Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Short
In a letter to newspaper editors Thursday, cartoonist Bill Watterson said the decision to end the strip was not a recent or easy decision.
``I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels,'' Watterson, 38, said in the letter. ``I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises.''
``Calvin and Hobbes'' hit the comic pages in 1986 and entertained millions with the antics of a 6-year-old boy with an overactive imagination and a not-so-stuffed tiger.
In the past nine years, the pair has launched countless snowball ambushes, journeyed through space, tormented a baby sitter and ran afoul of Calvin's patient parents.
``Calvin and Hobbes'' is distributed internationally to nearly 2,400 newspapers. More than 23 million copies of books based on the cartoon are in print. All 13 collections were million-dollar sellers in their first year.
In his letter, Watterson said he had not decided what he will do next.
Lee Salem, editorial director at Universal Press Syndicate in Kansas City, said that after Dec. 31, the company will not provide reruns of the strip to newspapers the way it did when Watterson took a nine-month leave of absence in 1991 and again last year.
by CNB