Bill Watterson

Bill Watterson married Melissa Richmond in 1983. The couple lives in Cleveland and keeps a very low public profile.

Bill Watterson was born on 5 July 1958 in Washington D.C, USA to G. Watterson and Kathryn. His father was an attorney. Bill Watterson has a brother named Thomas. In 1965, he along with his family moved to Ohio.

During his childhood, he spent most of his time drawing, which he had begun at 8. Throughout school he engaged in artistic activities, and was encouraged by his parents to nurture his interests.

He was deeply influenced by cartoonists Charles Schulz, George Herriman, and Walt Kelly. While at high school, he had drawn cartoons for the school yearbook and newspaper.

Bill Watterson enrolled into the Kenyon College in Gambier in 1976. While in college, he drew political cartoons for the college newspaper named ‘The Kenyon Collegian’. In 1980, he graduated with a degree in political science. However, he had aimed to pursue a career as a cartoonist and studied political science in order to prepare himself for editorial cartooning.

Upon graduation, Bill Watterson was immediately hired by newspaper Cincinnati Post on a trial basis as an editorial cartoonist. However, the unfamiliarity of the political situation in Cincinnati made him as well as the newspaper feel that he was a misfit for the job, and he was let go before his contract ended.

Bill Watterson then joined a small- scale advertising agency where he had to design advertisements for groceries and design ads. Simultaneously he began allocating time for his own projects of creating cartoons and sending them to syndicates that could be published in newspapers.

As part of the freelance art work that he did during that time, he had drawn for commodities, clothes, calendars, magazines, books, post cards and posters.

He got his big break when United Features Syndicate signed a deal with him for a development contract based on the comic strip idea titled ‘In the Doghouse’ that he had submitted. However, they were doubtful about being able to sell the comic strip to newspapers.

At this point Universal Press Syndicate bought the strip in 1985 and began publishing the comic strip titled ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. The cartoon was a huge success and people were drawn to Calvin’s wide imagination along with the observations of Hobbes, narrated in a thoughtful manner.

Bill Watterson is best known for his comic strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. The comic strip ran successfully in newspapers for a decade and earned him much recognition and awards.