Bill Watterson casually dropping one of the greatest comic strips of all time, refusing to compromise his art for any amount of money, going out on his own terms after just ten years, and never being seen again is one of the coolest character arcs I've ever seen
In one of the book collections, Bill Watterson mentions that one of the reasons he didn’t “sell out” is because Hobbes exists in a very mystical space where the reader is unsure whether he is a doll, a living thing, or both. Selling out would give toy manufacturers the power to decide for him, and for the readers. Imagination is a magical thing and it’s clear Bill Watterson treasured it.
Means he didn't want others to mess with his creation. Not always a question of money it is. By licensing, they could destroy his vision like, with his PERMISSION
@aviation cat first times I read those on newspaper, the tiger doll didn't appear. When it did appear, I realised it's a doll + imagination and it's ok.
It was out of character, but the stuff the creator actually turned down would not have crossed that li… Oh, who am I kidding… say it with me: *The Simpsons* already did it!
I have always really respected Waterson for his refusal to license. Even as a kid in the 90s, I was only vaguely aware that Garfield was a comic; I mostly knew Garfield from TV series and toys. Jim Davis was a talented enough cartoonist, but he was an absolutely *brilliant* brand manager first. When I discovered the Calvin and Hobbes comics as a teenager, i was sort of taken aback at how it was, you know, a comic. It didn’t feel like it was trying to sell me anything, it’s just sort of the philosophical musings of a boy and his tiger. I think he didn’t want to be part of the indirect marketing that newspaper comics had become.
I think Jim Davis ended up hating Garfield, just wanted to squeeze all the money he could out of it. Probably what Watterson feared. Now if you want funny, read Garfield Without Garfield. They republished Garfield strips with the big orange cat edited out. So its just Jim talking to hi.self. Actually a very surreal and darkly better comic that way.
Not me. Jim Davis created Garfield specifically for marketing purposes. Berke Breathed took his queue, and even though Bloom County was objectively superior to Garfield, he knew how to market it. Hell, Bill the Cat was a direct rip-off of Garfield, and he wasn't even shy about admitting it.
It was weird to go back and read Calvin and Hobbes as an adult. Because you notice his parents more and realize they're pretty unique themselves and where Calvin gets it from. His dad is very crunchy granola-y, always against "the man" and wanting to ride his bike instead of drive, and he makes up stories like Calvin does. His mom is very smart and sensitive, knows a bunch about counter-culture and most things Calvin asks about. She's a bit of a happy loner, and she unintentionally messes stuff up like Calvin does, like her cooking.
His dad's hilariously hellacious bicycle trips made for excellent issues. Funnier even when he would return back as a wreck and Calvin would laugh at him... his father was often stubborn sometimes.
Calvin's mom was also incredibly inventive at getting Calvin to eat something she'd cooked by calling it something it wasn't, but being so straightfaced about it, he would take her seriously and actually sit and gobble up his serving...then his own dad would actually end up being the one not wanting to eat what she cooked. And she's sitting there facepalming the whole thing. 🤣
@@failinginamerica It's a term often used to describe people who are rebels in regards to: 1) diet (very health conscious to the point of eating granola/muesli for breakfast instead of the typical American breakfast. This was the root of the adjective "crunchy-granola" to describe an overall hippie-minded person starting back in the 70s.) 2) Modes of transportation (they'd rather walk or bike to save the planet and humanity than constantly drive and pollute the air) In general, Calvin's dad is very much a character into which Bill Watterson likely poured his own rebel-against-the-system nature. Because if Watterson himself rejected the idea of turning Calvin and Hobbes into a merch machine, he was very likely that sort to rebel against the system in other ways. Some of us do need that level of merch-centered money to not just survive, but fund other dreams we have. Others want that money just because they used to be poor and they refuse to live that way again, but they still give back generously. Still others want that merch money because they're genuinely greedy and have no intentions of being philanthropic. I would imagine the syndicates being in this third group. Why else would they pressure Bill as they did to create merch surrounding Calvin and Hobbes? But being that crunchy-granola rebel that he likely was, he stood by his principles. Gotta give him credit for that, 100%. 😁
@@a.katherinesuetterlin3028 very informative answer, thank you. i had never heard ‘crunchy granola’ to describe anyone before and had no clue it was a real adjective. i appreciate the response
When my mother beat breast cancer after years of fighting, she had a diagonal scar on her back. She tattooed calvin and hobbes on their sled, sledding down the scar. A way to turn something that hurt into something that healed, and both had an intense impact on her
So many of us (GenX especially) associate Calvin with our dads; myself included. Your mother’s story is just awesome. How much more iron balls is her use of Calvin.. ❤
The rule of the strip was Hobbs only became real when Calvin was alone with him. If anyone else was in a cartoon square with Calvin Hobbs was drawn as a stuffed tiger. In one strip Calvin and Hobbs decide to run away. His parents are horrified and desperately go looking for him. They both keep calling his name. Then his mom calls out Hobbs. She smiles and looks embarrassed. They found him asleep in the backyard. It just shows you the level of genius Watterson has.
He should had at least gone for stuffed tigers kids would had loved it and he could had used the money for charity or something but still I respect his decision.
That scene was very sweet and funny, they're so used to seeing Hobbs as part of the family too despite them seeing him as just a doll, they know he means a lot to Calvin
@@niksatt4843 I have a tiger plush that reminds me of Hobbes stuffed animal while calvin was with any other person, I called him Hobbes just because of him
Watterson is as legit as an artist can be. He gave his soul and said... whatever, do what you want... I'll have no part in it. In the face of commercialism and profit, he just did what he wanted to express, then moved on. Mad respect and one of the greatest strips that has ever existed. Imagination is the true heart of life.
There was a 4 year period in my young life where Calvin and Hobbes were my only friends. My parents divorced and my world fell apart. I stayed up late at night reading them. I just wish I could tell Bill Watterson thank you.
I remember when I was little I collected the comics, but on the last day of Elementary I wasn’t able to go to school, so the teacher gave away all my comics.
My grandfather was a fan and collector of all things Calvin and Hobbes. The night after he passed, we stayed at the house with my grandma, and I fell asleep in his room with the C&H comic on my chest. I inherited his entire collection of comics after he died, and read them still to this day. It brings back fond memories I have of my Papa and the sense of humor we shared through reading them together. I never understood the whole thing with Calvin peeing on things in the back of truck windows, as I knew how much Watterson treasured his characters, so I know he would never willingly go along with it, let alone draw that specific pose. I never really associate that image with the real comics though. It's antithetical to the values Bill Watterson had in those strips, so I can see why maybe he thought the fight wasn't worth the exhaustive litigation. Why would Watterson go out of his way to punish someone like he's the Walt Disney Corporation? It doesn't seem to suit him, so I'm glad he never did license the character, and his true fans make a point of not replicating his art work for merchandising purposes in order to avoid corrupting the comics. I usually find it very telling when you see them in a car window or on a rear bumper - the person sitting in that driver's seat isn't really a fan of the comics, and therefore not a adherent of the same curiosity, imagination, values, or morality as Calvin represents. You see that sticker, you can avoid them in the parking lot.
I definitely had to like 👍 this comment, had a neighbor with the sticker in the back window of his GMC you, can guess which one, but now I get why it just seemed out of character for me to put a similar one on my Ford I just couldn't do it
Before I knew about Bill Watterson refusing to sell out, I bought a Spaceman Spiff sticker. It was just Calvin's head with him wearing the Spaceman Spiff goggles and he was either sticking out his tongue blowing a raspberry or he was clenching his teeth. I don't remember if it ever made it onto my car back then.
As an Aspie, I might not be able to pick up all the social cues that an otherwise charismatic person I meet might actually be deranged, so I'm grateful for Peeing Calvin to give me a dummy's guide of people to steer clear of.
Yes, but Hobbes was really a function of Calvin's imagination. So in the end, it was Calvin who chose not to water balloon his imaginary friend. In many ways, Hobbes was Calvin's internal moral compass.
"Too sweet" while in the next panel he looks big mad about choosing not to do it😂 That face tho lol as if he's thinking "How did I ever get to become such a softie?"
My parents were really strict on me growing up, so I was shocked when my dad bought me that 'holy grail' of calvin comics for Christmas. I was really struggling with understanding why school was school, getting in trouble for being loud (especially as a girl), and overall being a crazy child. Well, my dad said those comics were his young adulthood, so he wanted me to read them in my childhood. I loved those comics and would read them over and over again, and they actually helped me do better in school. I learned it was okay to just be a kid, both the positives and the negatives. Sure, I had to accept the consequences of my actions, but it was okay I did those actions at all. I still love reading them as an adult now, and I keep them pristine either for if I have a kid, or if I find a kid who needs to be told its okay to be a kid. Thats why I love Calvin and Hobbes, and its why I have such huge respect for Bill Watterson. I have mixed feelings still about the Decal, but learning Watterson's response and integrity just makes me respect him as an artist even more. This was a great video essay, I'm glad I watched it.
I think you missunderstand... a phsyco meaning did you act out and become a trouble maker. Look for ways to break the rules. A wild kid@@cinnamon_biscuit08
My older brother had a ton of these comics hidden in his room. I constantly snuck in to read these, and it was always worth him getting angry at me for it. 20 years later and he just named his first son Calvin. These comics were an introduction to so much humor, curiosity, wit, and deep thought for me
My first boy is named after Calvin as well. He's five now and it's amazing to watch and listen to him when he plays with his toys. He makes sound effects and narrates stories, becoming hyper focused to the point where he simply will not respond if you call him. His mom and I call it "spaceman spiffing." I honestly don't remember ever having that strong of an imagination, or what it feels like to be a little boy, but I love experiencing it vicariously through my sons.
@@jonathandorozowsky4005 Congrats on the little guy! you have my brothers name haha. that's really awesome. watching little ones play and use their imagination is such a great thing to watch. my son is 10 now and its such a crazy thing to see him beginning to behave like a little adult from time to time. I completely agree. its hard to even remember when there was a time we could entertain ourselves with our imaginations. Having kids really gets you in touch with the child you grew up from and in many ways forgot about. Children are an amazing gift. Bless you and your family my friend
I had never thought about it, but you're right on how Calvin isn't quite as bad as Bart. With how all the comic's adults react to Calvin, you'd think he was worse, but he does have a stronger moral compass for sure. Nowadays though, modern Bart has tamed down a bit from his 90s attitude, so they are arguably closer to each other nowadays.
I related to Calvin a lot as a kid growing up with ADHD. He wasn't a bad kid- he was smart, funny, creative. He just didn't care for arbitrary rules or the school system which is a huge mood
I still think it's hilarious that early Bart, like I'm talkin Season 2 early, had "bitchin'" as a catchphrase. I had only recently binged early The Simpsons in its entirety and that caught me off guard.
I'm not surprised that the man who was able to express so much pure humanity in a comic strip about a boy and a stuffed tiger is also a man of great personal integrity.
Calvin and Hobbes were like religious texts to me. Looking back, I now see that growing up as an only child in a semi-rural area… I WAS Calvin. I had to have an overactive imagination because of being somewhat isolated by a lack of siblings and friends living kind of far away. It’s no wonder those comics spoke to me. Even the back woods where Calvin rides off on his sled looked like mine. I recently visited home and smiled when I walked back there…
Same, though I wasn't an only child. Every year we'd visit my grandmother during the summer for a month, and she had Calvin and Hobbes comics that I'd read.
It's difficult to convey just how popular Calvin & Hobbes was, during my freshman year at college (1989). Imagine the mass appeal of Mickey Mouse or Garfield, but without the skewing too young / corniness factor. Quite simply: everyone loved the comic, and no one didn't. At the very worst, you were neutral about Calvin & Hobbes. It's the only comic strip I've read all the way through, along with The Far Side, Peanuts, and admittedly Garfield (hey, I was in 5th grade, sue me).
As a child of the early 2000s, I am pleased to report that these comics also stuck around for our age group. Tons of dudes I know grew up checking out Calvin and Hobbes books from the library.
don't worry, we all had a garfield pase in fifth grade. the difference between Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield is though, that when you go back and read the comics as an adult, Calvin and Hobbes is still hilarious and charming, but Garfield just eaves you scratching your head as to why child you ever thought it was funny in the first place.
