October 25, 2023
"Think Chris Van Allsburg’s 'Jumanji' gone darker, crossed with Fritz Lang’s 'Metropolis.'"
"The characters, unnamed, are drawn from that strange eternal medieval world of fantasy: knights, wizards, a king; peasants with faces like Leonardo grotesques, wearing kerchiefs or hoods. There are forty-three sentences in total, and one exclamation point. The magic of condensation that is characteristic of cartoons is also here, in a story with a quick, fairy-tale beginning: 'Long ago, the forest was dark and deep.'..."From "Life After 'Calvin and Hobbes'/Bill Watterson’s return to print, after nearly three decades, comes in the form of a fable called 'The Mysteries,' which shares with his famous comic strip a sense of enchantment" (The New Yorker).You can buy "The Mysteries" at Amazon — and if you use that link, I'll receive a commission. Keep in mind that Watterson is only the writer. The illustrations are by John Kascht. And the writing is minimal. 43 sentences. Sample page:
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26 comments:
"Darker"? What has America's infatuation with the NewAge brought us now,...?
Please stick to the topic.
We still gift The Complete Calvin and Hobbes to the office staffers. We used to stick relevant strips in office emails. For most of the youngsters the first exposure to C&H...this one looks a bit light but maybe will stick it in someone's stocking so to have a peek...
...the forest is still dark and deep. My golf ball is still there...
Yes Ma'am.
Ah, Calvin & Hobbes, along with The Far Side, were staples of my 20's.
My mother-in-law, desperate for gift ideas, would give me the books, but privately tell my wife she thought there was something "wrong" with me.
Great stuff and great memories.
Thanks. I'm intrigued enough to buy it. I'm thinking one of my grandkids...at some point...can handle dark and mysterious. And I'm intrigued both by the illustrations and fact that he got a book done in 43 sentences. I've rewritten thousands of sentences and still can't get a book done. Aaargh.
I had to look up John Kascht. His caricatures are unbelievable. Wow.
Jumanji is barely a story, yet someone made it into a complex IP. I'm intrigued.
I love Calvin and Hobbes. Amazing stuff, arguably the greatest comic strip ever made.
Watterson was a true artist. He used to get in fights with his syndicate, and the newspaper industry. They kept wanting to shrink his frame or control it, and he kept fighting back.
He might have smoothed things over by allowing the syndicate to commercialize the characters, and make a lot of money off Calvin and Hobbes that way. That's what Schultz did with Snoopy and the gang, and he was just as much an amazing artist as Watterson was. And just as prone to fight for his art. (See this history of A Charlie Brown Christmas).
Anyway, Watterson objected to putting Calvin or Hobbes on T-shirts or coffee cups or anything else. So he's kind of a control freak, which happens with artists. Watterson is so "pure" he turned down millions and millions in easy merchandising money.
Actually, I second Crack's comment. And add, were any psychedelic mushrooms involved in creating "The Mysteries"? So spank me too. Because the real mystery to me is why all the arts, including pretty much everything else, seem to be spiraling into darker depths lately. Psychotic Break Age?
The hardest thing about being an artist? Collaboration!
Interesting that after being a solo artist, in a fight with everybody, Watterson had to collaborate with another artist on this project.
It's Watterson's idea, and his story. But his words are so minimalist! And a lot of the work is carried by his visual artist, John Kasich.
Here's a cool video where Watterson talks about the collaboration.
"... seem to be spiraling into darker depths lately..."
You notice the darkness you're in, right now, but do you have an accurate sense of how dark things seemed at other times?
"Interesting that after being a solo artist, in a fight with everybody, Watterson had to collaborate with another artist on this project."
What makes you think Watterson was "in a fight with everybody?"
Most cartoonists--not to mention most artists and writers of nearly all varities--work in isolation. They are the ones creating the work, after all. Even in collaborations the work is the product of just the two (or few) creators involved.
Watterson did decline to agree to licensing deals which would have turned his creation into a sales tool for products and enterprises that would have had nothing to do with his work and his artistic concerns, cheapening or even undermining the point of his work. He may also have balked at having the size of his strip reduced or otherwise altered in order to ensure the strip would be seen as he envisioned it. After all, he drew beautifully--as had many other earlier newspaper cartoonists. The reduction in size of comic strips over time have rendered good drawing beside the point, difficult to even discern, much less appreciate.
