An open letter to Bill Watterson

Disclaimer: All views in this letter are solely mine. Mr. Watterson might have influenced each of you in a different way, and I'd love to hear how! This is something I have been meaning to write about for a while, but never really got around to doing. I hope I do justice to my favorite comic strip of all time! I would have liked to write more, but words were hard to find to describe the wonderful strip that he created.


Dear Mr. Watterson,

I don't profess to be your greatest fan, nor do I claim that, like some, I can recite each and every Calvin strip from memory. I can't even say that I have read the entire collection tens of thousands of times, or that your strip changed my life irrevocably. What I can say is this; 'Calvin and Hobbes' makes my life a little brighter each day. What I can claim is that I have read the whole collection at least once, if not multiple times, and some strips made me laugh more than the others, and those are the ones I can recite from memory. This letter serves no purpose, other than to affirm my profound respect for you and your genius.

'Genius?', you may ask. To you genius may be the simply drawn lines of Charles Schultz's 'Peanuts', admiration of which you have oft admitted to, or the humor in Walt Kelly's 'Pogo', but to me, any person who can make both a child of six and a grandmother, all of eighty, and anyone in between those two age groups laugh, has to be a genius, and for that I admire you. Many people I know, and many cartoonists, whose interviews I have read, do not agree with your licensing principles. At first, I thought it would be nice to own a cuddly stuffed Hobbes too, but on reading the foreword to the 'Complete collection', I came to realise why you did what you did. I understood that you felt that if you could not control what your own work stood for, it was not worth it. You could have minted money by licensing 'Calvin and Hobbes' merchandise, but the fact that you didn't, only out of love and respect for your characters and what they stood for, is admirable. And for that, I respect you. Today, many comic strips have been going on for decades, long after the original cartoonist has retired, drawn and colored by nameless assistants. The fact that you wrote every word and drew every line, and stopped when you did, when 'Calvin and Hobbes' was a runaway hit and on an unbeatable high, only to make sure your characters didn't get repetitive, or get stuck in the rut of churning out daily comic strips, shows the dedication and love you have for your art, and for that I salute you.

More life lessons have been learnt through Calvin and Hobbes's "wisdomous" conversations, than from any philosophy book. Who knew that a hyperactive, over-imaginative six year old and his sarcastic, but wise, stuffed tiger would have the answers to all of life's questions? You were right. It IS the comics' "lack of pretension" that makes them fun! I have never seen any other comic strip that absolutely anybody can relate to, anybody! Every person I know who has read the strip even once, has gotten hooked onto it. Each person tries to see a little of themselves in Calvin, or sometimes Hobbes. (I like to think I'm more like Hobbes, than Calvin!) You have to admit, although many readers miss it, Hobbes always walks away with the best lines! I will never forget the look Hobbes has as he utters "Words fail me", on seeing the transmogrified Calvin. One word; priceless.

Calvin's conversations and interactions with his parents is something each one us, as kids, have had with our respective parents; be it trying to slyly and stealthily steal cookies, or refusing to eat green gooey lumps that parents assured us would taste good, or making the most imaginative excuses we could come up with to get out of doing homework or going to school, or being forced to complete tasks that would "build character"! Calvin reinstated the fact that there is an inverse proportion between "how good something is for you and how much fun it is"! Calvin is also the source of the main principle that I, as a kid, led all my interactions with my parents with, "If you can't win by reason, go for volume!"

All the other characters, minor as they were, left a lasting impression too; Susie Derkins, and her love-hate relationship with Calvin, and Hobbes's infatuation with her, Rosalyn, and how she was the only person who could terrorize the little terrors, Moe, a typical school bully anyone could attest to having encountered at least once in their school life, Calvin's parents, Ms. Wormwood, Mr. Spittle...everyone has their own special place in the world belonging to Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin's uncontrollable imagination has inspired more kids than you know, with his alter-egos, from Spaceman Spiff, to Tracer Bullet, to Stupendous Man, and his destructive and maniacal snowman landscapes, and the various forms he takes, giant or little, invisible or invincible, dinosaur or elephant. Calvin and Hobbes, together, have inspired children, and adults alike, to think out of the box, and to let their imagination run amok! For that, I can vouch for any one of them, they will be eternally grateful.

And of course, this letter cannot be complete without a mention of the camaraderie between Calvin and Hobbes. The excitement as they sled down the snow laced slopes is almost palpable, as is their rivalry as they have fiercely competitive snow fights. The summer vacations are spent in reckless abandon, with Hobbes excitement being out of bounds, as his little friend gets to stay home from school. Their trysts with the drooling monsters under their bed makes one reach for their own baseball bat, you know, just in case, and their attempts to lie and "fool" the same monsters leaves one laughing, all fears forgotten. ('They lie, I lie!') Hobbes's relentless teasing of Calvin and Susie reminds me of the times in school when similar things happened to me, and I can almost feel Calvin's irritation, and at the same time his jealousy when Susie showers Hobbes with affection. Hobbes's distrust of Calvin's "ideas" ('It's cool to bump into things?'), but at the same time playing along, leaves you with a heart warming feeling. Hobbes is quite the charmer, even with his infatuations, his 'sissyness', demanding good night kisses from Calvin's mom; his simplistic tastes reflected when he says all he wants is a 'big, sunny field to lie in', and is perfectly content with it. His over-enthusiastic greeting when Calvin comes home from school always left me wishing I had a pet too, and Calvin's insistence on taking him everywhere, including restaurants and camping trips makes you smile fondly at the attachment a child feels with a prized toy, or as they see it, their only real friend.

Everyone wishes for a friend like Hobbes, everyone wishes for someone to go on the same kind of "adventures" with, sledding down slopes at high speeds, not a care in the world, playing 'Calvinball', making up rules as you go, forming secret clubs like G.R.O.S.S, and providing help during tough homework assignments, urm, well, kind of! (Calvin: 7 + 3 = ?, Hobbes: 73). As the only person (yes, Hobbes is as much a real person as any!) Calvin loves, Hobbes is the best friend one could ask for, frequently questioning Calvin's choices and nudging him in the right direction, encouraging him to do the right thing, giving him company in being "cool", making the password of the tree house an elaborate song praising tigers, providing all the 'wise' answers, but never, ever judging Calvin. One of my all-time favorite strips are the ones where they exchange hugs as Christmas presents; Hobbes the ever-forgiving, in spite of Calvin not getting him a gift and Calvin, trying to be macho, although he can't help but tear up for having such a wonderful partner-in-crime ("Not so hard, you big sissy. You squeezed my tears out").

So, thank you sir, for making my life so much brighter, for infusing laughter into dreary days, for inspiring me to imagine, and for asserting that nothing can be too imaginative. Even today, over fifteen years since I started reading Calvin and Hobbes, no other comic strip or book can make me as happy as Calvin, Hobbes and their (mis)adventures do. Thank you for teaching me that the only way to learn to write (or draw) is by writing (or drawing). Thank you for the sunshine that Calvin and Hobbes brings into my life, even when I am at my lowest, and thank you for making me believe "it is a magical world"!

With all the respect in my heart,
A fan for life.