A Calvin and Hobbes Happy Meal? A Smithsonian History of MAD. Professor Alison Bechdel! Peanuts Library Cards. The CXC Festival. And a Calvin And Hobbes Reading Guide.
A Calvin and Hobbes Happy Meal?
Cartoonist Jim Engel has rediscovered a late 1980s proposal of his for a McDonalds Happy Meal set of toys featuring Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. Says Jim on his Facebook page:
If you know ANYTHING about Bill Watterson, you know he HATED the notion of merchandising his characters… As a huge C&H fan, I enjoyed doing these, but I told everyone at my agency (Simon Marketing) that there was no way on earth this would happen…
…Anyway, the basic response I got was that “everybody’s got a price”, and after all, this was McDONALDS. Whether or not it was ever even discussed with the syndicate or Watterson, I don’t know, and the outcome was the same either way…
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The Madcap History of Mad Magazine
In a twist befitting its pages, the satirical, anti-establishment publication that delivered laughs and hijinks to generations of young readers gets the respect it always deserved with a new museum exhibition
[The Bicentennial issue was] Drawn by 80-year-old illustrator Norman Mingo, Mad magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman graced the cover of Issue No. 181 in a glorious powdered wig. It’s one of 275 original drawings—alongside 150 physical objects—on display in “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of Mad Magazine,” an exhibition running through October 27 at the Norman Rockwell Museum in western Massachusetts. It covers the full 72-year history of Mad, highlighted by the stretch from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, when the magazine pilloried mass culture—television, movies, politics and more—in a way that introduced satire to kids raised on tamer entertainment like “Leave It to Beaver.”
Visiting the MAD exhibit prompts Patrick Sauer to present the entire history of the magazine from the beginning (“Mad magazinehad its beginnings in 1947, when publisher Maxwell Gaines’ death in an upstate New York boating accident left his Educational Comics company to his 25-year-old son, William Gaines”) to the present version (“Technically, Mad is still being published, but it’s recycled material from the glory days with a new fold-in and cover. It’s a niche’s niche now”) for Smithsonian Magazine.
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Cartoonist Bechdel brings lessons from a ‘curious’ career to Yale
Acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel, now a professor in the practice at Yale and 2024 Chubb Fellow, talks queerness, comics, and the classroom.
In the world of graphic novels and queer comics, there are few more accomplished than Alison Bechdel. Her groundbreaking comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” was one of the first representations of lesbians in popular culture…
Now, as professor in the practice in English and Film and Media Studies in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), Bechdel will bring her insights as an extraordinary storyteller and artist to the classroom.
Bechdel is also the fall 2024 Chubb Fellow, one of Yale’s highest honors for a visiting lecturer. In that role she’ll present a public lecture — “‘…and I became a lesbian cartoonist’: Reflections on a Curious Career” — on campus on Sept. 18.
As the lecture’s title suggests, Bechdel’s journey wasn’t always laid out like a comic strip.
For Yale News Oscar Sweeting profiles and interviews Professor Alison Bechdel.
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Sonoma County and Charles Schulz
On October 2, the long-running comic strip “Peanuts” – famously drawn by the late Santa Rosa cartoonist Charles Schulz – will celebrate the 74th anniversary of its original 1950 newspaper launch.
Given that Schulz is among Sonoma County’s most revered and celebrated public figures, it’s highly likely that the next 12 months – leading up to all manner of festive 75th anniversary celebrations
David Templeton at The Argus-Courier points out some Peanuts related activities for Sonoma County residents and visitors. Naturally the Charles M. Schulz Museum and the “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” musical. Yes, the Santa Rosa Pumpkin patch will have a Peanuts-themed corn maze. And David points out a couple other items
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CXC holds its tenth annual festival.
Cartoonists by the dozens gather in Columbus, Ohio for the CXC festival.
All the information is at the Cartoons Crossroads Columbus website.
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A Complete Guide to Reading Calvin and Hobbes
- What Was Bill Watterson’s Early Career Like?
- Calvin and Hobbes Became Syndicated In 1985
- Calvin and Hobbes Found Success
- Calvin And Hobbes Had A Timeless Art Style
- Calvin and Hobbes Ended On New Year’s Eve, 1995
- What Watterson Did After Calvin and Hobbes
- Watterson Returned To Print With The Mysteries
- What Was The Inspiration for Calvin and Hobbes
- Bill Watterson Was Sometimes Influenced By Life Events
- Where Can Calvin and Hobbes Be Read
Thayer Preece at Comic Book Resources presents a Bill Watterson profile and a history of Calvin and Hobbes.
“…Anyway, the basic response I got was that “everybody’s got a price”, and after all, this was McDONALDS.”
Oh, how I’d love to know just how much they were willing to pay for that licensing deal.
And so How much money Watterson turned down.
Unknown if an offer was ever even tendered.
I’m impressed that McDonalds was interested in licensing anything that was ONLY a newspaper strip, without a TV or movie tie-in. Heaven knows that, no matter how many papers it was in at the time, there were still plenty of regions of the country that had no idea what or who “Calvin and Hobbes” even was.