A Field Trip to the Derkins Library

About the same time that I started thinking about my favorite comic characters, Comics Alliance ran an article that led me to The Derkins Library - a website dedicated to collecting every scrap of writing or artwork Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. Boy, is it fascinating.


I admire Bill Watterson quite a bit for his personal integrity and his dedication to the art of comics. He didn't see the comic strip as "low art," but rather he used his comics as a means of sincere, creative expression rarely seen in the medium (and almost never seen in newspapers anymore).


As much as I respect the man for stopping the Calvin and Hobbes strip when he did, I often wish we had more from Watterson, who to this day remains stubbornly reclusiv. Thankfully, The Derkins Library has a collection of some rare Watterson artwork, including some comics he drew before Calvin and Hobbes.


Easily, though, the most rewarding part of my trip to The Derkins Library was the transcript of a speech Bill Watterson gave called "The Cheapening of Comics" - a tirade against the space constraints that were being put on newspaper comics back in the 90s. Amazingly, a lot of what Watterson says still applies to comics at large - not just in the newspapers - and the way he encourages newspapers, syndicates, and comics artists to pursue new, creative means of making comics available to readers rings equally true in this day of the internet and digital distribution.


Here I've posted some of my favorite pieces from the rare art section, but the whole site is worth at least a browse.