Bill Watterson Biography

Artist Bill Watterson became famous in the 1980s for his newspaper comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. A 1980 graduate of Ohio’s Kenyon College, Watterson began his career in Cincinatti with a brief stint as a political cartoonist. After a few years of trying to find his niche, he started Calvin and Hobbes, a daily strip about a mischief-seeking 6 year-old boy, Calvin, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. First published 18 November 1985, the strip quickly became a hit and was eventually featured in more than 2,400 newspapers across the United States. In the early 1990s Watterson began taking extended vacations from the strip, and in December 1995 announced he was quitting, saying, “I’ve done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels.” The last strip ran 31 December 1995, although unlicensed images of the characters, especially Calvin, are still a common sight. Although famously wary of the public eye, Watterson has occasionally spoken out against the “cheapening” of the comics industry and its treatment of artists. One of the most successful newspaper cartoonists of the 20th century, Watterson won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 1986 and 1988.