Cartoon creator as absent as beloved characters

Bill Watterson's former editor objects to calling Watterson a recluse, saying instead that he's private and media shy.
By JOE MILICIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- Maybe someday, officials will put up a statue marking this quaint village as the birthplace of "Calvin and Hobbes."
Just don't expect cartoonist Bill Watterson to attend the unveiling ceremony.
It's been nearly 10 years since Watterson abruptly quit drawing one of the most popular comic strips of all time at the peak of its renown. Since then, he's been as absent as the precocious Calvin and his pet tiger, err, stuffed animal, Hobbes.
Some call Watterson reclusive. Others say he just likes his privacy.
"He's an introspective person," said his mother, Kathryn, standing at the front door of the home she's lived in for 40 years.
It's where Watterson grew up. Calvin lived there too, so to speak. Watterson used the Cape Cod-style house as the model for Calvin's home.
One might even expect Calvin to come bounding out the door with Hobbes in tow, the screen door banging behind them. After all, the guy on the front porch kind of resembles Calvin's dad.
Readers will remember him as the exasperated patent attorney who much to his son's dismay enjoyed things such as gummy oatmeal and jogging in 20-degree weather.
Sure enough, Watterson's father, Jim, has a sheen of sweat on his neck, not from a run but from the 73-year-old's three-mile morning walk.
Acknowledgment
Watterson has acknowledged satirizing his father, who is now a semiretired patent attorney, in the strip. Jim Watterson said whenever Calvin's dad told him that something he didn't want to do "builds character," well, those words basically went from his lips to the funny pages.
After "Calvin and Hobbes" ended, Jim Watterson and his son would paint landscapes together, each setting up their easels along the Chagrin River or overlooking other vistas. He laughed that sometimes they'd spend more time choosing a site than painting.
Jim Watterson has exhibited his paintings and sold a few. There have been rumors that Bill Watterson burned his paintings. Not true, said his father.
They haven't painted together for years though.
So what's Watterson been up to since disappointing untold numbers when he ended "Calvin and Hobbes?" It's tough to say.
His parents would say only that he's happy. They wouldn't say where he lives, and Watterson could not be reached for an interview.
His former editor, Lee Salem, also stays mum about Watterson's personal life, saying only that as a painter he started with watercolors and has evolved to oils.
"He's in a financial position where he doesn't need to meet the deadlines anymore," Salem said.
Watterson's parents respect -- but have no explanation for -- their son's extremely private nature. It doesn't run in the family.
Kathryn is a former village councilwoman and Jim is seeking his fourth council term this fall. Their other son, Tom, is a high school teacher in Austin, Texas.
Bill Watterson, 47, hasn't made a public appearance since he delivered the commencement speech in 1990 at his alma mater Kenyon College in Gambier.
But he recently opened up to some written questions from fans to promote the release Oct. 4 of the three-volume "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes," which contains every one of the 3,160 strips printed during its 10-year run.
Objection
Salem, who edited thousands of "Calvin and Hobbes" strips at Universal Press Syndicate, objects to calling Watterson a recluse, saying instead that he's private and media shy.
Although Salem didn't want to see the strip end, he understood Watterson's decision.
"He came to a point where he thought he had no more to give to the characters," Salem said.
"Calvin and Hobbes" appeared in more than 2,400 newspapers during its run, one of the few strips to reach an audience that large.
Its success was rooted in the freshness of Calvin -- an imaginative 6-year-old who possesses the immaturity of a child intertwined with the psychological complexity of a 40-year-old. As for Hobbes, the device of Calvin viewing him as alive and everybody else seeing him as a stuffed animal was simply brilliant, Salem said.
Their all encompassing bond of friendship -- being able to share joy and have fun together, yet get angry and frustrated with one another -- was the other ingredient for success, he said.
'Door's open'
Universal Press Syndicate would welcome Watterson back along with "Calvin and Hobbes" or any other characters he dreams up.
"He knows the door's open and he knows where we are," Salem said.
There are few signs of Watterson or "Calvin and Hobbes" in Chagrin Falls, a town of 4,000 people where trendy shops like Chico's have moved into historic downtown buildings.
Watterson and his wife, Melissa, moved earlier this year out of their century home in the village.
Fireside Book Shop, located just out of earshot of the roar of village's namesake falls, carries 15 different "Calvin and Hobbes" books.
Customers who came to the shop, where the old floor creaks and groans with each patron's step, used to be able to find autographed copies. Store employee Lynn Mathews -- who once spotted Watterson painting at a local park -- said Watterson's mother used to deliver the signed copies to raise money for charity or just to help the book shop.
That ended when Watterson discovered some ended up on eBay, she said.
The demand is still there though.
"I get a couple e-mails a month from people looking for signed books," said Jean Butler, Fireside's officer manager.
Down the road at an antiques shop, Jean Endle, who used to work at Fireside, said she understands Watterson's reclusiveness.
"He's an artist and they tend to protect their personal space," she said. "People at this point are resigned to the fact that he needs his privacy."
She recalls that Fireside used to set up "Calvin and Hobbes" themed windows and sell his books by the hundreds.
"It's just that every boy in the world relates to Calvin," Endle said. "He crosses all boundaries."
Like other avid "Calvin and Hobbes" fans, Watterson's parents miss the comic strip.
"It was like getting a letter from home," Jim Watterson said of reading his son's work each morning.
Ten years later, people still hopefully ask them if their son will ever send Calvin and his buddy Hobbes on new adventures.
"He might draw something else, but he won't do that again," Watterson's mother said.
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