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DREADNAUGHT

Rod Serling On Writing

The Jungle Book for iPad by Electric Type

I had the good fortune to work on this project. Congrats to Electric Type on a fabulous launch. 

More Bill Watterson, Less Seth McFarlane

I recently had an idea for a kids book, and as part of the research for potential drawing styles I've been revisiting Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes. I was a huge fan, but the books are even better than I remember. A perfect fusion of exceptional art, wonderful imagination and laugh-out-loud humor. Like ... mind-blowingly, incredibly, superfluously exceptional. But what's really struck me (beyond the art & writing) is just how good natured it is. The character of the strips is so warm and kind-hearted that it's almost disorienting. 

Bitter, angry, sarcastic cartoons and caustic, ugly reality television shows have become the benchmark norm in todays media landscape. Picking up Calvin and Hobbes again has made me realize how much of an impact that stuff can have. And I don't even watch it; it just seems to be there ... everywhere you look.

That's my little rant. But heads up — you can get all the old Calvin and Hobbes anthologies on Amazon.com for cheap (used). (And I don't even think Wattrson would mind.) Or if you're a millionaire, you can buy the stunning Complete Calvin and Hobbes box set for a hundred bucks. Well worth it in my opinion. (Watterson is undoubtedly one of the best drawerers/inkers in the entire world.)

The following is excerpted from a great little piece about Watterson that ran on CleveScene.com. It explains how he quit the strip at the height of it's success and refused to cheapen the characters by licensing them out for cheesy merchandise and tacky corporate sponsorships (turning down untold millions of dollars in the process). In todays world of "it's never enough" capitalism, it's another anachronistic example of Watterson's character. (He retired to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. I just love that.)

Let us pause for a moment and recall that Hobbes is a stuffed tiger. What fan -- kid or adult -- wouldn't want one of his or her very own? The strip was primed and oh, so easy. United Press Syndicate and Watterson stood to make gazillions. But Watterson wasn't interested.

He mentioned this dilemma in his address at Ohio State. "One syndicate developed a comic strip afterit had settled on the products; the strip was essentially to be an advertisement for the dolls and TV shows already planned. Lots of heart and integrity in that kind of strip, yes sir.

"Of course," he went on to say, "to be fair to the syndicates, most cartoonists are happy to sell out, too."

The pressure on Watterson must have been enormous, but he steadfastly refused to sell out, even a little bit. "I look at cartoons as an art, as a form of personal expression. That's why I don't hire assistants . . . and why I refuse to dilute or corrupt the strip's message with merchandising," he said in his Festival of Cartoon Art speech. "Characters lose their believability as they start endorsing major companies and lend their faces to bedsheets and boxer shorts."

So as the audience for Calvin and Hobbes grew even larger, the space in newspapers shrank. And as it became the comic strip you just had to read every day, the pressure to license that damned stuffed tiger intensified. At the height of success, Watterson abruptly quit.

For Christmas 1995, the papers that published Calvin and Hobbes received a rather cryptic letter from Watterson. "I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels," the letter read. "I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises." And that was it. The strip ended on December 31, 1995, with Calvin saying, "It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy. Let's go exploring!" as the two sledded down a snow-covered hill.

Robin as Holden Caulfied

by Andrew Makes Comics. (Click to embiggen)

Breaking Into the Comics Biz — Fuhgeddaboudit

Full article at The Village Voice.

"We get dozens of submission packages every day," Eric Stephenson, publisher at Image Comics (Spawn, The Walking Dead, Witchblade). "And I'm not exaggerating at all when I say the vast majority of them are so bad it's almost unimaginable. . . . There are things I've looked at and thought, 'Surely, this is from a young child,' but then I read the cover letter and it's from someone in his thirties or forties, and it's actually kind of heartbreaking."

Writer App For iPad by iA. Cool App. Cool Vid.

iA Writer for iPad from Oliver Reichenstein on Vimeo.

The Believer Art Issue is Out!

Cover by Charles Burns

Ben Loory's, The TV — A Short Story

If you're a fan of short stories or Charlie Kaufman or Roald Dahl or Kafka, check out Ben Loory's trippy, The TV. Originally printed in The New Yorker. Good stuff.

Avohontas — File Under, So True