Description
For ten years, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life. There is no merchandising associated with Calvin and Hobbes: no movie franchise; no plush toys; no coffee mugs; no t-shirts (except a handful of illegal ones). There is only the strip itself, and the books in which it has been compiled.
In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, Nevin Martell traces the life and career of the intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. With input from a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, and Brad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, this is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and a fascinating detective story, too.
Table of Contents
Prologue
1. Working on a Dream
2. Making Friends
3. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
4. A Boy And His Tiger
5. Calvin in Wonderland
6. Welcome to the Machine
7. This is How You Disappear
8. Under the Influence
9. There and Back Again
10. The Future is Always Uncertain
Epilogue
Author(s)
Nevin Martell, Nevin Martell is the author of Dave Matthews Band: Music for the People (Pocket, 2004) and Beck: The Art of Mutation (Pocket, 2001). He is a Contributing Editor at Filter magazine and his music journalism has appeared in Paste, Giant, Men’s Health, High Times, and Flaunt, as well as online at RollingStone.com. Currently, he lives with his wife outside Washington, DC, where he develops documentaries and non-fiction television.
Reviews
"Nevin Martell's book provides a rare glimpse of the riddle wrapped in the mystery inside an enigma that is Bill Watterson and his brilliant work, which I now know was almost called 'Marvin and Hobbes.'"- Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine
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"Watterson can hide, but he can't die. His work lives on and we're lucky to have Nevin Martell reminding us so colorfully in this joyful book."- Berkeley Breathed
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"Martell gets as close as anybody can to Watterson in a book that takes the reader behind the strip, a well-researched portrait of the cartoonist that is both fascinating and revealing." -Currents
Barry Goodrich,
“Martell gives us a tantalizing...glimpse of Bill Watterson in this journalistic exploration of the press-shy cartoonist's life. …Readers who still hold Watterson's strip in their heart should enjoy the ride.” -AM New York
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“[A] Don Quixote story that is humorous, well-written and (if I may
borrow that tired summer-reading platitude) a real page-turner.” - The Strippers Guide (A website for comics)
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“[T]his really is a wonderful, warm, and informative book that manages
to capture just the right amount of magic about the creator and his
creation.” --Comics Worth Reading
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“Martell, who wears his fan heart on his sleeve, travels far and wide to gather pieces of Watterson lore. He interviews former syndicate employees, comic strip artists from the past and present, and some of Watterson’s closest confidants. By doing so, Martell walks a fine line between diligent journalist and obsessive fan. But his journey is a reminder that some things can’t be recaptured, no matter how much we may wish otherwise.”
-The New York Times, “The Moment” blog
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"This story of Nevin Martell's search for the elusive Bill Watterson, the J.D. Salinger of the cartoon world, is so richly infused with the spirit of "Calvin and Hobbes," the genuine innocence and affection and humor, it doesn't even matter that the author never meets his subject. Watterson has never allowed the licensing of his work -- no merchandise, no TV, no movies. After doing a few interviews in the 1980s, he wrote a "manifesto against celebrity": "People love to have you, and then they use you up and there's nothing left." Early on, Martell wrote Watterson, who disappeared from public life after he stopped writing the strip in 1995, but never heard back. Discouraged but determined, he researched Watterson's life, interviewed friends, editors, even Watterson's mother, visited Watterson's childhood home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, talked with other cartoonists, studied the influence of Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Pogo and Winnie the Pooh and pondered the effect of "Calvin and Hobbes" on his own life. Is this a definitive biography? No. But it's in many ways better and truer to the spirit of Watterson's creation."
-The Los Angeles Times Book Review
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