and a toy to everyone else. Cardboard boxes become time machines, and Calvin becomes Spaceman Spiff or Stupendous Man. Watterson drew on Peanuts, Pogo and Krazy Kat, sketching lightly on Bristol board and inking with a small sable brush rather than tracing, to keep the lines lively. He picked Sunday colours by cutting the syndicate's colour tabs into squares and painting watercolour mock-ups; he started with 64 colours and later had 125 that could fade into one another.
He regarded comics as an art form and believed licensing would betray the strip. He had already refused an early deal that required adding a marketable character called Robotman. Animation tempted him visually, but he disliked the idea of giving Calvin a voice or working with a team, so no series was ever made, and nearly no legitimate merchandise exists. After securing control, he moved to New Mexico, avoided public life and skipped his own award ceremonies.
The final strip ran on Sunday, December 31, 1995: the two friends sledding through fresh snow as Calvin declares it a magical world and suggests they go exploring. Eighteen book collections have sold millions of copies, and in 2014 Watterson received the Grand Prix at the Angoulême comics festival.
Source: Calvin and Hobbes
