You know what I love most about Bill Watterson, even more than his absolute genius at comics and amazing insight? The fact that he was never interested on making a bajillion dollars through merchandising. He was regularly offered to have companies make everything from plush Hobbes toys to Saturday morning cartoons and he turned them all down. He could have been as rich as Jim Davis (net worth $5.8 billion) but he cared about Calvin and Hobbes too much. And then, one day, he decided he didn’t want to do it anymore before it got stale. So he quit.
So much respect for that guy.
Incidentally, a book just came out that he did the illustrations for. I haven’t read it myself.
offered to have companies make everything from plush Hobbes toys
Admit it though, we all would have wanted a Hobbes plushy.
All the more reason I respect him. He cared how he wanted his characters to be used even at the expense of what who knows how many other people wanted.
Also it would have defeated the purpose of the story. Hobbes was a generic tiger doll, not anything magical or secret in itself. The point was that Calvin’s wild imagination brought Hobbes and everything else in his fantasies to vivid life, and selling an “official” Hobbes doll would have flown in the face of that. The heart and soul of Watterson’s story suggests that any kid could have their own Hobbes-style adventures with any toy they happened to have and love and give life, not that they needed their parents to buy them the “real” Hobbes.
I think of this every time I see a pickup with a window decal of Calvin peeing on the opposing truck Brand’s logo. They are so common and all unauthorized usage! Also it’s way more childish than Calvin would ever do.
Calving praying is worse.
What about the millions of American cars that have pissing Calvin bumper stickers
Sad!
Did Bill Watterson coin the term “simp”?
In this context I believe it was short for simpleton.
Which is an old use of “simp,” far predating the modern online slang. “Simp” short for “simpleton” was being thrown around school playgrounds in the early 1980s to my knowledge, maybe earlier than that.
Isn’t that the modern meaning of it as well? You’d have to be a simpleton to donate money to a titty streamer.
I’ve heard that it stands for “Sadly Idolising Mediocre Pussy” but that could be something that was coined after it started being used to describe internet simps.
There’s no way lol.
Behold Ronald, in his only named appearance!
