This original watercolor is, I think, the best Calvin and Hobbes illustration ever to come onto the market. It is also one of the only Calvin and Hobbes illustrations ever to come onto the market. Bill Watterson just doesn't sell his art, but he does, on occasion, give it away. This beautiful piece served as the cover for the Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar. It is idyllic and serene. Watterson presented it to comics historian or more accurately "komic connoisseur" Rick Marschall, according to the artist's inscription. The very high selling price is a result of the piece's extreme rarity and obvious desirability.
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar Cover watercolor illustration original art (c. 1988)
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 16-Month Calendar cover as published
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 Calendar Cover Watercolor Illustration Original Art (c. 1988). Calvin and Hobbes fans, feast your eyes on this --it's the real deal! As all comic art fans know, few pieces of original art are as scarce and sought after as a Calvin and Hobbesoriginal by the characters' creator Bill Watterson. Since Watterson is one of the few cartoonists to shun the merchandising bonanza of a popular character and is a very private person, his artwork is in incredibly high-demand. Only a very small handful of originals have ever come onto the market, so don't miss out on your chance to win this gem, only the second such piece we've offered -- an incredible, published beauty featuring the two main characters from the most popular and fondly remembered newspaper strip since Peanuts. The image area of this ink and watercolor masterwork is 13" x 10", and the art is in Excellent condition. This piece has a special provenance as it was in the collection of one of the American comic strips' most important historians and feature writers, Rick Marschall. Inscribed and signed at the lower right, "For Rick Marschall, 'komic konnoisseur' Bill Watterson."
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Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 1989-90 Calendar cover watercolor illustration original art (c. 1988)
http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7054&lotIdNo=69001#Photo
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Extraordinary price. You could show this to 1000 random people on the street over here and I'd be surprised if one percent could tell you what was and who it was drawn by. Odd how some cartoon strips just don't cross the national divide. I remember being rather irked when I first realised that the USA Dennis the Menace was not the same as ours!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea the United Kingdom had a different Dennis the Menace. I would expect Calvin and Hobbes to be beloved in most English-speaking countries and in many others as well. The published collections are all extremely worthwhile and I heartily recommend them, even to those in the U.K. You don't know what you're missing.
DeleteActually , I believe both species of 'Denni' (is that the latin plural?) launched in the same year. Ours featured in 'The Beano', which together with "The Dandy' were the two comics that 99% of children read growing up. Dennis is still going I think but it's the classic strips of the 60s and 70s that still have grown men going misty eyed. Take a peek at him and some of the other characters...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wackycomics.com/2011/12/chrsistmas-beano-1968.html
I think Calvin and Hobbes were nationally syndicated here but not in a large really populist newspaper. I did google the UK for articles and found one celebrating them in The Guardian...but it was written by an American who lives and writes in the USA. Peanuts are better known but probably only by an older generation. I've just asked my 18 year old who Peanuts are and he's says he's never heard of them. The strip appeared in a newspaper at some point and I seem to remember watching a long cartoon film being shown one afternoon on TV but that would have been in the 60s or 70s. Since then the memory has faded.
I rather think it's down to the British sense of humour. I found one comment saying that he had no idea where the humour was in C&H. Peanuts might seem the same. Too subtle for British tastes? Slightly wishy washy when we want something a tad more slapstick? I must muse on it further...
I always thought it was the British who had the taste for subtlety!
DeleteBeano's Dennis the Menace is, of course, not very subtle. He is older than Hank Ketcham's Dennis, who I believe is five although he has a sixth birthday every year before returning to the age of five. Both incarnations of Dennis were created by coincidence at the same time. Beano's Dennis seems more scheming and more vindictive. The strip, at least in this example, seems to rely on corporal punishment for its humor, as the much earlier Katzenjammer Kids did.
Well we do like subtle...but ideally subtle and sneering with lashings of irony and class consciousness! I thing the American humour in strips like this has a feint whimsical quality which doesn't quite translate. Probably too cute and cosy for the Brits! And yes, Dennis strips inevitably ended during the golden years with a whack from a cane/slipper or Dennis running off triumphantly, pursued either by dad, headmaster, teacher, neighbours or a combination of all the above...
ReplyDeleteHmmm. It sounds a bit like the end of a Benny Hill skit, doesn't it?
Delete...and there we have a great British tradition in a nutshell!
ReplyDeleteCalvin and Hobbs are extremely popular in Germany, would you believe it.
ReplyDeleteI would certainly believe it, Uli. It's a fantastic comic strip.
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