Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his Revolutionary Comic Strip [Hardcover]

At one point in this book, author Nevin Martell comments that as it is so unlikely that Bill Watterson will ever give him an interview, he might as well approach the project pretending that Watterson is dead. Although it's a dreadful thing to say, this book would probably have been more revealing if Watterson were dead, such is the loyalty of Watterson's friends, colleagues and family and their reluctance to say anything about the genius behind Calvin and Hobbes. If Watterson were six feet under, they might have felt freer to open up a bit.

As it is, he isn't, they don't and the book is poorer for it. Martell does what he can with the material available to him (most of Watterson's quotes come from the forwards to his books) but how on earth do you write a book about a man who just doesn't want to play the fame game and when there's so little to say? Now don't get me wrong, fans of Calvin and Hobbes have no right to tell Watterson how he should behave, that's up to him, but that doesn't stop them wanting to know something about the man. I love Calvin and Hobbes. The artistry, the imagination, the insight, the wit, it all hangs together beautifully. But I just wish I could like Watterson more. He says he doesn't want people to think him a grouch, but when his all public utterances are nothing but grouch (and the reports of his outspoken lectures at various conferences are the most interesting passages in the book), one can't help getting the feeling that he is one and I'm sorry to say it but that's damaging the way I feel about the strip.

Watterson's refusal to allow his work to be merchandised and slapped on lunchboxes and bedlinen is to be applauded; it's quite remarkable given the fortune he stood to make. However, it is a shame when it has presumably resulted in this book having to be published without any illustrations. Martell references several strips and much of Watterson's pre-Calvin and Hobbes work, but we never see any of it. Prototype versions of Calvin can apparently be seen in Watterson's earlier work, but we'll just have to take Martell's word for it. The dead racoon sequence, the freak-show snowmen, the death-defying toboggan rides, they're all mentioned, but if you don't know Calvin and Hobbes intimately, the references will be lost on you. It's a shame because I don't think the integrity of the strip would have been harmed one iota by their inclusion.

So, a pleasurable but ultimately unrevealing read. Maybe we'll all have to wait until Father Time does his work to find out anything more.

I bought this book hoping to find a sort of analysis of Watterson work, a new way to read his strips and a sort of "vademecum" to understand what's behind the work of one of the greatest cartoonist from the previous century, but the book contains a lot of (at least to me) useless informations, about how the author tried to "discover" Watterson, how he felt during the writing of the book, his memories about Calvin and Hobbes... This is more a book about Nevin Martell (the author), than about Watterson!
Well, there are also interesting infos, about Watterson college years and early works, but still the book was not what I was looking for.

As most people who buy this book, and many, many others, would be, I'm a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan. And hugely fascinated by the complex and enigmatic character that is Bill Watterson. I respect his wishes for privacy, yet am curious to know more about the man, thoughts, background, etc. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes seemed the perfect project, and could've been so fantastic, however it succeeds in falling short. Quite apart from a few things which I won't mention for the sake of those who haven't read the book, there's not a single - not one - drawing in the book.

Yes, I realise this is most likely due to copyright reasons, but to have an entire book dedicated to a brilliant cartoonist as well as interviews with countless other cartoonists who were inspired by him, and not least references to how they were inspired and where one can see this inspiration without a single ACTUAL illustration is just odd. The history of the strip itself was interesting, but without the chance to see what the author is describing, it's like watching Up (1 Disc) [DVD] [2009] with your eyes closed. Sure, the dialogue is great, but it's really only half the experience.