Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9201310303
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BIG-SIZE RULE FOR `CALVIN & HOBBES' HOBBLES EDITORS
Whoa, Hobbes!What's this?
Has your rambunctious pal Calvin once again taken the magic elixir that causes him to grow "bigger and bigger, higher and higher?"
It certainly looks that way.
As the first new installment of "Calvin and Hobbes" appears today after a nine-month sabbatical by cartoonist Bill Watterson - the colorful Sunday adventure of the rampaging 6-year-old and his faithful tiger (a stuffed animal to everyone but Calvin) takes up half a page in most newspapers across the nation.
Watterson, 33, has decided to offer his Sunday strip only in two half-page formats - one for standard-size papers and one for tabloids. Previously, the strip took just over one-fourth of a page. Daily strips won't be affected.
"This [size rule] is something I've been advocating for a number of years, although I never expected it to happen," Watterson said in one of the quotations furnished by his distributor, Universal Press Syndicate. "As my strip evolved, I grew increasingly frustrated with the size restrictions and rigid format rules that newspapers imposed."
Watterson is demanding more space at a time when newspapers say they have less.
Cartoonists around the country are split over the issue. Some fear his stand will force newspapers to drop other strips. But others applaud his courage in standing up to the industry, which they say has so shrunk their strips that people can't see the finer details in their drawings.
For many newspapers, Watterson's demand has created a Calvinosaurus-size headache. The strip - ranked atop most reader and critic polls - appears in 1,800 newspapers, from The Washington Post and the Roanoke Times & World-News to the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.
So far, eight papers - mainly small dailies - have decided to drop "Calvin and Hobbes."
"We just don't believe that the syndicates can dictate to us how we should display something we're paying for," says Joe Sullivan, executive editor of the Topeka Capital-Journal in Kansas City, Mo. "We'll keep running it during the week, unless Universal comes up with a size requirement for it."
Sullivan says the paper, with a Sunday circulation of 80,000, has informed its readers about the decision and received only three calls.
"What I can't believe is that so many papers are just rolling over on this issue," Sullivan said.
In another quote from the syndicate, Watterson said he was demanding more space in order to draw "the best strip I can." But he acknowledged that his increase would come at the expense of other strips: "The comics pages have always been extremely competitive, and every cartoonist gets his space by taking it away from another cartoonist," he said.
The new Sunday formats have forced papers to make some serious decisions about the funny pages. Their options: drop "Calvin and Hobbes" altogether, make other comics smaller, eliminate one or two strips, redesign sections or add extra pages.
At least 12 standard-size newspapers - mainly those with space limitations - have figured out a way to use the version offered for tabloid newspapers, usually running a vertical strip down the side.
That's how the Roanoke Times & World-News has decided to handle the strip, said Executive Editor Forrest Landon. "Our alternatives were to drop another comic strip or to stop carrying `Calvin and Hobbes.' We felt it was better to use the small version, redesign a comics page and keep everything."
Newspaper executives blame Watterson's syndicate, more than the cartoonist himself, for the size regulation.
"If every syndicate did this, there would be total chaos," said Rosalie Muller Wright, assistant managing editor of features for the San Francisco Chronicle.
The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, with more than 100 members in the United States and Canada, has urged Universal Press to reconsider the size requirement.
Barbara Schuler, AASFE president, said the decision comes at a time when most newspapers are struggling with shrinking news space and frequently being forced to reduce or eliminate popular features.
"We did not undertake this lightly," says Lee Salem, editorial director at Universal Press Syndicate. "We talked with Bill at great lengths. He is a man who is very dedicated to his craft, his readers and his principle."
It's certainly not the first time Universal has squared off with newspapers over size. In 1984, Universal cartoonist Garry Trudeau issued a width requirement for "Doonesbury." Most papers complied, running the strip wider or moving it to the editorial page.
Word around the industry is that some papers might retaliate by dropping a Universal strip to make room for "Calvin and Hobbes."
Dropping "Calvin and Hobbes" would certainly be hard. The 6-year-old strip is one of the hottest around. Only such mainstays as "Peanuts," "Garfield" and "Blondie" appear in more papers.
Watterson does not merchandise his characters, believing it would detract from the overall purity and appeal of his work.
"Editors will have to judge for themselves whether or not `Calvin and Hobbes' deserves the extra space," Watterson said in a quote from Universal. "If they don't think the strip carries its own weight, they don't have to run it."
Memo: CORRECTION