Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson, released his first public piece of artwork in 19 years. It is the theatrical poster for Stripped- a new documentary directed, written and produced by Dave Kellet and Fredrick Shroeder of Sequential Films, Inc.. The feature length documentary is said to be a love letter to comic strips with candid conversations about cartoonists, comics, funnies, newspapers and online outlets. It is available on iTunes now.
Bill Watterson gives his first EVER recorded interview in Stripped. He is one of 90 interviews collected for the documentary. Creators of note are Jeff Smith, creator of Bone and RASL; Garfield’s Jeff Davis; Inheritor of the Peanuts legacy, Jean Schulz; Understanding Comics author, Scott McCloud; Cathy Guisewite(Cathy) and Jeff Keane(Family Circus). Even internet comics are represented with Matt Inman of The Oatmeal and Ryan North from Dinosaur Comics.
Watterson made the news at the beginning of month as he won the Grand Prix award at the 41st Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. As winner of the esteemed award, he automatically becomes Grand Marshall for next year’s Festival, responsible for planning and promotion. The cartoonist is very elusive and does not make public appearances. It is to be determined how cooperative, helpful, and/or present in next year’s Festival. The author and his work are the focus of last year's documentary Dear Mr Watterson, by Joel Allen Schroeder. His last public work: Calvin and Hobbes' last strip was published December 31st, 1995. The characters have never been licensed. (That Calvin window sticker on the back of cars is unauthorized).
Watterson made the news at the beginning of month as he won the Grand Prix award at the 41st Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. As winner of the esteemed award, he automatically becomes Grand Marshall for next year’s Festival, responsible for planning and promotion. The cartoonist is very elusive and does not make public appearances. It is to be determined how cooperative, helpful, and/or present in next year’s Festival. The author and his work are the focus of last year's documentary Dear Mr Watterson, by Joel Allen Schroeder. His last public work: Calvin and Hobbes' last strip was published December 31st, 1995. The characters have never been licensed. (That Calvin window sticker on the back of cars is unauthorized).
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| "I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo."-Bill Watterson |
In an interview with the Washington Post, Watterson stated why he decided to contribute with the poster. "Given the movie's title and the fact that there are few things funnier than human nudity, the idea popped into my head largely intact. The film is a big valentine to comics, so I tried to do something really cartoon-y." Is Watterson turning over a new leaf? Could this mean anything for Angoulême 2015? Only time will tell. Check out the trailer at the film’s website.
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