It's not that Calvin was too sweet to throw the water balloon... it's the fact that Hobbes made him realize the consequences of throwing it were too dire (despite the fact that Hobbes was also a figment of his imagination).
@@PhilEdwardsInc No, he says "As if life's not short enough already," The clear threat is that Calvin's life could be made even shorter by an angry wet tiger.
@@PhilEdwardsInc I really like your interpretation, but it's a bit of a running gag where Calvin would think he's sneaking up on Hobbes with a water balloon until Hobbes reveals that he knows exactly what Calvin is doing. Hobbes then threatens Calvin in some way, implying that if he did throw the water balloon it would be his, "last day on Earth" or something like that. Also, "pointless violence" for a water balloon is a bit much, no? Maybe your neighborhood played different than we did, but water balloons were probably the least violent thing we did. The point was, they cooled you off on hot summer days. Great video, though!
Fun fact about Bill Watterson- when he was a student at Kenyon College, he painted a complete replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his dorm ceiling…and then repainted it white at the end of the spring semester.
@@PhilEdwardsInc thanks for linking the speech. Reading it makes it seem like Matt Groening is the sliding doors Bill Waterson, the Simpsons now compared to 25-30 years ago (Christ saying that makes me feel old) is exactly what Bill described as his reasons for not "selling out".
@@samroberts7404 saying this Simpsons sold out ignores that it started as a counter culture show. it then became the culture. once it became the culture it could no longer be the counter culture.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 by that arguement are you saying that something that is part of the culture can't sell out? Just for reference though, I was specifically referring to the way that Bill Watterson described the compromising of vision that follows from it, the writing by committee and toning everything down into a family friendly, easily digestible format that stops asking questions that is inevitable when something stops being art and starts being a commodity.
There’s nothing I respect more than people who stick by their principles in the face of massive temptation. Money poisons people and for everything good it brings, it brings as much bad. Calvin & Hobbes is a beloved part of my childhood and now I realize just how much that was kept pure on purpose, and as a humble consumer I am very thankful for Waterson’s work and lasting impact.
Peeing Calvin has bothered me for decades. I always related to Calvin, and always felt that he wouldn't behave in that was. Calvin was never a mean kid, he wasn't a troublemaker. He was scatterbrained and aloof, but nothing mean. I've always hated that the character has been associated with it. Thanks for making this video.
I remember being constantly perplexed by these decals when I was a very young kid. I was familiar with the comics and I thought "that looks like Calvin, but it doesn't make sense that he would pee on stuff, so maybe it's not him?"
“he wasn’t a troublemaker” Well, I wouldn’t exactly say Calvin was a harbinger of stability, but yeah, the people that made this definitely made it without respect for the character/watterson
“I don’t need to compromise my principles, because they don’t have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway.” is a perfect encapsulation of Watterson’s perspective. Great conclusion to this video!
I don't quite understand what he meant by that : is it that either way, selling out or not, it would be the same ? Or that he is perfectly fine with his current way of life ? None of these feel coherent with what i understood
@@shigekax I suspect that he is fine with his current way of life, but I don't think that's really the point. He certainly is not saying that selling out or not really is the same, although it might look the same to the outside world. I would paraphrase it as "I can control my actions and choices, but I cannot control what is done by others to me and my work. Therefor, I make choices based on my ideals, not based on the outcome I want to achieve. That gives me the peace of mind that comes from knowing I did the right thing." Does that make more sense?
@@shigekax Watterson combined both the visuals and the written word together much better than most, which were mostly talking heads. It's way easier to understand about refusing to compromise when you put it in the context of the comic strip itself: Calvin will always be dragged into bath or bed no matter his protestations or the cleverness of the logic he used. With that in mind why compromise who you are as a person? At the end of the day you have to live with yourself, so best not to do stuff that you end up hating yourself for; especially if you're going to be end up in place you don't want to be either way.
@@shigekax he doesn't have the power to control what happens to the IP he made, regardless of his principles his work would continue to be used without consent. wether or not that panel is actually a comment on this subject is surely unknown though.
That final panel "let's go exploring!" is the best ending because I love to imagine Calvin still out there with his old pal Hobbes having all kinds of adventures. Calvin to me is the embodiment of the adventure-seeking inner child that lives on in us all.
I've always been a sucker for sad endings, and back when C&H was still an active strip, I thought it would end with a slightly older Calvin looking at Hobbes and only seeing a stuffed toy there
With him walking up, hugging him and saying “I still love you”? Break open the tissues. But no thanks, the world is already so full of sad sh**. No need to infect escapism.
My mom met Bill Waterson at the Ohio State University at a large event held there to honor cartoonists. He drew a lovely picture of Calvin and Hobbes in a wheelbarrow rolling down a hill, on a linen napkin for her, which she kept and adored. Bill was a private person, and was quite clear in not wishing his creation to become a highly monetized, commercialized product.
I named my son Calvin (he's six months now) because of Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson's ethics coincidentally seemed to line with my own as a person. I never studied in school, but I'll be damned if I pass off another's work as my own, and vice versa. If I did a great essay and a friend asked me to write theirs, I'd tell them to go to hell. At the same time I've spent most of my 23 years alive trying to write, to cartoon, to do anything artistically fulfilling, and despite being occasionally alright, it's never been worth anything. But still, I don't care to be worth more. I'm just proud of the few smiles I've been able to give, and I would hope for nothing less for anyone else.
I think the best thing about Calvin & Hobbes by far was the complexity of Calvin's mind. He could be evil, or thoughtful. Chaos incarnate or incredibly methodical. His worldview ranged from simplistic to complex (like with all of the philosophical discussions he had with Hobbes, paying homage to the minds after which the two characters were named). He was about as real a child as you could get from a pen and paper, and that's what made him relatable. That's why we all loved the strip so much. Because he reminded us of our childhoods.
My wife and I were Corgi Companions for sixteen years. Looking at this retrospective, I now realize that Calvin was as close to a human Corgi as we may ever see. And that one HECK of a compliment!
Or, if you were a neurodivergent child of the time, he didn't remind you of anything but you. And he made you know that no matter how many called you lazy or crazy or weird over things about yourself that felt innate or very difficult to control, somewhere out there somebody got it. And they were helping others get it too by putting this wonderful, almost insidious thing in the paper.
Bill Watterson deserves more credit than I think he gets for choosing to draw a comic that let him not only draw a kid having a philosophical discussion with essentially himself, but also extremely detailed dinosaurs and alien landscapes.
One of the things I like about nerd culture is that we can wear t-shirts to identify each other’s interests to start a conversation. But if someone is bearing a Calvin and Hobbes item, you know it is unlicensed and therefore against the wishes their creator and the spirit of the comic. So it’s hard to identify the fans (although it’s easy to identify non-fans from the peeing sticker.) Because of this, Calvin and Hobbes remains an introverted experience that happens to us individually when we read the comic - at least for me. In that way, it keeps a bit of special magic because so many other intellectual properties are not consumed this way and are widely picked apart and discussed ad nauseam.
You could always wear a red shirt with thin black stripes to signify your allegiance to C&H, though I guess the best way to find other fans is to simply talk about your love of the comic strip. Luckily the internet makes it easier to discuss subjects and find those mutual interests for those of us who live mostly in our imaginations.
I think bootleg shirts and Hobbes plushies are fine, but the peeing stickers are so mean spirited it's antithetical to the Calvin and Hobbs spirit. When I see them, I've always thought to myself 'There goes someone who'd hate Calvin and Hobbes if they ever actually read it.' Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.
My dad raised us on Calvin and Hobbes. He bought every collection he could find, and was elated when we got him more. Our bedtime stories were almost always Calvin and Hobbes, and when we reached the end of the collection, we'd start again. There are few panels I haven't seen dozens of times, so the first time we saw a decal of Calvin peeing on something, we knew it was a knock-off.
I remember when I was 8 sick with pneumonia, my dad gave me one of his old Calvin and Hobbes books to read and I was instantly absorbed for the week I was sick. Somehow Watterson's work was able to transport you to another world so effortlessly and is partly the reason I do art today. I always knew that the calvin stickers weren't Bill's, but I'm glad he never caved, even when syndicators visited his house. Great video as always Phil!
“I didn’t like the idea of using this hard-won precious job to peddle a bunch of trinkets” Really succinct Watterson quote from the complete collection that could not sum it up any better.
Some International trivia: In Mexico, peeing Calvin just pees, it doesn't have the peeing on something component. Usually you can see it on public transportation or older cars, indicating that the driver doesn't really care about their driving or the speed limit. Great video!
major part of my childhood was getting stuck in highway traffic on our way to DF and seeing like myriads of Calvin pissers, i found so strangely hilarious how we had like pure Calvin and his evil twin Pisswin
I find in Canada too he’s rarely peeing on something, he’s just peeing on someone’s rear window🤷♀️ I think I’ve seen a few where there’s maybe a logo, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen ones where it’s just a word, and definitely not enough for me to pick up on a trend like there seems to be in the US. Edit: I will say thinking about it maybe I’ve seen one or two with Trudeau as the target (our Prime Minister)
@@lisahoshowsky4251 yeah, having moved to canada from mexico 10 yrs ago, it almost feels weird that pisswin is pissing on anything, it's such an american thing, almost on par with apple pie and the flag
Same here (UK) I’m far more familiar without any additional context since the act itself is symbolically of defiance, it does seem peeing Calvin has come to represent similar moral values Bill was so admit in maintaining.
growing up in the early 00s I felt like Calvin. i had a huge stuffed sheep i would take everywhere and my only requirements was to be home before dark so i spent so many hours just exploring nature with my sheep. I related to so much of it and it is so amazing that there is no licensed merchandise. it would feel less true, less relatable. I miss those days of just sitting in the middle of nowhere close enough to home to get back just creating worlds with my sheep, no cares about anything
The one thing I wish he'd licensed besides the books and calendars is a Hobbes plush. Not for the money or anti counterfeiting but just so the kids who wanted their own could have an authentic one to love and take on adventures.
@@MarkBonneaux I think that would defeat his intention and reality though. Kids can just find any old no-brand plush, give it a name, and make up a personality for it. In a way, they have their own "Hobbes", and no 2 will be the same.
I didn't know about Calvin and Hobbes until after high school. No one told me about it but I discovered them one day by reading the newspaper comics, and I knew it was special. Besides the humor, I get it and Calvin and Hobbes have always held a special place in my heart. I remember hearing rumors about how Watterson was going to retire and reading the last strip and it actually messed with the feels and put a smile to my face. Good times...
And in making this video, Phil cemented his transmogrifier setting to the "peeing Calvin historian" forever But you'll always be the RUclips explorer of random stuff I was unaware of, of the mundane, of the overlooked little things in life You go Phil!
Thank you for this. I knew, from the first time I saw these in 1996 (on pickup trucks, with other brands as the targets), that they couldn't possibly be legit and licensed. They've always made me sad, in part because they were such a betrayal of everything that Calvin was and stood for.
Same here, I always disliked that depiction of Calvin peeing ever since I was young. Because, it just didn't feel like Calvin at all. It's like someone rubbing dirt on your favorite character.
Same!! I just commented that I think every Calvin and Hobbes fan should print out a bunch of business cards that say: "Only thieves and vandals have made money on Calvin and Hobbes merchandise" ~ Bill Watterson and put it under the windshield wiper of every vehicle with the peeing Calvin.
This was all happening while we also had the ubiquitous 'co-ed naked' sport tshirts assaulting our retinas. 'Mean people suck' stickers were our only pacifist rebuttal! Because, it was the 90's Sad to learn how Watterson held fast to his convictions and retained his characters moral compass on his own terms, but couldn't stop the presses on those lame stickers. Great video, loved your box set to explorer too!
I have nothing but respect for Watterson. Calvin and Hobbes always makes me smile and remember, for a brief period of time, as a child, when I had stuffed animals that I played with. Some of the things Calvin did, I remember doing too. Calvin and Hobbes brings out the kids in all of us. A deep bow to you Mr. Watterson, thank you for not going for the truckloads of money.
