How Bill Watterson Protected Calvin and Hobbes by Refusing to Sell Out
Via The Republic of Letters
Summary
Bill Watterson guarded Calvin and Hobbes with an uncompromising artistic integrity, refusing for six years to let his syndicate turn the strip into toys, merchandise, and a stuffed Hobbes doll.
He fought to protect the magic and craft of his work, even redesigning the Sunday comic on his own terms and taking rare sabbaticals to keep its quality high.
That same refusal to compromise eventually led him to walk away from Calvin and Hobbes at the height of its fame and stop drawing it for good.
His story shows the real price of integrity and how protecting a creation can mean both saving it and letting it go.
