Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes strip is 28 years old this week, and the impact and influence of Watterson’s cartoon about a boy and his stuffed tiger continue to touch the hearts and spark the imaginative bone in kids of all ages. No comic strip since then has not been touched or inspired by Calvin and Hobbes in some way. Fans of the strip span the globe, and one director Kickstarted a documentary about the impact of Calvin and Hobbes on these fans. Joel Allen Schroeder joins Earth Prime Time today to discuss Dear Mr. Watterson: An Exploration of Calvin and Hobbes.
The movie is touring the country and is available on demand starting November 15.
DIGBOSTON: Thanks for joining us, Joel. Care to tell us why you decided to make this movie?
Joel Allen Schroeder: Yeah, I was a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes. I was probably introduced to the strip at 7, 8, 9 years old and years later, in my late 20s I decided the strip still meant a lot to me and I had a crazy idea to make a documentary about it. It fascinated me that something could mean so much to me as an 8 year old and that it could really truly mean a lot to me as an adult. There are not a lot of things like that.
That’s amazing. And, as you go through in the movie, it did appeal to lots of different people all over the world. People our age, and older too. What is it about Calvin and Hobbes—the baseline that appeals to everybody?
I think Watterson’s artwork is something that really draws people in. It is so well drawn that in particular, the Sunday strips will draw people in. And then as you start to know Calvin and Hobbes as characters, there is so much humanity and depth there.
Calvin’s imagination makes this world. The strip is not just the walls of his home. It extends outside, to space, the jungles, to the distant past.
There is just so much there. At the bottom of it, there are wonderful characters that are easy to identify with.
Would you draw a parallel between Charles Schulz’ work and Calvin and Hobbes. How would you relate Peanuts to Calvin and Hobbes?
Clearly, Watterson was influenced by Peanuts. There’s definitely some similarities. One thing that Berkeley Breathed (Bloom County, Opus the Penguin) said when we spoke to him was that the strips are both about childhood, but that Peanuts wasn’t about real children. I don’t think that made it into the movie.
I think there’s a lot of truth to that. There’s clearly a lot of things that Calvin says that aren’t what you hear from a 6 year old.
But he is very much a character facing the hard parts of childhood. He’s powerless in a way; Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) describes him as a loser! I never thought about him that way as a kid, but Pastis talked to us about how Charlie Brown is a loser, Calvin is a loser—a more bombastic loser—but a loser nonetheless. Maybe that’s something we all identify with.
He doesn’t necessarily understand and is at odds with a lot of things around him, his parents, his teachers, Susie the girl next door. But it’s strange to talk about Calvin in that way because that’s not how I saw him as a kid.
Calvin was the kid I wanted to be!
I wasn’t like Calvin, I did well in school, I wasn’t getting in trouble at school or with my parents often.
It’s difficult for me to compare Calvin and Hobbes to Peanuts because truthfully, of the 50 years of Peanuts, I’ve read such a small fraction of that. A lot of the way that I know Peanuts was through the animated TV specials. We shot a scene in the movie that dealt with that idea. I think it is sad that that is the case.
Joel Allen Schroeder – Director of Dear Mr. Watterson
As far as Calvin and Hobbes is concerned, you are a completist. You have at least read every single strip to make this movie, am I correct?
Many times, yes. I have every book, I have books in other languages, I’m rereading a collection right now and am enjoying this just as much as ever.
Calvin and Hobbes meet The Duplicator – Copyright Bill Watterson
How was it emotionally to see the original art in the movie?
That was something I was really looking forward too, and I plan on being back to Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum again in the near future. I was able to look at quite a lot. From the original Dailys and Sundays to original artwork for book covers and that sort of thing and the two calendars that were made. It is an amazing experience. It gets you thinking about the art of the comic strip. When you are looking at the Sunday color strips, you see the vibrant color.
You see how Watterson’s line in pencil evolves to the pen and ink line. You see WiteOut.
I’m not a cartoonist, but I can imagine if you are a cartoonist, there is a whole level of appreciation or interest in his inks and pens and his technique. I would definitely recommend to any fan that has a chance to visit Columbus, Ohio.
Watterson donated nearly everything to that library.
About 99% of his work.
For any artist, that’s very rare and very special. Did you work closely with Nevin Martell, writer of Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip? You interview him in the movie.
Nevin and I probably got started on our projects around the same time. We had been working on our project for a couple of years when we became aware of Nevin and his book. Around the time that his book came out, we interviewed Nevin. We met up in Chagrin Falls and it was a great chance to sit down and talk to someone that was a fan and by going through the process of writing his book clearly had a great perspective on Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson. He had become in a way a bit of a historian on Calvin and Bill Watterson.
Calvin and Popcorn Shoppe at Chagrin Falls – Copyright Bill Watterson
In terms of the making of the film, we interviewed Nevin and we have kept in touch but he was not involved in the editing or production of the film. What is interesting though is that we both started to do projects about Calvin and Hobbes around the same time.
I really enjoyed the production and the overall look of the film, not only the music, but the animation and visual effects were outstanding.
Thank you. From the beginning, I wanted to include and involve people who were fans of Calvin and Hobbes and who had pursued and had success in their own creative endeavors.
Mike Dillinger was the one who created the motion graphics you are referring too. He has been a Calvin and Hobbes fan for years and was a Kickstarter backer. Mike Boggs (We Were Pirates) from the DC area did our music, another Calvin and Hobbes fan I met years ago and was able to bring him on for the music.
Calvin and Susie – Copyright Bill Watterson
How was your Kickstarter experience, and do you recommend that to people that want to make a documentary, comics, or writers out there? We talk a lot here about how different comic artists use Kickstarter as a platform, you can step out of normal publishing realms to do that.
Kickstarter was perfect for us. It was the most perfect way for us to fund the film. To me it is evidence of the impact of Calvin and Hobbes. I can say that the majority of the budget for the making of this film came from fans of Calvin and Hobbes around the world. Whether it was a couple of dollars or $2000 that they contributed from Singapore, India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, all over the place. It was absolutely a wonderful experience.
I know that Kickstarter doesn’t work for everything. The fact that this was a film about Calvin and Hobbes, it was a case of people learning about the project and they were a fan, it was for many people an easy decision to help support the project. I am a big believer in Kickstarter. I have probably backed three dozen projects or so, and it can be a wonderful tool. It doesn’t work for everything but I am very glad it exists for people that want to move away from the mainstream ways of getting your creative projects out there.
To be able to have complete creative control, if you can do that, and use Kickstarter, I say more power to you.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Joel!
Check out the movie online. On Demand / Streaming / iTunes info at the Dear Mr. Watterson store released on November 15, 2013.
Twitter: @DearMrWatterson |Online Store | Facebook: DearMrWatterson | #dearmrwatterson
Oddio Comic 46 – The Frankenstein Monster #9 – “The Vampire Killers”
Continued from our oddio comic from four years ago, these two classic monsters fight… to the undeath! We know it’s a week after Halloween, but hey, funny is funny, right?
Direct Download / Mp3 Stream (opens in new window).
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