It also inspired a lot of other artists to make the C&H merchandise they wanted to see without the fear of litigation. I can't tell you how many patterns for Hobbes plushies I've seen from sewing to crochet to knitting, most of them free for others to try for themselves. And in them, some discover a new 'hobbey' or even a livelihood.
I love Calvin & Hobbes. My dad (who passed away in 2008) used to buy me the books and we'd sit in the living room reading them together. Those books have a special place in my home and I think of my dad whenever I see them. I loved the comic so much I got two cats. I named the tabby Hobbes and the other one I named Calvin. I guess I'm one of those next level fans. 😊
You got me in tears, thank you. I adore Calvin and Hobbs. I remember fighting with my brother weekly to be the first to the pull out comic section from the Sunday paper. I can't bear to get rid of my tattered books because the comics have been lovingly read by my siblings and kids. I never thought the peeing Calvin was ever associated with his creator; to know that Bill Watterson did see this "homage" and knew it would cheapen the entire brand to take on that fight- I adore him even more!!
Especially when contrasted against Garfield’s creator, his decision to hold his integrity against such pressure is inspiring and adds another layer of respect. Fun fact, I learned to read via my dad reading Calvin & Hobbes to me.
@@jmodified that wasn’t how it started. The merchandise and multimedia adaptations came later and eventually overshadowed the comic strip. Part of that is because newspapers themselves are struggling to compete with new technology. If they suddenly discontinued the strip tomorrow, what would replace it? Probably not something that would last as long or make anywhere near as much cultural impact as newspaper comics of the past.
I love these kind of videos about small things you’ve noticed all your life. Everything has a history and it just takes one person interested enough to find out about it and tell the story. Nicely done!
I've known Bill hated those decals since I was a kid reading the comic collections in the 90's. Any real C&H fan knows peeing "Calvin" is not the real Calvin, and whoever has those stickers likely never read the strip.
Never knew that you wrote the article on Calvin peeing on things. I'm still calling you the Pentagon man because that's how I discovered the channel. But it's rather interesting to see how when I really think about it I've never seen Calvin do such a crass thing despite it being a "Calvin" thing to do. He always occupied that space of being rude, yet so thoughtful in tact and his actions. Watterson truly is a great cartoonist.
As a 2000s kid in Brazil, textbook writers and teachers LOVED using these comics on exercises in school. They were called ''Calvin e Haroldo''. I remember reading some on the paper as well. Mafalda, even though she was Argentinian, was more ubiquitous, but she was way more serious and also more like an omen of the oncoming pains of adulthood. Calvin and Haroldo felt smart but right at home in childhood. I even remember when I started noticing the absurdity it was to have Hobbs/Haroldo, a tiger on two feet, around, even though it felt completely right. I even remember seeing the peeing Calvin in the 2000s (now, not anymore) but I never associated it with the true Calvin. I guess because they have nothing to do with each other indeed. This video gave me an even bigger appreciation of this tiny joy from back then, knowing a bit more about its creator.
I consider myself blessed to be in middle school, high school, and in my first real job at a newspaper after flunking out of college, during the run of Calvin and Hobbes. I didn't see every strip the day it came out, but I saw about 80% of them and it changed my outlook on the world. I got to cherish it, and be there for the end, and see the next day how our paper chose to leave his spot blank to honor it. Sure, Watterson could have made a deal and every kid in America would have had or wanted a Hobbes plushie, perfect in every detail. But he didn't, and that meant the entire run of the strip somehow remained fresh and new like untracked snow, yet to be turned into mutant snowmen or used in snowball fights against *gasp* girls. It didn't just stand out from Peanuts and Garfield and every other strip on the page in terms of art or humor, it felt more real. But the fact that not every kid got a Hobbes maintained the real lesson I think he wanted them to learn- kids could find their own friend and imagine them and name them and go off on their own adventures, instead of just copying Calvin's. Everyone got their own patch of new snow.
wow I never thought of it that way, I like what you mean by not copying Calvin's imagination. Watterson has a great quote: "leave the party early" and that means to me that he said what he wanted to say and he wasn't trying to milk it until it was dry. When you read the strip and you haven't been bombarded with merchandise, you are seeing it with less noise.
I’m 44 and recently became the proud owner of all the Calvin and Hobbes collection books that had come out when I was a child after a very productive trip to a local garage sale. During a particular rainy weekend I sat down with my new treasures, a cup of coffee, a finely spun joint, and got to reading. It made me so happy to not only remember a bunch of the stories but also discover a heap of tales I had never known prior! It was such a fun read as I was having such an amazing time I found myself sad when it was over but had two big take away from the experience. The first being that during the stories I could remember I felt as if I was transported back in time in a time machine because it brought back so many feelings, emotions, and memories from when I was a kid and experiencing these strips for the first time, I felt as if I was right there on my tummy lying in bed with my knees bent so as to not dirty my blanket with my sneakers reading the Sunday Times comic strips, in color, and having a blast!!! The second was that not only was the writing so good and amazing but the artwork was another level of out of this world as I felt as though most of the stories could have been told with minimal speech balloons cluttering up the scenery! I mean the guy was so good at his craft he would draw these, i don’t know what to call them, but they would be a few lines and a squiggle to represent a certain sound effect and they looked so expressive you didn’t need to have an onomatopoeia present to know what he was going for! The guy is that good. All in all my biggest “get” from reading these again would probably still be the same as it was all those years ago and that would be, I still wish I could have a friendship as strong as the one shared by these two, Calvin and Hobbes, they laughed together, cried together, plot together, loved one another and even sometime be mad with each other but at the end of the day when all is said and done they still had each other. I know ones a cartoon character and the others an imaginary tiger, but if I can still believe after all these years that that friendship is real then I guess there’s hope still!!! If ya made it this far so do you! ❤😜😜😜
@@Antmoney333 Oh, no, not at all! I looked it up. It just seems so much like a BS word, but totally legit. I do wonder however what caused you to be exposed to it? It descriptively seems more like the kind of specialist noun used by a professional for professional purposes. I don't come across somebody using such a relatively obscure technical term in such an appropriately precise way.
@@dand3953 it was in a song from when I was a kid, then of course the old school Batman show was loaded with them and I’m also a lifelong comic book. Collector so I’ve always known what it meant.
This video was so passionate and well researched, however what stood out the most in the end was the meaningful message... It truly made me cry.. I really need that reminder tonight, that my box doesn't have to be limited to what's expected, I can be an Explorer too, there's always another way.. often we forget to look beyond our predetermined box.. Thank you for presenting Walter's story, using your own passionate creativity as an outlet.
Calvin & Hobbes made me laugh and love adventure as a child. Reading it again as an adult (and parent) gave me a different view of their world and our own, and it was no less amazing. ❤
What Bill brought to Calvin & Hobbies through his actions is a level of reputation/integrity/mystique that more than a few prominent cartoonists, or their estates, would kill for. ❤
Calvin and Hobbes was one of those things that got me through grade school and high school after that. Funny, insightful, and thought-provoking in a way that few other media dared to explore. BTW, when I saw your pic, I honestly at first thought you were Gary Oldman. Amazing resemblance! 😎👍
As a kid with ADHD there was very few things I have been able to pay attention to long enough to read. In fact I've probably only read 3 books in my 40 years on this planet. 2 of those books being Calvin and Hobbes collections. It was the only thing that could hold my attention long enough. I read those books over and over again as a kid and was heartbroken when the strip ended. I still have the collections to this day.
@@joeybaseball7352 I think you're missing the point. I don't read books because I can't pay attention and retain the information. What would you call a big, thick, bound collection of paper with words and pictures on them?
@@gremlinfinger5964 there's this thing called reading levels. And comic books are beginner reading level. The cat in the hat is certainly a book, no doubt. And a good book. But it's also a 1st grade reading level. Not really something I would flex about on a resume.
I can’t believe a video with the words “peeing Calvin” in the title got me so emotional at the end Any video that can do that is undoubtedly a work of art
Late to this, but the ending brought a tear to this aging man’s eye. I won’t go into details, but I have been estranged from family and friends because of having principles…so, well done!
When I was a child, I really loved these books. Also I remember seeing the Transmog-rifier so that brought back great memories. You gotta love Bill Watterson not commercializing his art. Its so rare to see that. It reminds me the opposite of that. The widow of the "gone in 60 seconds" movie creator would sue anyone and anything that named anything "Eleanor". One automotive youtuber lost his car and all the videos associated with it because he put Eleanor in the video title. Recently Caroll Shelby's trust sued her and won so that people can name a car Eleanor and not worry of a lawsuit.
Wow, you had me all choked up with this video! I have known most of this story for a long time and I adore Bill Waterson for not only his art, but also his ethnics. I wish more of us thought about things the way he does. Your presentation was touching and on point. Building the transmogrifer to illustrate our choices was brilliant. Thank you, I will be sure to share this with my son. I hope a lot of young people see it.
I'm not crying your crying! Oh the childhood memories flooded in with this one. my children now read my copies and its nice to see Calvin and Hodes getting recognition for impacting so may in a positive manner. thank you for this.
These are the kind of videos that make me want to go into video journalism, so thoughtfully made, entertaining, and interesting all at the same time. Thank you Phil!
This is one of the most amazing, heartfelt videos I’ve ever watched. My young life and early 20’s were absolutely shaped by Schulz and Watterson. Those characters helped to define me. From reading second hand Peanuts paperbacks by dim closet light in 1971 to the Essential Calvin and Hobbes of the early 90’s, their Pureness of message and sheer comic joy have made a rapidly aging man very happy through the years.
Thank you for solving a 35+ year mystery! My college roommate and I were big C&H fans back in the late 80s-I wanted to get her a birthday gift with Hobbes on it, and I went to several shops looking for him (no internet!) No luck, and now I know why! (I think I got her a Far Side mug instead.) Also, of course, thank you for confirming my long-held suspicion that those decals weren’t legit…Calvin could be naughty sometimes, but he was never nasty!
Gary Larson managed to quit while he was ahead while still allowing licensed merchandise he was comfortable with. There was even an animated *Far Side* special, but that was a one-off. Bill Watterson turned down offers from some people who might have done something interesting with it, and certainly less crass than this. He even said no to Jim Henson!
I have always loved Calvin and Hobbes. I would always get sucked in, read for hours, and loose all sight of our world. I wished I was Calvin, having a pet tiger, tree house, and infinite time to explore. Looking back, I kinda was in a way. I skipped preschool. My parents brought me to playgrounds and museums instead. This even continued into kindergarten, where we would go exploring on the weekends or after school. I was also an oddball, like Calvin. I saw things other people would never dream of, and I was always weird. Hell, my favorite tv show at that age was Futurama. Calvin helped me realize these things, and has helped with so much more. He was my childhood, and a cartoon idol I could and still can relate to on a personal level.
I'm one of those die hard fans that you're talking about. I have that MASSIVELY heavy complete collection and no matter how much it weighs, I have moved it with me year after year and it has survived many belonging purges because it brings me so much joy. And I still have every single one that I bought as a kid at the Scholastic Book Fairs, though they definitely look their age haha. Thank you for this, from the bottom of my tiger-loving heart 💜
I remember an article someone wrote where they interviewed Bill Watterson. They asked him why he quit when C&H was arguably in its prime. I forgot the exact words but he responded with something like "It's better to leave early while still liked than stay around long enough to be hated." The man is right. That peeing Calvin is around makes me wonder if he may've stayed a smidge too long. Frankly, I loved this work, and I still read C&H comics when life brings me down. Such a pure-hearted kid. Mr. Watterson is the one hero I'd love to meet in real life some day and just tell him thanks for the comics and the perspectives. As a kid who never had any real friends growing up and every day was a different kind of bad day, having C&H around really made my childhood easier to cope with.
3:15 I don't think that the comic is showing calvin being "too sweet to throw the balloon" Hobbes says "as if life isn't short enough", showing calvin that he's both onto the trick, and implying that going through with it would make calvin's life even shorter than it already is. Calvin, upon being discovered, puts on a grumpy face and pockets his hands in the last panel.
