Dear Mr. Watterson Page #4

much better drawn

than anything in the papers,

that had a really fresh perspective,

and it just took off.

Within less than a year,

Calvin was taunting Susie.

He was playing at

being Spaceman Spiff.

I think it was within the first year

that he started G.R.0.S.S.,

the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS club

in his tree fort.

And when you look at other strips,

it generally takes an artist

much longer to reach

that kind of maturity

and that kind of understanding

of who his characters are,

what their strengths are,

what their potential is for humor

and for interaction.

And Watterson just had the pen

and ink equivalent

of hitting the ground running.

This was my bedroom

when I was a kid.

When I was 10 years old,

my brother moved to another room

in the house,

and this became my room.

And my dad put in this corkboard wall,

and I had it plastered with things

that sort of represented who I was.

And the main thing was

Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strips.

I'd get the Sunday paper,

dailies too, but mostly the Sunday,

and I'd go and get it right away

and cut out Calvin and Hobbes

and it would go right on the wall.

And even at the end, the ceiling,

all along here,

this was all comic strips

the whole way,

and even on the other side,

just plastered,

plastered with Calvin and Hobbes.

Calvin's world is just huge.

It doesn't stop.

There was Spaceman Spiff.

There was Susie.

There were the snowmen.

- I love the snowmen stuff.

I love the dinosaur stuff,

totally.

- He turns into the T-Rex at recess

a lot, and he's going "AAARRRGGGGHHH!!".

- There were the snowballs

as well as the snowmen.

- And there are the mutant killer

monster snow goons,

and that just cracks me up.

- Oh, and then there is

the infamous red wagon.

- And there was getting

jumped by Hobbes.

- Monsters under the bed.

- Tracer Bullet.

- And you see him in black

and white with the hat on

and the dame walked in,

she was hysterical.

- He'd go on a space adventure.

- And the time machine parts.

- Stupendous Man,

Safari Al, I believe.

- And then you have

the Transmogrifier,

when he duplicates himself.

- There was G.R.O.S.S.

- Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.

- Calvin going with his parents

on vacation, going camping.

- The soap opera-esque ones.

- He would draw like Mary Worth

or Rex Morgan, M.D.,

or some ultra-realistic comic.

- One of my favorites with the

teacher is he's in the classroom,

and he's doing whatever.

The teacher calls on him,

and he's imagining

that he's being sentenced

to death.

And he runs out of the classroom

and hides in a cave.

And you see just his eyes

and black screen, and he says,

what's that smell,

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