Rare Bill Watterson Art :: For the Calvin Connoisseur

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Rare Bill Watterson Art

A collection of artwork that you may not have seen before.

Bill Watterson In College: While a student at Ohio's Kenyon College, Bill drew cartoons for the school newspaper The Kenyon Collegian and for the yearbook. Thanks to the generosity of Nat D., a schoolmate of Bill, here are scans of Bill's work from that era. The first image is a 1979 cartoon from the Collegian and the rest are pictures from the 1980 yearbook. NAT'S NOTES: "I didn't know Watterson very well, but my roommate Jeff grew up with him in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. We crossed paths a certain amount. I remember I had the same history class my freshman year, and we were in different classes for the same drawing teacher, Marty Garhart. Interesting tidbit is that Jim Borgman of Zits fame was two years ahead of Watterson at Kenyon, and also studied under Garhart." ckenyon01: "This is the original art from a cartoon that was published on February 22, 1979, and related to the standoff between Russia and China following Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia." ckenyon02: "I seem to recall in his senior year Watterson lived in Caples dorm, the only high-rise on campus." ckenyon04: "Campus security guards mostly were there to shut up students." ckenyon06: "Back in those days there was only one phone per hall, so the ongoing competition was to never answer." ckenyon12: "Several of the cartoons were originally published inverted, white on black. As you can see, it doesn't seem to have worked that well. I've inverted these back to black on white. The yearbook staff also cropped a number of the cartoons." ckenyon17: "This one was right by the binding, so it got cut off. In the days before VCRs, we had movies at Rosse Hall on weekends." ckenyon18: "One of the students took a cartoon from the Kenyon Collegian newspaper to use with his Senior Picture. Watterson did great caricatures of the Dean and President-- very simple, but instantly recognizable." ckenyon21 was sent by Stan "The Man" Merrell, a college classmate of Bill who says, "this is a gag poster Bill did of one member of his 'posse,' Tom Chesnutt. You'll recognize him from one of the other cartoons you posted. Both Tom and and Asa 'Bob' Tenney made cameo appearances in Calvin and Hobbes. Tom Chesnutt also wrote a column for the Collegian as 'Pee Wee' Furnbuster that Bill illustrated." Thanks Stan! (Click the images to view larger versions.)

Target: In 1981, the year of Bill's short-lived political cartooning career, Richard Samuel West started a quarterly journal devoted to political cartoons and the artists who draw them. Watterson wrote and drew on and off for Target until it ceased publication in 1987. Here we have the all of the covers Bill drew for Target: issues 1, 7, 12, 14, 18, and 24 (the final issue). Just for fun, I've also included an advertisement for the first Calvin book (from the back cover of Target issue 24). (Click the images to view larger versions.)

Political cartoons: Here are two political cartoons by Bill from his short tenure at the Cincinnatti Post in 1980. Click these images to view larger versions.

This nicely painted sketch was drawn and painted early in 1986. The seller of the piece claims it was a gift for someone named "Buzzy" Gran who worked for Cricket magazine. The piece measures 8" x 6". Click this image to view a larger version.

In the early years of Calvin and Hobbes (1986-89), when newspapers announced the comic strip as a winner of their annual "reader polls," Watterson would occasionally draw an original sketch for their articles. I'm actually looking for fellow Calvin fans in these cities to go to the public library, look up the following reader poll articles (in microfiche archives, etc.) and see if there are any such sketches:
* Chicago Tribune - January 04, 1987 * Times-Advocate (Escondido, California) - March 08, 1987 * Westchester Rockland Newspapers (New York) - March 22, 1987 * The Press Enterprise (Riverside, California) - March 22, 1987 * Sacramento Bee - April 23, 1987 (found!) * The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) - September 28, 1987 * San Diego Union - November 01, 2004 * Rocky Mountain News (Colorado) - December 06, 1987 * Dayton Daily News: The Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio) - December 06, 1987 * Houston Chronicle (Texas) - January 31, 1988 (found!) * Westchester Rockland Newspapers ("The Journal News" in New York state) - May 01, 1988 * Winnipeg Free Press - July 09, 1988 (found...thanks go out to Reed Solomon!) * The Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) - July 17, 1988 * The State (Columbia, South Carolina) - July 10, 1988 * San Antonio Express-News (Texas) - September 25, 1988 * Sunday Camera (Boulder, Colorado) - October 16, 1988 * Toronto Star - November 25, 1988 (found!) * St. Louis Post-Dispatch - December 04, 1988 * The Philadelphia Inquirer - December 13, 1988 * The Hartford Courant - January 06, 1989 * The Chicago Tribune - January 29, 1989 Thanks for the help!

