In 1995, Bill Watterson shock the world when he announced his departure from the “madness” that had consumed him for practically his entire adulthood. Despite the immense popularity of his comic strip, Calvin & Hobbes, Watterson felt he had no life beyond the drawing board.
However, earlier this year, Watterson’s publisher announced his first new book in nearly thirty years, The Mysteries. Described as a “modern fable,” the book was created in close collaboration between Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht. The two artists abandoned their past ways of working, creating images neither could anticipate. The seventy-two page book was only available in print, and press access was limited.
Watterson himself has indicated that there was something wrong with how he approached Calvin and Hobbes, leading to his decision to end the strip in 1991. His perfectionism and maniacal tendencies had consumed him, and he had no refuge from the strip. He slowly cut out all non-strip related activities from his life, believing it was necessary to preserve the strip’s integrity.
In the end, Watterson compared ending Calvin and Hobbes to reaching the summit of a high mountain. He had achieved all he set out to do, and so all that was left was to jump.
