Bill Watterson

Bill Watterson was born on July 5, 1958, to the loving parents of Kathryn and James G. Watterson. Bill has a younger brother named Thomas, who was a great contributor to Bill’s imagination. When Bill was six years old, he moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Here is where most of the Calvin and Hobbes adventures would take place. In 1980 Bill graduated from Kenyon College. He graduated with a BA in political science. Once he graduated the Cincinnati Post hired him to draw political cartoons. He was fired a few months after he was hired. After he was fired, Bill designed grocery advertisements for four years before starting Calvin and Hobbes.

At the young age of twenty seven, Bill started on a cartoon strip called Calvin and Hobbes. The main idea of the strip is the adventures of a six year old boy (Calvin) and his pet tiger (Hobbes), which seemed alive only to Calvin. The first issue was published on November 19, 1985, and was distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. The first issue was how Calvin “captured” Hobbes, “it was the smell of a tuna sandwich that lured the tiger”, said Bill. The main characters consist of Calvin, a crazy and outgoing little boy, Hobbes, a laid back and thoughtful stuffed tiger, Mom, the disciplinarian and nurturer of Calvin’s imagination, Dad, sarcastic and somewhat remote, Moe, the school bully, Susie Derkins, the next door neighbor girl that has a love-hate relationship with Calvin, Mrs. Wormwood, Calvin’s Teacher, and Rosalyn, the “evil” babysitter.

Some of Calvin’s crazy adventures were “Spaceman Spiff”, the interplanetary pioneer, “Tracer Bullet”, the unflappable private eye, or “Safari Al”, the indomitable jungle explorer. If an idea went wrong, Calvin would always blame the tiger, but no one believed him because all they saw was a toy tiger. “I don’t think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously comes to life when Calvin’s around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product on Calvin’s imagination”, said Bill talking about the two as being each others partner in crime.