I loved Calvin and Hobbes as a kid. My mom collected the comics so I could read them. He made me want to become an artist. Calvin playing with monster snowmen or being a detective with a squirt gun or fighting T-Rex’s with a f-22, I love the imagination Watterson had for that character and I appreciate him being so morally steadfast. He didn’t sell out, and that matters. I hope Calvin and Hobbes stays that way
What I kinda like is how Watterson avoided the trap of controlling what other artists do. History has too many artists who not just "sell out" by making a ton of money but actively working towards crushing expression that made them well off in the first place by doing things like lobbying for stricter copyright or destroying free fan works. "Buying in" totally means, at least in my opinion, way more than just making some cash off your work. Of course, the whole peeing Calvin thing is really weird and tasteless.
I just watched a few of your videos, and appreciate your nuanced and entertaining approach. This specific video is wonderful--and I just want to mention that Bill Watterson is an incredible artist, who helped redefine the medium, harkening back to what had been the norm on the comics page for a time: large panels with superb artwork and sweeping storylines. He was the gold standard in illustration technique, along with being a stand up fellow. Thank you for this. Subscribed.
Not from America, from Singapore actually, but they used to run Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper here. I remember someone gifting me a book of their comics as a kid. This was fascinating as I didn't know or hear about this Calvin peeing thing before. Thanks for the great content as always.
I've never heard of you/your channel before today. This video has won me over. Calvin and Hobbes was a very important part of my life growing up, and the sting of Waterson choosing to end when he did is still felt. I am looking forward to his new book and adventures (albeit with an entirely different cast, and assuming tone). Great work.
Wow amazing video! Never knew this image had such an interesting backstory. Peeing Calvin stickers are actually very common in my country, specially on buses where the Calvin is peeing on whatever soccer team the bus driver hates,but there also peeing calvin graffitis on different places around town. Growing up I only read the comic strip a few times since I was never interested on reading the newspaper. Thank you for such an in depth video telling the story of this iconic albeit disrespectful image.
I remember seeing so many of these here in the Wisconsin Dells and as a kid who grew up with all the collected Calvina and Hobbes Collections, this pissed me off to no end.
I forgot as a kid, I owned the giant paperback omnibus of all the strips.... I used to think "peeing Calvin" was funny. Gave me a giggle seeing it. After watching this though I remembered, as the creator said, that's not how Calvin would have acted. Mid-way between Charlie Brown and Bart Simpson was a perfect description. An imaginary kid with a heart of gold, that got up to a little mischief.... "Peeing Calvin" kinda pisses me off now (pun intended)
Excellent video, Phil. I saw some Peeing Calvin stickers in cars back in the day in my home country Venezuela and I think there was even a local counterpart. So, there is the biggest local beer brand Polar, which has a polar bear as its logo. I swear that I saw a cartoon version of the bear (which they used in the 90s) peeing just like Calvin in cars and even buses. Then, they faded as Polar decided to change the mascot to a realistic polar bear named Pedroso. Enough Venezuelan lore. I can recall those stickers existing, hoping that it's not my own case of Mandela Effect.
We have the peeing Calvin in Germany too - pissing on footballrivals (or is it soccer?) - Gelsenkirchen Schalke (S 04) - just declassified into the 2nd league used him on Borussia Dortmund (BVB) - who just missed being Germany's champions. For quite some years now - a spiky haired boy in a striped t-shirt... A copyright infringement is eighter "a hommage" or "a rip off" depending on the lawyers you are able to pay! In 1992 there were street sellers in New York offering lots of C&H t-shirts. Even at that time I knew that Bill Watterson had never licened them and only made a foto of the "shop" not buying any of those motives. We got a blue jumper with an owl on it (years before all that Harry Potter merch)
Ive never been happier to be early to a video! Calvin and Hobbes is my childhood! I'm on a reading pause from "Looking for Calvin and Hobbes" at the moment unfortunately lol. Admittedly ive barely seen a peeing calvin where i live, but this video hits the right niche i enjoy
This was a great video. I love your message at the end. I remember reading one of the Calvin and Hobbes comics forever ago and I always remember it. It was very charming and heartwarming. Great work on this video.
For those of you too young to remember when new Calvin & Hobbes strips were being made, I think Gumball's family from "The Amazing World of Gumball" was named Watterson as a tribute to the strip's creator.
Great video! I think an interesting contrast to Calvin and Hobbes is Eastman and Laird’s Ninja Turtles. They went from two guys making quirky comics to becoming brand managers. Instead of making comics they had to spend all their time making business decisions in order to protect their property. You can tell it caused them a lot of anguish and frustration. In hindsight Watterson’s decision was not just a matter of artistic integrity but also mental health. He made a good amount of money while also doing what he loved all by himself.
@@clonegeek3317 even before Garfield, there was Heathcliff. That predates it by five years. That even got a cartoon with Mel Blanc doing the voice of the title character. That seemed to be the only thing Blanc was doing in the last decade of his life that wasn’t a Warner Bros. cartoons compilation special or a *Flintstones* revival. It just never had much of a life in merchandise or in animation after Blanc’s death. But they tried. Unlike the rest of the Internet, I can’t blame Jim Davis too much for wanting the money. It was there, and if he didn’t take it, someone else would have. But once he actually got full control of Garfield away from United Feature Syndicate, something changed. Even the last season of the TV show felt “off” compared to what came before it. And the actual strip started to suffer in quality. Meanwhile, newspapers themselves went into decline as they now had the Internet to compete with. it makes sense for them to want a back up plan when the original medium of origin itself is declining in relevance. It only recently occurred to me, but at one point, Davis was actually doing two strips during the three years U.S. Acres was active. The strain of that and seeing how the animators at Film Roman could draw his characters as well or better than he could apparently convinced him to seek outside assistance for the strip itself. Now, in his advanced age, he’s sold the whole thing to Viacom, which at least keeps Disney from getting it. But what if he had said no to all of that at any price? We might have ended up with bootleg decals of Garfield shitting on whatever or whoever the driver of the car with the decal dislikes.
Thank you. I always knew that peeing Calvin had nothing to do with Bill Watterson, but was curious about the story behind it. I have enormous respect for Watterson for his decision not to license his characters and I agree with many of the comments here about how that has allowed the characters to remain somehow more alive in our minds. My own C&H story... Years ago when my two sons were young we often went skiing, just the three of us, in the alps. One year, upon leaving the ski area we got stuck in the snow on the treacherous mountain road. We called for help and were told we would have to wait at least four hours. There I was with an eleven year old and a nine year old, in the dark, no heating, on a mountain road where even 4x4 vehicles with chains were struggling to navigate. My sons (who were wonderful children... and are now wonderful men) suggested we make Calvinesque snowmen to pass the time. Our first creation was impaled on a stop sign, the next was carrying his head in his hand. We had to stop after the third, though, since we had made him as if he had been run over by our car: we dressed it in a jacket and a baseball cap, set its stick arms splayed out in agony, with our rear wheel cleanly cutting him in half. A truck almost had an accident as it slid to a stop in the snow while it's driver jumped out to help deal with the horrid scene. When he saw it was a snowman we had to explain Calvin and Hobbes (he was French, had never heard of them). He said that we were being entirely irresponsible and stormed off, furious, leaving us to wait for the tow truck. Thank you Mister Watterson!!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the time when Bart Simpson was selling T-shirts and Moe asked him if he had any of Calvin peeing on Hobbes. When Bart said no, Moe replied, "What do you got him peeing on?"
I was obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes during grade-school, when the strip was still active, and it had such a huge impact on my development as a person. As I got older, I discovered punk rock, and the whole underground/independent music scene. The whole “artistic integrity” thing really stuck with me, and I always thought Bill Watterson had similar principles when it came to his art. Still a big fan of both the Punk ethos, and Calvin and Hobbes to this day….25+ years later. This was a sweet video 😊 *8:40 bought that book when it came out, and it’s still on my bookshelf. Great read. The author did his homework.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Bill Watterson casually dropping one of the greatest comic strips of all time, refusing to compromise his art for any amount of money, going out on his own terms after just ten years, and never being seen again is one of the coolest character arcs I've ever seen
He’s finally got a new book coming out actually!
I have MASSIVE respect for Watterson!
Word.
FUCKING LEGEND
@@Scanch12 when what where?!?!
In one of the book collections, Bill Watterson mentions that one of the reasons he didn’t “sell out” is because Hobbes exists in a very mystical space where the reader is unsure whether he is a doll, a living thing, or both. Selling out would give toy manufacturers the power to decide for him, and for the readers. Imagination is a magical thing and it’s clear Bill Watterson treasured it.
Means he didn't want others to mess with his creation. Not always a question of money it is.
By licensing, they could destroy his vision like, with his PERMISSION
@aviation cat first times I read those on newspaper, the tiger doll didn't appear. When it did appear, I realised it's a doll + imagination and it's ok.
Yeah...that part. I think I just found MY nerds.
@@misterlau5246 Yep, I read it for a while & Hobbes was always a standup guy then suddenly he became a real armload:/
@@AC-xf6sw I thought I was alone when I was a kid and now seems I wasn't
We are legion, we shall rule SUPREME BWAHAHAHAHA
even as a kid i was like “thats not really calvin. he wouldnt do that” lmao
It was out of character, but the stuff the creator actually turned down would not have crossed that li…
Oh, who am I kidding… say it with me:
*The Simpsons* already did it!
he might not have done it but i can easily imagine him doing it. he was so full of hatred and anger
lol what? he wouldnt do that? he totally would have you not read the comic?
@@marcussmith4913he wouldn’t pee on stuff like that with an angry face
I have always really respected Waterson for his refusal to license.
Even as a kid in the 90s, I was only vaguely aware that Garfield was a comic; I mostly knew Garfield from TV series and toys. Jim Davis was a talented enough cartoonist, but he was an absolutely *brilliant* brand manager first.
When I discovered the Calvin and Hobbes comics as a teenager, i was sort of taken aback at how it was, you know, a comic. It didn’t feel like it was trying to sell me anything, it’s just sort of the philosophical musings of a boy and his tiger. I think he didn’t want to be part of the indirect marketing that newspaper comics had become.
in the 80s Garfield wasn't funny.
Lasaga
Jim Davis deserves Lasagna Cat.
I think Jim Davis ended up hating Garfield, just wanted to squeeze all the money he could out of it. Probably what Watterson feared.
Now if you want funny, read Garfield Without Garfield. They republished Garfield strips with the big orange cat edited out. So its just Jim talking to hi.self.
Actually a very surreal and darkly better comic that way.
Not me. Jim Davis created Garfield specifically for marketing purposes. Berke Breathed took his queue, and even though Bloom County was objectively superior to Garfield, he knew how to market it. Hell, Bill the Cat was a direct rip-off of Garfield, and he wasn't even shy about admitting it.
It was weird to go back and read Calvin and Hobbes as an adult. Because you notice his parents more and realize they're pretty unique themselves and where Calvin gets it from. His dad is very crunchy granola-y, always against "the man" and wanting to ride his bike instead of drive, and he makes up stories like Calvin does. His mom is very smart and sensitive, knows a bunch about counter-culture and most things Calvin asks about. She's a bit of a happy loner, and she unintentionally messes stuff up like Calvin does, like her cooking.
His dad's hilariously hellacious bicycle trips made for excellent issues. Funnier even when he would return back as a wreck and Calvin would laugh at him... his father was often stubborn sometimes.
Calvin's mom was also incredibly inventive at getting Calvin to eat something she'd cooked by calling it something it wasn't, but being so straightfaced about it, he would take her seriously and actually sit and gobble up his serving...then his own dad would actually end up being the one not wanting to eat what she cooked. And she's sitting there facepalming the whole thing. 🤣
what does “crunchy granola-y” mean exactly
@@failinginamerica It's a term often used to describe people who are rebels in regards to:
1) diet (very health conscious to the point of eating granola/muesli for breakfast instead of the typical American breakfast. This was the root of the adjective "crunchy-granola" to describe an overall hippie-minded person starting back in the 70s.)
