Why did Bill Watterson stop making Calvin and Hobbes?
Bill Watterson discontinued the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip mainly because of the ever increasing pressure from his syndicate (Universal) to get liscensed. Watterson believed that by making Calvin and Hobbes products, he would be betraying his characters. In his book, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, Watterson states: “Everyone is looking for the next Snoopy or Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes were imagined to be the perfect candidates. The more I though about licensing, however, the less I liked it . . . In an age of shameless commercialism, my objections to licensing are not widely shared . . . I have several problems with licensing. First of all, I believe licensing usually cheapens the original creation. When cartoon characters appear on countless products, the public inevitably grows bored and irritated with them, and the appeal and value of the original work is diminished. Nothing dulls the edge of a new and clever cartoon like saturating the market with it. Second,
