Editing Bill Watterson (section)

===Early work===
Watterson was inspired by the work of ''[[The Cincinnati Enquirer]]'' [[political cartoonist]] [[Jim Borgman]], a 1976 graduate of Kenyon College, and decided to try to follow the same career path as Borgman, who in turn offered support and encouragement to the aspiring artist. Watterson graduated in 1980 and was hired on a trial basis at the ''[[Cincinnati Post]]'', a competing paper of the ''Enquirer''. Watterson quickly discovered that the job was full of unexpected challenges which prevented him from performing his duties to the standards set for him. Not the least of these challenges was his unfamiliarity with the Cincinnati political scene, as he had never resided in or near the city, having grown up in the [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]] area and attended college in central Ohio. The ''Post'' fired Watterson before his contract was up.<ref name = "honk">{{Citation | url = http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/interw.htm | publisher = Tele | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060218193101/http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/interw.htm | archive-date =February 18, 2006 | title= Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes on cartooning, syndicates, Garfield, Charles Schulz, and editors | newspaper = Honk Magazine | issue = 2 | year = 1987 | access-date = March 17, 2006 | first = Andrew | last = Christie}}</ref>

He then joined a small [[advertising agency]] and worked there for four years as a designer, creating grocery advertisements while also working on his own projects, including development of his own cartoon strip and contributions to ''Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly''.<ref name= "groc">{{Cite book | title = The Complete Calvin and Hobbes | chapter = Introduction| page = 491 | volume = 1 | publisher=Andrew McMeel | author-link = Bill Watterson | isbn = 0-7407-4847-5 | year = 2005 | first =Bill | last = Watterson}}</ref>

As a [[freelance]] artist, Watterson has drawn other works for various merchandise, including album art for his brother's band, calendars, clothing graphics, educational books, magazine covers, posters, and post cards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://platypuscomix.com/otherpeople/watterson.html|title=Bill Watterson's RAREST!|website=platypuscomix.com|access-date=January 3, 2020|archive-date=January 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200103152340/http://platypuscomix.com/otherpeople/watterson.html|url-status=live}}</ref>