In the early years of Calvin and Hobbes (1986-89), when newspapers announced the comic strip as a winner of their annual "reader polls," Watterson would occasionally draw an original sketch for their articles. I'm actually looking for fellow Calvin fans in these cities to go to the public library, look up the following reader poll articles (in microfiche archives, etc.) and see if there are any such sketches:

* Chicago Tribune - January 04, 1987
* Times-Advocate (Escondido, California) - March 08, 1987
* Westchester Rockland Newspapers (New York) - March 22, 1987
* The Press Enterprise (Riverside, California) - March 22, 1987
* Sacramento Bee - April 23, 1987 (found!)
* The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) - September 28, 1987
* San Diego Union - November 01, 2004
* Rocky Mountain News (Colorado) - December 06, 1987
* Dayton Daily News: The Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio) - December 06, 1987
* Houston Chronicle (Texas) - January 31, 1988 (found!)
* Westchester Rockland Newspapers ("The Journal News" in New York state) - May 01, 1988
* Winnipeg Free Press - July 09, 1988 (found...thanks go out to Reed Solomon!)
* The Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) - July 17, 1988
* The State (Columbia, South Carolina) - July 10, 1988
* San Antonio Express-News (Texas) - September 25, 1988
* Sunday Camera (Boulder, Colorado) - October 16, 1988
* Toronto Star - November 25, 1988 (found!)
* St. Louis Post-Dispatch - December 04, 1988
* The Philadelphia Inquirer - December 13, 1988
* The Hartford Courant - January 06, 1989
* The Chicago Tribune - January 29, 1989

Thanks for the help!

Honk! cartoons: In 1987, Bill gave an interview to Honk! magazine. (the interview and magazine cover are featured elsewhere on this site) Here are the rare cartoons printed in that article. The first is an image of Calvin and Hobbes with a caption by Bill to illustrate a point in the interview. The second item is a rare peek at Critters, one of the strips Bill created before Calvin and Hobbes. The third item is a sketch where Bill explains scientifically how he came up with new comic strip ideas. Click the images to view larger versions.

This one's from Bill's first feature newspaper article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a March 01, 1986 article entitled "Cartoon Caprices: Artist Finally Draws a Winner." Click this image to view a larger version.

Thanks are due to Calvin et Hobbes Sur Altunis and a very kind European comic art collector. This is a cute self-portrait, circa 1986-87. If you click the link to the larger version, you'll note that he is saying "Hei Kaikki!" which is Finnish for "Hello everyone!". That's from one of the Finnish book collections, where the strip is called "Lassi ja Leevi". Yet in the smaller version of the image, he is saying, "Hello to Sweden!" Thus, I believe this drawing was probably printed in more than one Scandinavian edition of the book collections.
Click image to view a larger version.

On April 01, 1987, an interview with Bill appeared in the L.A. Times newspaper. This drawing accompanied the article. Click this image to view a larger version.

Here's a self-portrait from the interview entitled "Watterson: Calvin's Other Alter Ego" in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Sunday, August 30, 1987. Click image to view a larger version.

Here's a color self-portrait sketch by Bill Watterson. My thanks to Francis from Calvin et Hobbes Sur Altunis for this one! Click image to view a larger version.

This item is a poster for a political cartoon exhibition drawn by Bill around 1986. Only 50 copies were printed and signed by Watterson. And because I have lots of free time, I've also included a couple advertisements for the poster. The first was printed in the 1987 issue of Honk! that featured an interview with Bill. The second ad is from issue 127 of the Comics Journal in February 1989. Two interesting things: First, there were still copies available nearly two years after the initial offering of this rare item. Second, you'll notice that the price had doubled in the interim. (Remember: these offers are no longer valid!) Click the images to see larger versions.

Here are some funny, insightful cartoons about the comic strip industry printed in issue 137 of the Comics Journal. These were illustrations that accompanied his "Cheapening Of the Comics" essay/speech. Click the images below for a larger shot of each.

Here's another image I got from Francis and co.'s Calvin et Hobbes Sur Altunis site. This is a painted self-portrait by Bill from an unknown source and date. Is he just fooling around, or is this a subtle comment on his urge to seal himself off from the public eye? Whichever, I like it a lot. Click image to view a larger version.

Here's a drawing from 1991, when Bill took his first sabbatical from drawing the strip. Click this image to view a larger version.

A rare and very exciting find! In 1992, Bill's brother Tom Watterson had a pop/rock band called The Rels. Bill did the artwork for the band's releases, using the pseudonym Fang Wampir. The first two are scans from the cassettes. The third is a t-shirt but I'm told there may be another cassette EP with the same artwork. In case you're curious about the music, it sounds sort of like the Rembrandts with a saxophone. Danceable stuff. Click these images to view larger versions.

This Watterson sketch is from the 1995 Bloom County retrospective, 'One Last Little Peek.' Berke Breathed writes about the sketch: "I have committed other thefts with a clean and unfettered conscience. Garfield was too calculated and too successful not to freely raid for illicit character cameos. Calvin and Hobbes was too good not to. Calvin creator Bill Watterson took these thefts in stride and retaliated in private with devastatingly effective illustrated salvos, hitting me in my most vulnerable places. Bill's sketch is an editorial comment on my addiction to the expensive sport of power boating and the moral compromises needed to fund it. That's me doing the kicking. The chap on the dock represents my cartoon syndicate boss, which says it all, methinks."
Click this image to view a larger version.