2) Modes of transportation (they'd rather walk or bike to save the planet and humanity than constantly drive and pollute the air)
In general, Calvin's dad is very much a character into which Bill Watterson likely poured his own rebel-against-the-system nature. Because if Watterson himself rejected the idea of turning Calvin and Hobbes into a merch machine, he was very likely that sort to rebel against the system in other ways.
Some of us do need that level of merch-centered money to not just survive, but fund other dreams we have. Others want that money just because they used to be poor and they refuse to live that way again, but they still give back generously. Still others want that merch money because they're genuinely greedy and have no intentions of being philanthropic. I would imagine the syndicates being in this third group. Why else would they pressure Bill as they did to create merch surrounding Calvin and Hobbes?
But being that crunchy-granola rebel that he likely was, he stood by his principles. Gotta give him credit for that, 100%. 😁
@@a.katherinesuetterlin3028 very informative answer, thank you. i had never heard ‘crunchy granola’ to describe anyone before and had no clue it was a real adjective. i appreciate the response
When my mother beat breast cancer after years of fighting, she had a diagonal scar on her back. She tattooed calvin and hobbes on their sled, sledding down the scar. A way to turn something that hurt into something that healed, and both had an intense impact on her
wow- that's pretty amazing
So many of us (GenX especially) associate Calvin with our dads; myself included. Your mother’s story is just awesome. How much more iron balls is her use of Calvin.. ❤
Your mom is a Queen ❤
Beautiful
Bless her, that's courage!
The rule of the strip was Hobbs only became real when Calvin was alone with him. If anyone else was in a cartoon square with Calvin Hobbs was drawn as a stuffed tiger.
In one strip Calvin and Hobbs decide to run away. His parents are horrified and desperately go looking for him. They both keep calling his name. Then his mom calls out Hobbs. She smiles and looks embarrassed. They found him asleep in the backyard. It just shows you the level of genius Watterson has.
He should had at least gone for stuffed tigers kids would had loved it and he could had used the money for charity or something but still I respect his decision.
@@niksatt4843 omg you're right that would have been lovely
But the magic of it is, that any stuffed tiger could be Hobbs. 😊
That scene was very sweet and funny, they're so used to seeing Hobbs as part of the family too despite them seeing him as just a doll, they know he means a lot to Calvin
@@niksatt4843 I have a tiger plush that reminds me of Hobbes stuffed animal while calvin was with any other person, I called him Hobbes just because of him
The fact that Peeing Calvin came out of Florida is the most unsurprising thing I've ever learned. Nothing has ever made more sense.
Was just thinking that when I watched this
Thank you we like it that way.
Florida Man strikes again 🤣
The only good reason to go to Florida is to attempt to leave the planet.
Why?
Watterson is as legit as an artist can be. He gave his soul and said... whatever, do what you want... I'll have no part in it. In the face of commercialism and profit, he just did what he wanted to express, then moved on. Mad respect and one of the greatest strips that has ever existed. Imagination is the true heart of life.
We badly need more people like him.
There was a 4 year period in my young life where Calvin and Hobbes were my only friends. My parents divorced and my world fell apart. I stayed up late at night reading them. I just wish I could tell Bill Watterson thank you.
I remember when I was little I collected the comics, but on the last day of Elementary I wasn’t able to go to school, so the teacher gave away all my comics.
😭💙
I feel you, man. These comics also helped me a lot in my childhood. Now I can't read them without crying, which is a shame.
My grandfather was a fan and collector of all things Calvin and Hobbes. The night after he passed, we stayed at the house with my grandma, and I fell asleep in his room with the C&H comic on my chest. I inherited his entire collection of comics after he died, and read them still to this day. It brings back fond memories I have of my Papa and the sense of humor we shared through reading them together. I never understood the whole thing with Calvin peeing on things in the back of truck windows, as I knew how much Watterson treasured his characters, so I know he would never willingly go along with it, let alone draw that specific pose. I never really associate that image with the real comics though. It's antithetical to the values Bill Watterson had in those strips, so I can see why maybe he thought the fight wasn't worth the exhaustive litigation. Why would Watterson go out of his way to punish someone like he's the Walt Disney Corporation? It doesn't seem to suit him, so I'm glad he never did license the character, and his true fans make a point of not replicating his art work for merchandising purposes in order to avoid corrupting the comics. I usually find it very telling when you see them in a car window or on a rear bumper - the person sitting in that driver's seat isn't really a fan of the comics, and therefore not a adherent of the same curiosity, imagination, values, or morality as Calvin represents. You see that sticker, you can avoid them in the parking lot.
I definitely had to like 👍 this comment, had a neighbor with the sticker in the back window of his GMC you, can guess which one, but now I get why it just seemed out of character for me to put a similar one on my Ford I just couldn't do it
Before I knew about Bill Watterson refusing to sell out, I bought a Spaceman Spiff sticker. It was just Calvin's head with him wearing the Spaceman Spiff goggles and he was either sticking out his tongue blowing a raspberry or he was clenching his teeth. I don't remember if it ever made it onto my car back then.
As an Aspie, I might not be able to pick up all the social cues that an otherwise charismatic person I meet might actually be deranged, so I'm grateful for Peeing Calvin to give me a dummy's guide of people to steer clear of.
I love how he says "Calvin is too sweet to even throw the water balloon on Hobbes" when really Calvin just doesn't want to get mauled.
Yes, but Hobbes was really a function of Calvin's imagination. So in the end, it was Calvin who chose not to water balloon his imaginary friend. In many ways, Hobbes was Calvin's internal moral compass.
@@cjitaya You nailed it.
Internal self preservation compass
"Too sweet" while in the next panel he looks big mad about choosing not to do it😂
That face tho lol as if he's thinking "How did I ever get to become such a softie?"
Agreed. “Too sweet” my foot. Calvin would’ve 100% thrown that if Hobbes didn’t have claws
My parents were really strict on me growing up, so I was shocked when my dad bought me that 'holy grail' of calvin comics for Christmas. I was really struggling with understanding why school was school, getting in trouble for being loud (especially as a girl), and overall being a crazy child. Well, my dad said those comics were his young adulthood, so he wanted me to read them in my childhood. I loved those comics and would read them over and over again, and they actually helped me do better in school. I learned it was okay to just be a kid, both the positives and the negatives. Sure, I had to accept the consequences of my actions, but it was okay I did those actions at all. I still love reading them as an adult now, and I keep them pristine either for if I have a kid, or if I find a kid who needs to be told its okay to be a kid.
Thats why I love Calvin and Hobbes, and its why I have such huge respect for Bill Watterson. I have mixed feelings still about the Decal, but learning Watterson's response and integrity just makes me respect him as an artist even more.
This was a great video essay, I'm glad I watched it.
so your parents being strict on you... did you turn into a little phsyco as an adult because they where so strict?
@@marcussmith4913
*psycho
*were
@@marcussmith4913having tight rules doesn’t make a psycho, abuse and/or mental illness does
I think you missunderstand... a phsyco meaning did you act out and become a trouble maker. Look for ways to break the rules. A wild kid@@cinnamon_biscuit08
My older brother had a ton of these comics hidden in his room. I constantly snuck in to read these, and it was always worth him getting angry at me for it. 20 years later and he just named his first son Calvin. These comics were an introduction to so much humor, curiosity, wit, and deep thought for me
My first boy is named after Calvin as well. He's five now and it's amazing to watch and listen to him when he plays with his toys. He makes sound effects and narrates stories, becoming hyper focused to the point where he simply will not respond if you call him. His mom and I call it "spaceman spiffing." I honestly don't remember ever having that strong of an imagination, or what it feels like to be a little boy, but I love experiencing it vicariously through my sons.
@@jonathandorozowsky4005 Congrats on the little guy! you have my brothers name haha. that's really awesome. watching little ones play and use their imagination is such a great thing to watch. my son is 10 now and its such a crazy thing to see him beginning to behave like a little adult from time to time. I completely agree. its hard to even remember when there was a time we could entertain ourselves with our imaginations. Having kids really gets you in touch with the child you grew up from and in many ways forgot about. Children are an amazing gift. Bless you and your family my friend
Your older brother was an asshole. I hope he's better now
@@Viscte hes worse now lol but thanks anyways
I had never thought about it, but you're right on how Calvin isn't quite as bad as Bart. With how all the comic's adults react to Calvin, you'd think he was worse, but he does have a stronger moral compass for sure. Nowadays though, modern Bart has tamed down a bit from his 90s attitude, so they are arguably closer to each other nowadays.
agreed! new bart is a bit less of a sass machine
The strip honestly had a lotta great messages and lessons. Incredibly funny too
I related to Calvin a lot as a kid growing up with ADHD. He wasn't a bad kid- he was smart, funny, creative. He just didn't care for arbitrary rules or the school system which is a huge mood
@@eyeballjay yes!
I still think it's hilarious that early Bart, like I'm talkin Season 2 early, had "bitchin'" as a catchphrase. I had only recently binged early The Simpsons in its entirety and that caught me off guard.
I was not expecting to get so emotional over an eleven minute RUclips video about peeing Calvin. Brilliant work Phil, thank you.
I'm not surprised that the man who was able to express so much pure humanity in a comic strip about a boy and a stuffed tiger is also a man of great personal integrity.
Indeed...I carried his strip into the Wilds of India and met Hobbes.
We were lucky to have him as a teacher.
This comment absolutely WINS.
Calvin and Hobbes were like religious texts to me. Looking back, I now see that growing up as an only child in a semi-rural area… I WAS Calvin. I had to have an overactive imagination because of being somewhat isolated by a lack of siblings and friends living kind of far away. It’s no wonder those comics spoke to me. Even the back woods where Calvin rides off on his sled looked like mine. I recently visited home and smiled when I walked back there…
Same, though I wasn't an only child. Every year we'd visit my grandmother during the summer for a month, and she had Calvin and Hobbes comics that I'd read.
Your word "religious" is well chosen, as both names of C & H were based off of key religious historical figures.
Same! I was just an only child with a pet cat and a massive imagination and those comics really spoke to me.
It's difficult to convey just how popular Calvin & Hobbes was, during my freshman year at college (1989). Imagine the mass appeal of Mickey Mouse or Garfield, but without the skewing too young / corniness factor. Quite simply: everyone loved the comic, and no one didn't. At the very worst, you were neutral about Calvin & Hobbes. It's the only comic strip I've read all the way through, along with The Far Side, Peanuts, and admittedly Garfield (hey, I was in 5th grade, sue me).
As a child of the early 2000s, I am pleased to report that these comics also stuck around for our age group. Tons of dudes I know grew up checking out Calvin and Hobbes books from the library.
don't worry, we all had a garfield pase in fifth grade. the difference between Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield is though, that when you go back and read the comics as an adult, Calvin and Hobbes is still hilarious and charming, but Garfield just eaves you scratching your head as to why child you ever thought it was funny in the first place.
I've been going through my garfield phase for about 2 years now and im in 11th lol, nothing to be ashamed of, even if post-1999 garfield sucks
C&H is not the “only” strip you’ve read if you have also read 3 other strips all the way through….
We're the same.
It's not that Calvin was too sweet to throw the water balloon... it's the fact that Hobbes made him realize the consequences of throwing it were too dire (despite the fact that Hobbes was also a figment of his imagination).
he says life's too short!
@@PhilEdwardsInc Yes... to die so young :D
@@PhilEdwardsInc No, he says "As if life's not short enough already," The clear threat is that Calvin's life could be made even shorter by an angry wet tiger.
@@joelpartee594 See I read it as, life's too short to waste on such pointless violence.
@@PhilEdwardsInc I really like your interpretation, but it's a bit of a running gag where Calvin would think he's sneaking up on Hobbes with a water balloon until Hobbes reveals that he knows exactly what Calvin is doing. Hobbes then threatens Calvin in some way, implying that if he did throw the water balloon it would be his, "last day on Earth" or something like that.
Also, "pointless violence" for a water balloon is a bit much, no? Maybe your neighborhood played different than we did, but water balloons were probably the least violent thing we did. The point was, they cooled you off on hot summer days. Great video, though!
