Calvin & Hobbes is a cultural cornerstone for our generation that speaks to both childlike wonder and aged wisdom all in stunningly drawn comics. We laughed at Calvin’s arcane snowmen sculptures as much as we had to rush to the dictionary to look up some of the words oh so eloquently coming from a kid who somehow barely ever managed to pass on Miss Wormwood’s exams. Not only did you have to read them all, you had to own them all and for good reason. The lessons learned and laughs enjoyed  in Calvin and Hobbes were simply mammoth and, in many ways, more responsible for shaping our tender little minds than many other works of fiction in existence.

 

The “Calvin & Hobbes” appreciation project is an ongoing work now churning its way through Kickstarter with this documentary Dear Mr. Watterson serving as a tribute to Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Waterson, a notoriously recluse, and the legacy that he has left behind. Although Mr. Watterson retired after doing ten years of Calvin & Hobbes strips, he has still not licensed the characters for merchandising. Stop and think for a moment about the goldmine he’s sitting on, and curiously enough, choices not to pursue.

As a modern J.D. Salinger of sorts, Watterson is an undisputed genius who is too camera-shy to speak about his culture-shifting work. This documentary, directed by Joel Allen Scroeder, tries to understand the man beneath the comic pages.

Any fan of C&H should take a look themselves.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRnnGfuS4vU

 

Dear Mr. Watterson is directed by Joel Allen Schroeder and features Seth Green and Bill Amend. It comes to limited theaters and VOD on November 15.

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