Editing Bill Watterson (section)

===''Calvin and Hobbes'' and rise to success===
Watterson has said that he works for personal fulfillment. As he told the graduating class of 1990 at Kenyon College, "It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves." ''Calvin and Hobbes'' was first published on November 18, 1985. In ''Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book'', he wrote that his influences included ''Peanuts'', ''Pogo'', and ''Krazy Kat''.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Watterson| first = Bill|title = Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book| publisher = Andrews and McMeel| year = 1995|page = 21| isbn = 0-8362-0438-7}}</ref> Watterson wrote the introduction to the first volume of ''The Komplete Kolor Krazy Kat''. Watterson's style also reflects the influence of [[Winsor McCay]]'s ''[[Little Nemo|Little Nemo in Slumberland]]''.<ref name="bob">{{cite web|url=http://www.zompist.com/bob8.html|title=Winsor McCay: Little Nemo; Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend|publisher=Bob's Comics Reviews|date=November 1996|access-date=March 15, 2006|archive-date=March 24, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060324025710/http://www.zompist.com/bob8.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="incr">{{Cite book |chapter-url=http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cslumberland.html| title=The Best of Little Nemo in Slumberland| chapter=An Incredible Ride To the End: An appreciation by Bill Watterson| page=195| publisher=Stewart, Tabori, & Chang| access-date=March 17, 2006| isbn=1-55670-647-2| year=1987| author=Winsor McCay, Richard Marschall| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051125034527/http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cslumberland.html| archive-date=November 25, 2005 }}</ref>

Like many artists, Watterson incorporated elements of his life, interests, beliefs, and values into his work—for example, his hobby as a [[cyclist]], memories of his own father's speeches about "building character", and his views on [[merchandising]] and [[corporations]].<ref>{{Cite book|last = Watterson| first = Bill|title = Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book| publisher = Andrews and McMeel| year = 1995|page = 173|isbn = 0-8362-0438-7}}</ref> Watterson's cat Sprite very much inspired the personality and physical features of [[Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)|Hobbes]].<ref name="tenth p22">{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xtiMQXCLdJEC&pg=PA22|last = Watterson|first = Bill|title = Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book|publisher = Andrews and McMeel|year = 1995|page = 22|isbn = 0-8362-0438-7|access-date = January 3, 2020|archive-date = January 15, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230115125230/https://books.google.com/books?id=xtiMQXCLdJEC&pg=PA22|url-status = live}}</ref>

Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics. He believed that the artistic value of comics was being undermined and that the space that they occupied in newspapers continually decreased, subject to arbitrary whims of shortsighted publishers. Furthermore, he stated that art should not be judged by the medium for which it is created (i.e., there is no [[High culture|"high" art]] or [[Low culture|"low" art]]—just [[Culture|art]]).<ref name="tenthanniversary">{{Cite book| title=The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book| author=Watterson, Bill
| year=1995| page=208| publisher=Andrews McMeel| isbn=0-8362-0438-7}}</ref>

Watterson wrote a foreword for ''[[FoxTrot]].''<ref>{{cite book |last=Martell|first=Nevin |author-link= |date= August 19, 2010|title= Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=50mEYVVdB1QC |location= |publisher= [[Bloomsbury Academic]]|page= |isbn= 9781441106858}}</ref>