Fun fact about Bill Watterson- when he was a student at Kenyon College, he painted a complete replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his dorm ceiling…and then repainted it white at the end of the spring semester.
that anecdote was so moving - if anyone else wants to read it, it's linked in the kenyon commencement speech in the description of this video
@@PhilEdwardsInc thanks for linking the speech. Reading it makes it seem like Matt Groening is the sliding doors Bill Waterson, the Simpsons now compared to 25-30 years ago (Christ saying that makes me feel old) is exactly what Bill described as his reasons for not "selling out".
@@samroberts7404 saying this Simpsons sold out ignores that it started as a counter culture show. it then became the culture. once it became the culture it could no longer be the counter culture.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 “today’s revolutionary is tomorrow’s conservative”
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 by that arguement are you saying that something that is part of the culture can't sell out? Just for reference though, I was specifically referring to the way that Bill Watterson described the compromising of vision that follows from it, the writing by committee and toning everything down into a family friendly, easily digestible format that stops asking questions that is inevitable when something stops being art and starts being a commodity.
There’s nothing I respect more than people who stick by their principles in the face of massive temptation. Money poisons people and for everything good it brings, it brings as much bad. Calvin & Hobbes is a beloved part of my childhood and now I realize just how much that was kept pure on purpose, and as a humble consumer I am very thankful for Waterson’s work and lasting impact.
Peeing Calvin has bothered me for decades. I always related to Calvin, and always felt that he wouldn't behave in that was. Calvin was never a mean kid, he wasn't a troublemaker. He was scatterbrained and aloof, but nothing mean. I've always hated that the character has been associated with it. Thanks for making this video.
agree. this and other Calvin rip off stickers bother me too… both from a the “ripping off the art” p.o.v. and yeah Calvin wasn’t that sort of kid.
agreed, I dont like it but i feel its better then licenced merch so whenever I see him on anything you can gauntee that its a knock off.
I remember being constantly perplexed by these decals when I was a very young kid. I was familiar with the comics and I thought "that looks like Calvin, but it doesn't make sense that he would pee on stuff, so maybe it's not him?"
“he wasn’t a troublemaker” Well, I wouldn’t exactly say Calvin was a harbinger of stability, but yeah, the people that made this definitely made it without respect for the character/watterson
Do you cry yourself to sleep over it if you see it while driving? lol
“I don’t need to compromise my principles, because they don’t have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway.” is a perfect encapsulation of Watterson’s perspective.
Great conclusion to this video!
I don't quite understand what he meant by that : is it that either way, selling out or not, it would be the same ? Or that he is perfectly fine with his current way of life ?
None of these feel coherent with what i understood
@@shigekax I suspect that he is fine with his current way of life, but I don't think that's really the point. He certainly is not saying that selling out or not really is the same, although it might look the same to the outside world. I would paraphrase it as "I can control my actions and choices, but I cannot control what is done by others to me and my work. Therefor, I make choices based on my ideals, not based on the outcome I want to achieve. That gives me the peace of mind that comes from knowing I did the right thing." Does that make more sense?
@@joelpartee594 it does ! Thanks
@@shigekax Watterson combined both the visuals and the written word together much better than most, which were mostly talking heads. It's way easier to understand about refusing to compromise when you put it in the context of the comic strip itself: Calvin will always be dragged into bath or bed no matter his protestations or the cleverness of the logic he used. With that in mind why compromise who you are as a person?
At the end of the day you have to live with yourself, so best not to do stuff that you end up hating yourself for; especially if you're going to be end up in place you don't want to be either way.
@@shigekax he doesn't have the power to control what happens to the IP he made, regardless of his principles his work would continue to be used without consent.
wether or not that panel is actually a comment on this subject is surely unknown though.
That final panel "let's go exploring!" is the best ending because I love to imagine Calvin still out there with his old pal Hobbes having all kinds of adventures. Calvin to me is the embodiment of the adventure-seeking inner child that lives on in us all.
I read that one in the hospital on Sunday morning the day my wonderful son "Kaya" was born...still brings me to tears. Best comic strip ever!
@@kevinclick9026 Aww! You have a little Calvin! 💖
I've always been a sucker for sad endings, and back when C&H was still an active strip, I thought it would end with a slightly older Calvin looking at Hobbes and only seeing a stuffed toy there
That would be a sad but impactful ending; a testament to the loss of childhood imagination and innocence in becoming an adult.
With him walking up, hugging him and saying “I still love you”? Break open the tissues. But no thanks, the world is already so full of sad sh**. No need to infect escapism.
My mom met Bill Waterson at the Ohio State University at a large event held there to honor cartoonists. He drew a lovely picture of Calvin and Hobbes in a wheelbarrow rolling down a hill, on a linen napkin for her, which she kept and adored. Bill was a private person, and was quite clear in not wishing his creation to become a highly monetized, commercialized product.
only in ohio 😳 😂😅
I want to be him frankly
😲 WOW
@@aidencool69stop.
@@drrenwtfrick nicest person in Ohio!! 😂😂😂😂 ohio 😂😂😂😂 only in ohio!! 😂😂😂 made in ohio swag like ohio 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I named my son Calvin (he's six months now) because of Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson's ethics coincidentally seemed to line with my own as a person. I never studied in school, but I'll be damned if I pass off another's work as my own, and vice versa. If I did a great essay and a friend asked me to write theirs, I'd tell them to go to hell. At the same time I've spent most of my 23 years alive trying to write, to cartoon, to do anything artistically fulfilling, and despite being occasionally alright, it's never been worth anything. But still, I don't care to be worth more. I'm just proud of the few smiles I've been able to give, and I would hope for nothing less for anyone else.
I think the best thing about Calvin & Hobbes by far was the complexity of Calvin's mind. He could be evil, or thoughtful. Chaos incarnate or incredibly methodical. His worldview ranged from simplistic to complex (like with all of the philosophical discussions he had with Hobbes, paying homage to the minds after which the two characters were named). He was about as real a child as you could get from a pen and paper, and that's what made him relatable. That's why we all loved the strip so much. Because he reminded us of our childhoods.
I definitely understand him more now that I have an (equally volatile) kid.
My wife and I were Corgi Companions for sixteen years. Looking at this retrospective, I now realize that Calvin was as close to a human Corgi as we may ever see.
And that one HECK of a compliment!
Or, if you were a neurodivergent child of the time, he didn't remind you of anything but you. And he made you know that no matter how many called you lazy or crazy or weird over things about yourself that felt innate or very difficult to control, somewhere out there somebody got it. And they were helping others get it too by putting this wonderful, almost insidious thing in the paper.
Definitely an expansive, profound vocabulary for a kid!😅
One Calvin & Hobbes that I remember as a fitting end was a grown up Calvin watching his kid find Hobbes and start playing.
I have no idea how you managed to turn a video about Calvin taking a piss into a motivational message but you have easily earned my subscription
Dude, same.
That was my reaction as well.
Bill Watterson deserves more credit than I think he gets for choosing to draw a comic that let him not only draw a kid having a philosophical discussion with essentially himself, but also extremely detailed dinosaurs and alien landscapes.
One of the things I like about nerd culture is that we can wear t-shirts to identify each other’s interests to start a conversation. But if someone is bearing a Calvin and Hobbes item, you know it is unlicensed and therefore against the wishes their creator and the spirit of the comic. So it’s hard to identify the fans (although it’s easy to identify non-fans from the peeing sticker.) Because of this, Calvin and Hobbes remains an introverted experience that happens to us individually when we read the comic - at least for me. In that way, it keeps a bit of special magic because so many other intellectual properties are not consumed this way and are widely picked apart and discussed ad nauseam.
this is true!
Perhaps this is part of what is behind the creator's decision here ...
You could always wear a red shirt with thin black stripes to signify your allegiance to C&H, though I guess the best way to find other fans is to simply talk about your love of the comic strip.
Luckily the internet makes it easier to discuss subjects and find those mutual interests for those of us who live mostly in our imaginations.
Its fine to wear a bootleg Calvin and Hobbes shirt.
I think bootleg shirts and Hobbes plushies are fine, but the peeing stickers are so mean spirited it's antithetical to the Calvin and Hobbs spirit. When I see them, I've always thought to myself 'There goes someone who'd hate Calvin and Hobbes if they ever actually read it.' Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.
My dad raised us on Calvin and Hobbes. He bought every collection he could find, and was elated when we got him more. Our bedtime stories were almost always Calvin and Hobbes, and when we reached the end of the collection, we'd start again. There are few panels I haven't seen dozens of times, so the first time we saw a decal of Calvin peeing on something, we knew it was a knock-off.
Knock off or not, it's everywhere!
Being a massive fan of the funnies, I find this absolutely impressive how he didn’t license his art and honestly I’m inspired by that.
I remember when I was 8 sick with pneumonia, my dad gave me one of his old Calvin and Hobbes books to read and I was instantly absorbed for the week I was sick. Somehow Watterson's work was able to transport you to another world so effortlessly and is partly the reason I do art today. I always knew that the calvin stickers weren't Bill's, but I'm glad he never caved, even when syndicators visited his house. Great video as always Phil!
Very similar story with my mom
“I didn’t like the idea of using this hard-won precious job to peddle a bunch of trinkets”
Really succinct Watterson quote from the complete collection that could not sum it up any better.
This was so great. Loving this comic as a kid and growing up to find a deeper meaning behind it. And the way the story was told so good.
Some International trivia:
In Mexico, peeing Calvin just pees, it doesn't have the peeing on something component.
Usually you can see it on public transportation or older cars, indicating that the driver doesn't really care about their driving or the speed limit.
Great video!
major part of my childhood was getting stuck in highway traffic on our way to DF and seeing like myriads of Calvin pissers, i found so strangely hilarious how we had like pure Calvin and his evil twin Pisswin
I find in Canada too he’s rarely peeing on something, he’s just peeing on someone’s rear window🤷♀️ I think I’ve seen a few where there’s maybe a logo, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen ones where it’s just a word, and definitely not enough for me to pick up on a trend like there seems to be in the US.
Edit: I will say thinking about it maybe I’ve seen one or two with Trudeau as the target (our Prime Minister)
Pisswin lol
@@lisahoshowsky4251 yeah, having moved to canada from mexico 10 yrs ago, it almost feels weird that pisswin is pissing on anything, it's such an american thing, almost on par with apple pie and the flag
Same here (UK) I’m far more familiar without any additional context since the act itself is symbolically of defiance, it does seem peeing Calvin has come to represent similar moral values Bill was so admit in maintaining.
growing up in the early 00s I felt like Calvin. i had a huge stuffed sheep i would take everywhere and my only requirements was to be home before dark so i spent so many hours just exploring nature with my sheep. I related to so much of it and it is so amazing that there is no licensed merchandise. it would feel less true, less relatable. I miss those days of just sitting in the middle of nowhere close enough to home to get back just creating worlds with my sheep, no cares about anything
If I may ask, what was your sheep’s name?
The one thing I wish he'd licensed besides the books and calendars is a Hobbes plush. Not for the money or anti counterfeiting but just so the kids who wanted their own could have an authentic one to love and take on adventures.
@@MarkBonneaux I think that would defeat his intention and reality though. Kids can just find any old no-brand plush, give it a name, and make up a personality for it. In a way, they have their own "Hobbes", and no 2 will be the same.
God, I hope you didn't grow up to be a politician.
@@MarkBonneaux But you could have one any time you liked, you just had to have used your imagination. . .
I didn't know about Calvin and Hobbes until after high school. No one told me about it but I discovered them one day by reading the newspaper comics, and I knew it was special. Besides the humor, I get it and Calvin and Hobbes have always held a special place in my heart. I remember hearing rumors about how Watterson was going to retire and reading the last strip and it actually messed with the feels and put a smile to my face. Good times...
And in making this video, Phil cemented his transmogrifier setting to the "peeing Calvin historian" forever
But you'll always be the RUclips explorer of random stuff I was unaware of, of the mundane, of the overlooked little things in life
You go Phil!
to me he'll always be the guy who talked about the architecture of the midwest furfest hotel
_Hell_ yes!
Thank you for this. I knew, from the first time I saw these in 1996 (on pickup trucks, with other brands as the targets), that they couldn't possibly be legit and licensed. They've always made me sad, in part because they were such a betrayal of everything that Calvin was and stood for.
