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Comment by aBioGuy | Hacker News Reader

Another anecdote (where it came from I do not remember) stuck in my brain was that Watterson's editor called him one day to tell him that STEVEN SPIELBERG was on the phone to talk with him about a Calvin and Hobbes movie. Watterson refused to take the call.

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Or how he was mailed a box of Calvin and Hobbes plushies to try to get sign-off on the quality of the toys.

He mailed back a picture of the box on fire.

IMO Calvin and Hobbes will always be special because of Watterson's integrity. It says everything it needed to say, and those comics will almost always be relevant.

The danger of "more" is that it dilutes the purpose and voice of the original. "Cowboy Bebop" fits in this same realm, I think. It had a single season. They did a movie. They said everything they needed to say and left it at that.

And I guess the live action remake of Cowboy Bebop is the box on fire in this analogy?

I think so, yes. I didn't hear great things about that. Eventually I'll probably watch it. But also maybe not.

I watched a few episodes of it.

It wasn't so bad that I couldn't wait to stop watching it but... it wasn't good enough that I couldn't help but finish it. I still want to finish it...

I actually like it better, but it’s because I prefer live action over animation.

Firefly is an interesting example of that. If it had not been cancelled so quickly, would anybody remember it these days? A lot of shows start out strong and then completely fall apart.

The show that happened before your fourth birthday? That is interesting https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563354

So instead we ended up with the only Calvin and Hobbes items in the physical world being those vinyl bumper stickers of Calvin pissing on things, because those were cheap and easy for random unscrupulous printers to make. Some artistic vision. As someone born in the late 80s, I recall seeing those far more than the actual comics.

>So instead we ended up with the only Calvin and Hobbes items in the physical world being those vinyl bumper stickers of Calvin pissing on things...

... and, of course, all of the various collections of the comics in print form, up to and including the full box set, that everyone can check out from libraries or purchase and keep in perpetuity. Ya know, the actual thing, the meat of it, the heart, the soul - not tangential merchandise.

>Some artistic vision.

Talk about completely missing the point.

Watterson said It was only my head that burst into flames.[1]

[1] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclu...

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