BILL WATTERSON: A cartoonist’s advice

Gavin Aung Than has a blog called Zen Pencils where he takes inspirational quotes and adapts them into the form of a comic strip.

He also loves Calvin and Hobbes and credits Bill Watterson as a source of inspiration for where he is today in a touching tribute post:

Besides the fact that Calvin and Hobbes is the comic I cherish above all others, Bill Watterson is my biggest creative influence and someone I admire greatly as an artist. Here’s why:

• After getting fired as a political cartoonist at the Cincinnati Post, Watterson decided to instead focus on comic strips. Broke, he was forced to move back in with his parents and worked an advertising layout job he hated while he drew comics in his spare time. He stayed at this miserable job and submitted strips to comic syndicates for four years before Calvin and Hobbes was accepted. About this period Watterson wrote: “The only way to learn how to write and draw is by writing and drawing … to persist in the face of continual rejection requires a deep love of the work itself, and learning that lesson kept me from ever taking Calvin and Hobbes for granted when the strip took off years later.” (Also see the Advice for Beginners comic.)

It’s lovely to see how so many people have been affected by Watterson’s work.

Click through the link to see Gavin’s tribute comic strip to Watterson.

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