Same here, I always disliked that depiction of Calvin peeing ever since I was young. Because, it just didn't feel like Calvin at all. It's like someone rubbing dirt on your favorite character.
Same!!
I just commented that I think every Calvin and Hobbes fan should print out a bunch of business cards that say: "Only thieves and vandals have made money on Calvin and Hobbes merchandise" ~ Bill Watterson
and put it under the windshield wiper of every vehicle with the peeing Calvin.
same thing with american flag punisher stickers
@@Hojeun bro i read all the comics, it's totally something calvin would do
This was all happening while we also had the ubiquitous 'co-ed naked' sport tshirts assaulting our retinas. 'Mean people suck' stickers were our only pacifist rebuttal! Because, it was the 90's
Sad to learn how Watterson held fast to his convictions and retained his characters moral compass on his own terms, but couldn't stop the presses on those lame stickers. Great video, loved your box set to explorer too!
such a great video!! you managed to make an otherwise simple topic really interesting and entertaining
thank you!
I have nothing but respect for Watterson.
Calvin and Hobbes always makes me smile and remember, for a brief period of time, as a child, when I had stuffed animals that I played with.
Some of the things Calvin did, I remember doing too. Calvin and Hobbes brings out the kids in all of us.
A deep bow to you Mr. Watterson, thank you for not going for the truckloads of money.
It also inspired a lot of other artists to make the C&H merchandise they wanted to see without the fear of litigation. I can't tell you how many patterns for Hobbes plushies I've seen from sewing to crochet to knitting, most of them free for others to try for themselves. And in them, some discover a new 'hobbey' or even a livelihood.
nice one👏
I love Calvin & Hobbes. My dad (who passed away in 2008) used to buy me the books and we'd sit in the living room reading them together. Those books have a special place in my home and I think of my dad whenever I see them. I loved the comic so much I got two cats. I named the tabby Hobbes and the other one I named Calvin. I guess I'm one of those next level fans. 😊
You got me in tears, thank you. I adore Calvin and Hobbs. I remember fighting with my brother weekly to be the first to the pull out comic section from the Sunday paper. I can't bear to get rid of my tattered books because the comics have been lovingly read by my siblings and kids. I never thought the peeing Calvin was ever associated with his creator; to know that Bill Watterson did see this "homage" and knew it would cheapen the entire brand to take on that fight- I adore him even more!!
Especially when contrasted against Garfield’s creator, his decision to hold his integrity against such pressure is inspiring and adds another layer of respect.
Fun fact, I learned to read via my dad reading Calvin & Hobbes to me.
With Garfield, the merch is the whole point - the comic strip is just an advertisement for it.
@@jmodified that wasn’t how it started. The merchandise and multimedia adaptations came later and eventually overshadowed the comic strip. Part of that is because newspapers themselves are struggling to compete with new technology. If they suddenly discontinued the strip tomorrow, what would replace it? Probably not something that would last as long or make anywhere near as much cultural impact as newspaper comics of the past.
I love these kind of videos about small things you’ve noticed all your life. Everything has a history and it just takes one person interested enough to find out about it and tell the story. Nicely done!
I've known Bill hated those decals since I was a kid reading the comic collections in the 90's. Any real C&H fan knows peeing "Calvin" is not the real Calvin, and whoever has those stickers likely never read the strip.
it's kinda crazy though - you talk to more casual fans and they really don't know about it. pretty awful!
@@PhilEdwardsInc maybe they didn’t grow up where it was common to see them.
Never knew that you wrote the article on Calvin peeing on things. I'm still calling you the Pentagon man because that's how I discovered the channel.
But it's rather interesting to see how when I really think about it I've never seen Calvin do such a crass thing despite it being a "Calvin" thing to do. He always occupied that space of being rude, yet so thoughtful in tact and his actions. Watterson truly is a great cartoonist.
hahah pentagon man might be better than peeing calvin man.
This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And it's about a peeing cartoon character.
This is amazing work.
As a 2000s kid in Brazil, textbook writers and teachers LOVED using these comics on exercises in school. They were called ''Calvin e Haroldo''. I remember reading some on the paper as well. Mafalda, even though she was Argentinian, was more ubiquitous, but she was way more serious and also more like an omen of the oncoming pains of adulthood. Calvin and Haroldo felt smart but right at home in childhood. I even remember when I started noticing the absurdity it was to have Hobbs/Haroldo, a tiger on two feet, around, even though it felt completely right.
I even remember seeing the peeing Calvin in the 2000s (now, not anymore) but I never associated it with the true Calvin. I guess because they have nothing to do with each other indeed. This video gave me an even bigger appreciation of this tiny joy from back then, knowing a bit more about its creator.
I consider myself blessed to be in middle school, high school, and in my first real job at a newspaper after flunking out of college, during the run of Calvin and Hobbes. I didn't see every strip the day it came out, but I saw about 80% of them and it changed my outlook on the world. I got to cherish it, and be there for the end, and see the next day how our paper chose to leave his spot blank to honor it.
Sure, Watterson could have made a deal and every kid in America would have had or wanted a Hobbes plushie, perfect in every detail. But he didn't, and that meant the entire run of the strip somehow remained fresh and new like untracked snow, yet to be turned into mutant snowmen or used in snowball fights against *gasp* girls. It didn't just stand out from Peanuts and Garfield and every other strip on the page in terms of art or humor, it felt more real.
But the fact that not every kid got a Hobbes maintained the real lesson I think he wanted them to learn- kids could find their own friend and imagine them and name them and go off on their own adventures, instead of just copying Calvin's. Everyone got their own patch of new snow.
well said
This. Poetic. ❤️
wow I never thought of it that way, I like what you mean by not copying Calvin's imagination. Watterson has a great quote: "leave the party early" and that means to me that he said what he wanted to say and he wasn't trying to milk it until it was dry. When you read the strip and you haven't been bombarded with merchandise, you are seeing it with less noise.
Wasn’t expecting a video about peeing Calvin to end on such an inspirational note. This was a pleasant breach of expectation!
I never expected to be in tears by the end of a video about Peeing Calvin, but here I am.
I’m 44 and recently became the proud owner of all the Calvin and Hobbes collection books that had come out when I was a child after a very productive trip to a local garage sale. During a particular rainy weekend I sat down with my new treasures, a cup of coffee, a finely spun joint, and got to reading. It made me so happy to not only remember a bunch of the stories but also discover a heap of tales I had never known prior! It was such a fun read as I was having such an amazing time I found myself sad when it was over but had two big take away from the experience. The first being that during the stories I could remember I felt as if I was transported back in time in a time machine because it brought back so many feelings, emotions, and memories from when I was a kid and experiencing these strips for the first time, I felt as if I was right there on my tummy lying in bed with my knees bent so as to not dirty my blanket with my sneakers reading the Sunday Times comic strips, in color, and having a blast!!! The second was that not only was the writing so good and amazing but the artwork was another level of out of this world as I felt as though most of the stories could have been told with minimal speech balloons cluttering up the scenery! I mean the guy was so good at his craft he would draw these, i don’t know what to call them, but they would be a few lines and a squiggle to represent a certain sound effect and they looked so expressive you didn’t need to have an onomatopoeia present to know what he was going for! The guy is that good. All in all my biggest “get” from reading these again would probably still be the same as it was all those years ago and that would be, I still wish I could have a friendship as strong as the one shared by these two, Calvin and Hobbes, they laughed together, cried together, plot together, loved one another and even sometime be mad with each other but at the end of the day when all is said and done they still had each other. I know ones a cartoon character and the others an imaginary tiger, but if I can still believe after all these years that that friendship is real then I guess there’s hope still!!! If ya made it this far so do you! ❤😜😜😜
Onomatopoeia. New stuff (to me) every day.
@@dand3953 did I spell it wrong?
@@Antmoney333 Oh, no, not at all! I looked it up. It just seems so much like a BS word, but totally legit.
I do wonder however what caused you to be exposed to it? It descriptively seems more like the kind of specialist noun used by a professional for professional purposes.
I don't come across somebody using such a relatively obscure technical term in such an appropriately precise way.
@@dand3953 I learned it in high school. . .
@@dand3953 it was in a song from when I was a kid, then of course the old school Batman show was loaded with them and I’m also a lifelong comic book. Collector so I’ve always known what it meant.
This video was so passionate and well researched, however what stood out the most in the end was the meaningful message... It truly made me cry.. I really need that reminder tonight, that my box doesn't have to be limited to what's expected, I can be an Explorer too, there's always another way.. often we forget to look beyond our predetermined box..
Thank you for presenting Walter's story, using your own passionate creativity as an outlet.
Calvin & Hobbes made me laugh and love adventure as a child. Reading it again as an adult (and parent) gave me a different view of their world and our own, and it was no less amazing. ❤
i definitely read it differently now too
What Bill brought to Calvin & Hobbies through his actions is a level of reputation/integrity/mystique that more than a few prominent cartoonists, or their estates, would kill for. ❤
Calvin and Hobbes was one of those things that got me through grade school and high school after that. Funny, insightful, and thought-provoking in a way that few other media dared to explore. BTW, when I saw your pic, I honestly at first thought you were Gary Oldman. Amazing resemblance! 😎👍
As a kid with ADHD there was very few things I have been able to pay attention to long enough to read. In fact I've probably only read 3 books in my 40 years on this planet. 2 of those books being Calvin and Hobbes collections. It was the only thing that could hold my attention long enough. I read those books over and over again as a kid and was heartbroken when the strip ended. I still have the collections to this day.
It's pretty generous to consider a comic book as "reading a book."
@@joeybaseball7352 I think you're missing the point. I don't read books because I can't pay attention and retain the information. What would you call a big, thick, bound collection of paper with words and pictures on them?
@@gremlinfinger5964 there's this thing called reading levels. And comic books are beginner reading level. The cat in the hat is certainly a book, no doubt. And a good book. But it's also a 1st grade reading level. Not really something I would flex about on a resume.
@@joeybaseball7352 obviously you're having a little trouble comprehending what I was saying. And I don't care enough to try and explain it again.
@Joey Baseball Don't gatekeep reading, you plum.
- a Librarian.
I can’t believe a video with the words “peeing Calvin” in the title got me so emotional at the end
Any video that can do that is undoubtedly a work of art
Late to this, but the ending brought a tear to this aging man’s eye. I won’t go into details, but I have been estranged from family and friends because of having principles…so, well done!
When I was a child, I really loved these books. Also I remember seeing the Transmog-rifier so that brought back great memories. You gotta love Bill Watterson not commercializing his art. Its so rare to see that. It reminds me the opposite of that. The widow of the "gone in 60 seconds" movie creator would sue anyone and anything that named anything "Eleanor". One automotive youtuber lost his car and all the videos associated with it because he put Eleanor in the video title. Recently Caroll Shelby's trust sued her and won so that people can name a car Eleanor and not worry of a lawsuit.
Even in the afterlife, Carroll Shelby is a total gigachad.
Wow, you had me all choked up with this video! I have known most of this story for a long time and I adore Bill Waterson for not only his art, but also his ethnics. I wish more of us thought about things the way he does. Your presentation was touching and on point. Building the transmogrifer to illustrate our choices was brilliant. Thank you, I will be sure to share this with my son. I hope a lot of young people see it.
As someone that grew up on Calvin and Hobbes it's sweet to see so many other people interested in it and actively interacting
I'm not crying your crying!
Oh the childhood memories flooded in with this one.
my children now read my copies and its nice to see Calvin and Hodes getting recognition for impacting so may in a positive manner.
thank you for this.
These are the kind of videos that make me want to go into video journalism, so thoughtfully made, entertaining, and interesting all at the same time. Thank you Phil!
really nice - thanks!
As soon as you started taping the box together I started sobbing. Calvin and Hobbes raised me and as a kid I had a box too!
This is one of the most amazing, heartfelt videos I’ve ever watched. My young life and early 20’s were absolutely shaped by Schulz and Watterson. Those characters helped to define me. From reading second hand Peanuts paperbacks by dim closet light in 1971 to the Essential Calvin and Hobbes of the early 90’s, their Pureness of message and sheer comic joy have made a rapidly aging man very happy through the years.
