3 ms·

I recall Watterson also battled with the newspaper industry over how his strips looked, especially with the use of colour in the Sunday strips. I believe he fel

I recall Watterson also battled with the newspaper industry over how his strips looked, especially with the use of colour in the Sunday strips. I believe he felt somewhat constrained by the format and you can see him stretching the format's boundaries in the Calvin & Hobbes strips, especially the Sunday ones. I used to wonder why he never moved to doing comic "books" where he had more room to breathe. I've since come to believe that creative work benefits from some kind of constraint - a boundary to push against.

nollidge 13y ago
Not color, but format. Some newspapers will format a comic with two rows of panels, whereas another newspaper will format it with three narrower rows, etc. So the syndicates wanted comics with panel divisions that allowed that reformatting, whereas Watterson wanted to simply have his block of space to do whatever he wanted with. He ended up winning that battle. But to hear him tell the tale (IIRC in the 10th anniversary collection), while it opened up creative possibilities, the toll it took on his psyche probably helped ensure the relative brevity of his career.
- po 13y ago
  Format yes, but also with color. The color palette of the sunday comics was punchy and vibrant to attract attention. He very much desired to work in pastels and earth tones and it was a battle for him to get the look he wanted.
  - nollidge 13y ago
    Ah, yes, IIRC, most comics are drawn with simple outlines and then numbers are written over the blank spaces to indicate what colors they should be, a la paint-by-numbers. Whereas Watterson wanted license to color things himself using whatever media.
- MaxGabriel 13y ago
  If I remember, another good example of this is that papers split on how much space was given, thus many Calvin and Hobbes comics have a "throwaway joke" at the top that the rest of the strip can be independent of. Example: http://calvinhobbesdaily.tumblr.com/image/48223268456 http://calvinhobbesdaily.tumblr.com/image/48223268456
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- fr0sty 13y ago
  More info re: formatting: http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Sunday_comics http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Sunday_comics

nollidge 13y ago

Not color, but format. Some newspapers will format a comic with two rows of panels, whereas another newspaper will format it with three narrower rows, etc. So the syndicates wanted comics with panel divisions that allowed that reformatting, whereas Watterson wanted to simply have his block of space to do whatever he wanted with. He ended up winning that battle. But to hear him tell the tale (IIRC in the 10th anniversary collection), while it opened up creative possibilities, the toll it took on his psyche probably helped ensure the relative brevity of his career.

po 13y ago
Format yes, but also with color. The color palette of the sunday comics was punchy and vibrant to attract attention. He very much desired to work in pastels and earth tones and it was a battle for him to get the look he wanted.
- nollidge 13y ago
  Ah, yes, IIRC, most comics are drawn with simple outlines and then numbers are written over the blank spaces to indicate what colors they should be, a la paint-by-numbers. Whereas Watterson wanted license to color things himself using whatever media.
MaxGabriel 13y ago
If I remember, another good example of this is that papers split on how much space was given, thus many Calvin and Hobbes comics have a "throwaway joke" at the top that the rest of the strip can be independent of. Example: http://calvinhobbesdaily.tumblr.com/image/48223268456 http://calvinhobbesdaily.tumblr.com/image/48223268456
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
fr0sty 13y ago
More info re: formatting: http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Sunday_comics http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Sunday_comics