Other than this, I'm not aware that Watterson was "in a fight" with anyone.
Aw man, when I heard about this project several months ago, I thought Watterson was the artist for another writer. I’m less interested if it’s the other way around.
I like the square format
Containing darkness can be controlling darkness.
My husband has several compilations of Calvin and Hobbes that he reads to our 2 boys at night, and one of my boys asked for his own copy of a few of the books. They are currently going through some of my husband's Far Side books as well.
Calvin and Hobbes was why I purchased local newspapers from college until I was working in corporate America. Without that comic, I would never have bought a newspaper. There were 3 great comic strips during my childhood through until I was in my late 20s- Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and The Far Side.
Only someone this accomplished with F-U money could do this.
And it's probably pretty damned good...
Cookie at 9:34
What makes you think Watterson was "in a fight with everybody?"
My guess is you missed my first post, at 7:58, where I talk about it.
You're one of those read from the bottom guys, huh?
Anyway, you named the two big fights he had, over the framing of his art and his unwillingness to help his syndicate make money with merchandising. My perception (I might be wrong) is that these were big fights in his life and it wore on him and eventually he quit making his art because of it.
Or maybe he just ran out of ideas!
I wish I could provide a link. It might have been this article.
Most cartoonists--not to mention most artists and writers of nearly all varities--work in isolation. They are the ones creating the work, after all. Even in collaborations the work is the product of just the two (or few) creators involved.
You're still collaborating with producers and distributors. And, if you're a writer, editors.
Van Gogh worked alone, and his brother tried to help him. And he sold one painting. Artists need producers, distributors. Selling art is a skill set and artists should be grateful to the people who help them.
"You notice the darkness you're in, right now, but do you have an accurate sense of how dark things seemed at other times?"
Fair question. Honest answer: I do. One of the benefits of having lived through many dark periods, both global and personal, is that you begin to see and have a sense of a baseline level of collective light or darkness for different periods, almost like an asymptote on the ever-changing curve of human experience. Not an exact metric, but a tilted line showing direction and steepness of the trend. And in the last few years that tilt is sharply toward the darker. Movies, books, politics, religion, acceptable speech, acceptable thought, etc.
Red sky at morning...
You notice the darkness you're in, right now, but do you have an accurate sense of how dark things seemed at other times?
So this comment reminded me of Simon and Garfunkel and the song, "Sounds of Silence."
Hello Darkness, my old friend.
While I was looking for a clip on youtube, I ran across this band called Disturbed, who did a darker remake of the song.
So this annoyed me, because I loved the original song, and so I'm already comparing the two. And I hate metal. And then he put the damn flashlight under his chin to be scary, and I'm cracking up.
So it didn't work for me. But, in a way, these artists are trying to "collaborate" with Paul Simon, by using his words in a new way.
I was migrating away from the comics when C&H came out (I found the letters to the editor much funnier) but stopping at my parents one day, my dad (who was definitely NOT a comic strip guy) showed me that day's C&H and said he loved the strip. That was a recommendation I couldn't ignore and so I started reading it every day and was hooked. The artwork is incredible.
"My guess is you missed my first post, at 7:58, where I talk about it.
"You're one of those read from the bottom guys, huh?"
Not typically, no. In fact, my comment was a response to yours.
Yes, as I agreed in my comment, Watterson was at odds with his syndicate, who wanted him to license his characters for commercial uses and he objected to resizing of his strip. These fights may have been persistent over time, but they hardly--to my mind--constitute being "in fights with everybody," which carries the connotation that Watterson was contentious and difficult. In short, I took issue with the overall impression of Watterson created by your phrasing, rather than by the particulars you referred to.
It looks a lot like the traditionally illustrated Pilgrim's Progress, which is beautiful.
Then again, I like Zippy the Pinhead and Love and Rockets.
If you want to listen to the progression of a song from traditional to metal, listen to these three versions of "Whiskey In The Jar". I honestly cannot decide which one I prefer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlWTASnnft4 (The Dubliners)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WDSY8Kaf6o (Thin Lizzy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsrvmNtWU4E (Metalica)
Fucking great song!
Hey Crack, you know Phil Lynott?
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