Letter from Bill Watterson and Autograph from Charles Schulz.

I thought I would share this story with you even though it isn’t photography related.  As a young man I was always interested in comic strips. Two of my favorites were Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts. I read the first Calvin and Hobbes back in the eighties. I loved that strip. I wanted to know the technique behind it.

I had very little to go on. This was before the invention of Google. I decided to write to the Artist and ask him directly. I mailed a letter and one of my drawings  to his Syndicate in Kansas hoping they would forward it.  A few weeks later I received a response.  At first I thought it was just a standard form letter but recently, having done a little research on the subject, I realized how unique this letter is. Bill Watterson rarely wrote to fans. After he retired the strip in 1995 he dropped out of the public eye altogether.

Watterson  is the subject of a recent book titled “Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and his revolutionary comic strip.”  There is even talk of a movie.

I have read that he won’t even pick up the phone for Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. Journalists have tried to find him for an interview but to no avail.

By all indications the letter I received in the eighties is  a one-of-a-kind.

Although I never tried to market my cartoons here is a sample of one of my characters that I sent to Watterson asking his advice. It is not the same drawing but is the same character. I drew these on post-it notes when I worked at the home office of an insurance company.  I learned a lot from Watterson and my style of drawing became looser as a result.

This is the envelope (with address deleted). Note the postmark.

This next comic strip related item is an autographed book from Charles Schulz. I felt sort of cocky after receiving the Calvin and Hobbes letter so I started sending letters to other cartoonists whom I admired. The top of that list was Charles Schulz (Peanuts). I wrote to him asking for an autograph. I also sent along one of my drawings. The following is the response.

And here’s the final result.

Watterson holds Schulz in highest regard as indicated by this article.

Now I am in the photography mode and I have put down my pencil and picked up the camera.  Photography has become my newer passion but I will never forget my roots. I love comic strip art and feel somewhat saddened by the current state of the newspaper industry.

I also have notes from Berkely Breathed and Cathy Guisewite but those are very brief. Everything is currently locked away in a safety deposit box. Perhaps someday I’ll get them out and post the rest.