From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
July 5, 2018 marks the 60th birthday of legendary comic creator Bill Watterson. His iconic cartoon Calvin and Hobbes has entertained generations of readers, bringing the witty adventures and philosophical musings of a six-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger to newspapers around the world. To mark Watterson’s birthday, here are 60 facts you may not know about him.
60 Facts about Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson for his 60th Birthday.
caption for above image from CBC article: “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is a three-volume collection of every comic strip ever published in Calvin and Hobbes’ 10-year history. (Andrews McMeel Publishing)”
#45 Fast Fact Check
One curious incident in the early publication of Calvin and Hobbes was that of the alternate strip. On November 28, 1985, only half of the syndicated newspapers published the original comic; the rest got an alternate strip. The original was never reprinted, whether in reruns, the first printed collection, the first treasury or even The Complete Calvin and Hobbes; all of these feature the alternate strip instead. The original strip is actually the first to feature Hobbes in the washing machine.
The strip directly below is the original
More facts about this never reprinted strip at The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki.
also: the caption for #45 describes the original three volume hardcover collection, but it is the latter four volume paperback collection used to illustrate The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.
From the CBC article:
34. Stephan Pastis, the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine convinced Watterson to come out of retirement in 2014. For one week, Watterson contributed new art for Pearls Before Swine.
#34 Fast Fact Check
Bill Watterson contributed new art for three daily comic strips, not “for one week”, for the six day story beginning here.
Bill is my hero. As a kid, I would clip his comic strip out of the newspaper and save them in folders. I would read them over and over again, studying them, analyzing the art and the stories, trying to figure out what made each strip and each story so engaging.
I owe so much of my writing abilities to the studies I did at a young age as I soaked in the pure genius of Bill Watterson.
My goal was to one day meet my three mentors, Bill Watterson, Berke Breathed and Mad’s Don Martin, to thank them personally for lighting that spark which fuels my soul with the passion I have for cartooning. Sadly, I have missed that opportunity to meet Don who was the single most responsible artist for the direction of my own illustration style.
Thanks Bill for the strip which I feel was the greatest comic strip in our history!
– Davy