Thank you for solving a 35+ year mystery! My college roommate and I were big C&H fans back in the late 80s-I wanted to get her a birthday gift with Hobbes on it, and I went to several shops looking for him (no internet!) No luck, and now I know why! (I think I got her a Far Side mug instead.)
Also, of course, thank you for confirming my long-held suspicion that those decals weren’t legit…Calvin could be naughty sometimes, but he was never nasty!
Gary Larson managed to quit while he was ahead while still allowing licensed merchandise he was comfortable with. There was even an animated *Far Side* special, but that was a one-off.
Bill Watterson turned down offers from some people who might have done something interesting with it, and certainly less crass than this. He even said no to Jim Henson!
I have always loved Calvin and Hobbes. I would always get sucked in, read for hours, and loose all sight of our world. I wished I was Calvin, having a pet tiger, tree house, and infinite time to explore. Looking back, I kinda was in a way.
I skipped preschool. My parents brought me to playgrounds and museums instead. This even continued into kindergarten, where we would go exploring on the weekends or after school. I was also an oddball, like Calvin. I saw things other people would never dream of, and I was always weird. Hell, my favorite tv show at that age was Futurama.
Calvin helped me realize these things, and has helped with so much more. He was my childhood, and a cartoon idol I could and still can relate to on a personal level.
I shouldn't have been surprised that a video about a crude, pirated bumper sticker became a meditation on integrity and purity of art.
I'm one of those die hard fans that you're talking about. I have that MASSIVELY heavy complete collection and no matter how much it weighs, I have moved it with me year after year and it has survived many belonging purges because it brings me so much joy.
And I still have every single one that I bought as a kid at the Scholastic Book Fairs, though they definitely look their age haha.
Thank you for this, from the bottom of my tiger-loving heart 💜
Growing up, my teacher had every book and loved to share them. I read almost all of them. What a great run down memory lane...
I remember an article someone wrote where they interviewed Bill Watterson. They asked him why he quit when C&H was arguably in its prime. I forgot the exact words but he responded with something like "It's better to leave early while still liked than stay around long enough to be hated." The man is right. That peeing Calvin is around makes me wonder if he may've stayed a smidge too long. Frankly, I loved this work, and I still read C&H comics when life brings me down. Such a pure-hearted kid.
Mr. Watterson is the one hero I'd love to meet in real life some day and just tell him thanks for the comics and the perspectives. As a kid who never had any real friends growing up and every day was a different kind of bad day, having C&H around really made my childhood easier to cope with.
Calvin and Hobbes touched my heart when I was a young and dumb teen. That heart was a tough place to get to at the time.
3:15
I don't think that the comic is showing calvin being "too sweet to throw the balloon"
Hobbes says "as if life isn't short enough", showing calvin that he's both onto the trick, and implying that going through with it would make calvin's life even shorter than it already is.
Calvin, upon being discovered, puts on a grumpy face and pockets his hands in the last panel.
I loved Calvin and Hobbes as a kid. My mom collected the comics so I could read them. He made me want to become an artist. Calvin playing with monster snowmen or being a detective with a squirt gun or fighting T-Rex’s with a f-22, I love the imagination Watterson had for that character and I appreciate him being so morally steadfast. He didn’t sell out, and that matters. I hope Calvin and Hobbes stays that way
What I kinda like is how Watterson avoided the trap of controlling what other artists do. History has too many artists who not just "sell out" by making a ton of money but actively working towards crushing expression that made them well off in the first place by doing things like lobbying for stricter copyright or destroying free fan works. "Buying in" totally means, at least in my opinion, way more than just making some cash off your work.
Of course, the whole peeing Calvin thing is really weird and tasteless.
Too be fair? I haven't seen nick copyright NSFW art of Garfield so we haven't hit that dark future yet
@@NitwitsWorld … There is Garfield porn, icydk
@@Cnichal yup oof
I just watched a few of your videos, and appreciate your nuanced and entertaining approach. This specific video is wonderful--and I just want to mention that Bill Watterson is an incredible artist, who helped redefine the medium, harkening back to what had been the norm on the comics page for a time: large panels with superb artwork and sweeping storylines. He was the gold standard in illustration technique, along with being a stand up fellow. Thank you for this. Subscribed.
Not from America, from Singapore actually, but they used to run Calvin and Hobbes in the newspaper here. I remember someone gifting me a book of their comics as a kid. This was fascinating as I didn't know or hear about this Calvin peeing thing before. Thanks for the great content as always.
I've never heard of you/your channel before today. This video has won me over. Calvin and Hobbes was a very important part of my life growing up, and the sting of Waterson choosing to end when he did is still felt. I am looking forward to his new book and adventures (albeit with an entirely different cast, and assuming tone). Great work.
Thanks!
Wow amazing video! Never knew this image had such an interesting backstory. Peeing Calvin stickers are actually very common in my country, specially on buses where the Calvin is peeing on whatever soccer team the bus driver hates,but there also peeing calvin graffitis on different places around town. Growing up I only read the comic strip a few times since I was never interested on reading the newspaper. Thank you for such an in depth video telling the story of this iconic albeit disrespectful image.
I remember seeing so many of these here in the Wisconsin Dells and as a kid who grew up with all the collected Calvina and Hobbes Collections, this pissed me off to no end.
3:20 I always thought he didn't throw the water balloon at Hobbes because of Hobbes' implied threat, not because he was too nice to do so...
I forgot as a kid, I owned the giant paperback omnibus of all the strips.... I used to think "peeing Calvin" was funny. Gave me a giggle seeing it. After watching this though I remembered, as the creator said, that's not how Calvin would have acted. Mid-way between Charlie Brown and Bart Simpson was a perfect description. An imaginary kid with a heart of gold, that got up to a little mischief.... "Peeing Calvin" kinda pisses me off now (pun intended)
Looking for the peeing Calvin decal would be a fun road trip game
Excellent video, Phil. I saw some Peeing Calvin stickers in cars back in the day in my home country Venezuela and I think there was even a local counterpart. So, there is the biggest local beer brand Polar, which has a polar bear as its logo. I swear that I saw a cartoon version of the bear (which they used in the 90s) peeing just like Calvin in cars and even buses. Then, they faded as Polar decided to change the mascot to a realistic polar bear named Pedroso.
Enough Venezuelan lore. I can recall those stickers existing, hoping that it's not my own case of Mandela Effect.
ha wow - love hearing the venezuelan version!
I'm picturing Polar peeing on the Coke polar bear.
This might just make me a pervert though.
We have the peeing Calvin in Germany too - pissing on footballrivals (or is it soccer?) - Gelsenkirchen Schalke (S 04) - just declassified into the 2nd league used him on Borussia Dortmund (BVB) - who just missed being Germany's champions. For quite some years now - a spiky haired boy in a striped t-shirt... A copyright infringement is eighter "a hommage" or "a rip off" depending on the lawyers you are able to pay! In 1992 there were street sellers in New York offering lots of C&H t-shirts. Even at that time I knew that Bill Watterson had never licened them and only made a foto of the "shop" not buying any of those motives. We got a blue jumper with an owl on it (years before all that Harry Potter merch)
Thank you for this cozy video. I was able to watch this during a frustrating time and caught myself being thankful for the distraction
Ive never been happier to be early to a video! Calvin and Hobbes is my childhood! I'm on a reading pause from "Looking for Calvin and Hobbes" at the moment unfortunately lol. Admittedly ive barely seen a peeing calvin where i live, but this video hits the right niche i enjoy
This was a great video. I love your message at the end. I remember reading one of the Calvin and Hobbes comics forever ago and I always remember it. It was very charming and heartwarming. Great work on this video.
The end was really impactful. Idk why it just gave me a nice sense of proudness. Thank you
For those of you too young to remember when new Calvin & Hobbes strips were being made, I think Gumball's family from "The Amazing World of Gumball" was named Watterson as a tribute to the strip's creator.
Great video! I think an interesting contrast to Calvin and Hobbes is Eastman and Laird’s Ninja Turtles. They went from two guys making quirky comics to becoming brand managers. Instead of making comics they had to spend all their time making business decisions in order to protect their property. You can tell it caused them a lot of anguish and frustration. In hindsight Watterson’s decision was not just a matter of artistic integrity but also mental health. He made a good amount of money while also doing what he loved all by himself.
I think that if Garfield hadn't existed, Watterson would have been more open to licensing
that is a good contrast - i remember reading about early ninja turtle history and i mean just the idea itself tells you how odd it once was
@@clonegeek3317 even before Garfield, there was Heathcliff. That predates it by five years. That even got a cartoon with Mel Blanc doing the voice of the title character. That seemed to be the only thing Blanc was doing in the last decade of his life that wasn’t a Warner Bros. cartoons compilation special or a *Flintstones* revival. It just never had much of a life in merchandise or in animation after Blanc’s death. But they tried.
Unlike the rest of the Internet, I can’t blame Jim Davis too much for wanting the money. It was there, and if he didn’t take it, someone else would have. But once he actually got full control of Garfield away from United Feature Syndicate, something changed. Even the last season of the TV show felt “off” compared to what came before it. And the actual strip started to suffer in quality. Meanwhile, newspapers themselves went into decline as they now had the Internet to compete with. it makes sense for them to want a back up plan when the original medium of origin itself is declining in relevance.
It only recently occurred to me, but at one point, Davis was actually doing two strips during the three years U.S. Acres was active. The strain of that and seeing how the animators at Film Roman could draw his characters as well or better than he could apparently convinced him to seek outside assistance for the strip itself. Now, in his advanced age, he’s sold the whole thing to Viacom, which at least keeps Disney from getting it.
But what if he had said no to all of that at any price? We might have ended up with bootleg decals of Garfield shitting on whatever or whoever the driver of the car with the decal dislikes.
@@Attmay I wish that Viacom would bring back the U.S. Acres charactors in some form.
Calvin and Hobbes was one of my favorite comics as a young adult. So funny. Broke my heart when they quit printing it. ❤😅😅
Thank you. I always knew that peeing Calvin had nothing to do with Bill Watterson, but was curious about the story behind it. I have enormous respect for Watterson for his decision not to license his characters and I agree with many of the comments here about how that has allowed the characters to remain somehow more alive in our minds.
My own C&H story...
Years ago when my two sons were young we often went skiing, just the three of us, in the alps. One year, upon leaving the ski area we got stuck in the snow on the treacherous mountain road. We called for help and were told we would have to wait at least four hours. There I was with an eleven year old and a nine year old, in the dark, no heating, on a mountain road where even 4x4 vehicles with chains were struggling to navigate. My sons (who were wonderful children... and are now wonderful men) suggested we make Calvinesque snowmen to pass the time.
Our first creation was impaled on a stop sign, the next was carrying his head in his hand. We had to stop after the third, though, since we had made him as if he had been run over by our car: we dressed it in a jacket and a baseball cap, set its stick arms splayed out in agony, with our rear wheel cleanly cutting him in half. A truck almost had an accident as it slid to a stop in the snow while it's driver jumped out to help deal with the horrid scene. When he saw it was a snowman we had to explain Calvin and Hobbes (he was French, had never heard of them). He said that we were being entirely irresponsible and stormed off, furious, leaving us to wait for the tow truck.
Thank you Mister Watterson!!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the time when Bart Simpson was selling T-shirts and Moe asked him if he had any of Calvin peeing on Hobbes. When Bart said no, Moe replied, "What do you got him peeing on?"
Ha I missed that clip. Woulda been good synergy.
I forgot that episode. I must’ve blocked it.
I was obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes during grade-school, when the strip was still active, and it had such a huge impact on my development as a person. As I got older, I discovered punk rock, and the whole underground/independent music scene. The whole “artistic integrity” thing really stuck with me, and I always thought Bill Watterson had similar principles when it came to his art. Still a big fan of both the Punk ethos, and Calvin and Hobbes to this day….25+ years later. This was a sweet video 😊
*8:40 bought that book when it came out, and it’s still on my bookshelf. Great read. The author did his homework.
As much as I would love a Calvin and Hobbs figurine set, I respect the creator for never going against his morals.