Bill Watterson: The Interviews

By John Freeman on January 8, 2026 • ( 0 )

Bill Watterson, the creator of “Calvin and Hobbes”, rarely talks about his craft, but he isn’t a complete enigma. Here are some of his interviews…

There’s been some discussion about Bill elsewhere (his often assumed views a topic of conversation often revisited, going back as far as 2004!) so I thought it useful to have a list of items of His Own Words as opposed to Words Put in his Mouth…

Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue

In 1990, he took the podium at Kenyon College and gave the graduating class a gift of equally remarkable insight and impact, which remains among the greatest commencement addresses of all time, featured here on The Marginalist.

Rich Harvey also features two speeches by Bill here.

Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes creator, self portrait for HONK Issue 2

He was interviewed for HONK Magazine Issue 2 in 1986, republished here, where he discusses creating newspaper strips and his peers.

There’s also a short interview with him here by John Campanelli for Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer, published in 2010, believed his first since 1989. Another short interview ran in Mental Floss, published in 2013.

The 1989 interview was for The Comics Journal #127 (March 1989), conducted by Richard Samuel West, online here.

One of his most extensive in-depth interviews was published in 2014 interviewed by Jenny Robb, curator and associate professor at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, published in Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue, by Andrews McMeel Publishing (AmazonUK Affiliate Link). The Columbia Dispatch ran an excerpt from their conversation.

More recently, there’s “Life After Calvin and Hobbes”, for New Yorker in 2024, following publication of The Mysteries in 2023.

*The Best Newspaper Strip in the World finished on 31st December 1995. Let’s all go exploring!*

• Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)

If you have links to further Bill Watterson interviews do let us know, below. Thanks

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.