Bill Watterson Books In Order

Publication Order of Calvin and Hobbes Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Bill Watterson is one of the popular American cartoonist and the author of the highly successful comic strip called Calvin and Hobbes, which ran between the years 1985 and 1995. At the end of the year 1995, he stopped drawing the comic strip by saying that he has achieved everything that he wanted to with the help of this medium. He is known for the negative views that he has about the licensing of the comic syndication as well as for going back to live a private life after the stopping to draw the Calvin and Hobbes series. Being born in Washington, D.C., he was brought up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Bill has used the suburban region of the Midwestern United States of Ohio as the setting of his famous comic strip. He was born on July 5, 1958 in Washington, D.C. United States. His father, James Watterson used to work as a patent attorney in Washington, D.C. When Bill was just 6 years old, his family moved to Chagrin Falls in Ohio in the year 1965. His mother, Kathryn believed that it was a good place where Bill and his brother Thomas can be brought up.

Since his childhood days, he was very much interested in drawing cartoons and attempted to draw his first cartoon when he was just 8 years old. Bill used to spend most his childhood time alone, drawing different types of cartoons. He continued with this hobby throughout his high school years. During that time, he came across several famous comic strips, which influenced and inspired him to take his hobby of drawing cartoons at the professional level. Author Bill Watterson even wrote a letter to one of the famous cartoonists of that time named Charles Schulz, who responded positively to him. This had a big impression on his desire to become a cartoonist as well as boosting his confidence. Bill was even encouraged by his parents to pursue his desire. Later, he was recalled by them to be an imaginative and conservative child, unlike his character of Calvin that he went on to create. He used to continuously discover avenues for his talent of drawing amazing cartoons throughout his school days. He used to develop superhero comics very often along with his friends and also used to contribute to the newspaper and yearbook of his book through his cartoons.

Later, Bill went on to attend the Kenyon College between the years 1976 and 1980. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in the subject of political science. Bill has already made up his mind to make a career in the field of cartooning, but thought that the studies would help him to shift his course towards editorial cartooning. Throughout his college days, Bill continued to develop and sharpen his artistic skills. He even painted the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo on the ceiling of his room during his initial days at college. Just like his contribution to his school newspaper, he contributed with his cartoons in his college newspaper. Author Bill Watterson says that when he was about to create the names of the characters of his successful comic strip, he came across the names of John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, about whom he learned from the political science department at the Kenyon College. John Calvin was a Protestant reformer was Thomas Hobbes was a social philosopher. Eventually, he decided to use their last named as the lead characters of his comic strip.

After finishing his college, Bill came to know about the famous political cartoonist named Jim Borgman and was very much impressed by his works. Knowing that Borgman offered encouragement and support to the new cartoonists, Bill also decided to join his group and follow his career path. After some time, he joined the Cincinnati Post and discovered that there were a lot of challenges which prevented him from doing his job perfectly. He says that the main reason why he found the challenges to be extremely hard was because he was not familiar with the political scene in Cincinnati. As a result, he was fired from the Cincinnati Post before the end of his contract. Later, Bill began working for a small scale advertising agency as a designer and remained there for a period of four years. He used to create advertisements for grocery and at the same time continue developing his own comic strip. He has even worked for a number of merchandise such as clothing graphics, posters, calendars, postcards, educational books, and magazine covers, etc.

The Calvin and Hobbes comic series written by author Bill Watterson consists of a total of 11 books published between the years 1987 and 1996. The first novel of the series was titled ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. It was released by the Andrews McMeel publishing house in the year 1987. The plot of this novel depicts a six year old boy, who goes on to experience the different charms of life along with his stuffed tiger. The second novel of the series was published under the title ‘Something Under the Bed is Drooling’. It was released in the year 1988 by the Turtleback Books publishing house. The plot of this novel continues to depict the antics of Hobbes and Calvin, who provide a lot of laughs and fun for the readers. The success of this comic strip enabled it to become the last best newspaper comic. It ended with a lot of popularity, academic interest, and influence. All the books in the series follow the humorous activities of Calvin, who is depicted as a mischievous, precocious, and adventurous 6 year old boy, and his stuffed tiger named Hobbes. The series is set in the suburban and contemporary United States and shows the frequent fancy flights of Calvin. Author Bill Watterson has also tried to depict the relationship of Calvin with his classmates and family members. Without mentioning the specific political individuals or events, the series explores several important issues like public education, environmentalism, opinion poll flaws, and philosophical quandaries. As a whole, the comic strip became extremely popular and featured in as many as 2,400 newspapers all over the world. Beginning from the year 2010, more than 50 countries began showing reruns of the strip. And a total of 45 million printed copies of the series has already been sold throughout the world.