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EXCLUSIVE: SEE BILL WATTERSON’S HIGH SCHOOL CARTOONS

Posted by Alan Gardner

February 17, 2014

When one reads most online bios of Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, most start with a birth date and then quickly jump to his time at Kenyon College where he drew cartoons for the college paper. But before Kenyon College, Bill contributed cartoons to his high school newspaper and yearbook. To my knowledge, these cartoons have not been widely circulated – I can’t find any of them on the web.

Last week I was contacted by a former editor of the high school newspaper in Chagrin Falls, OH where Bill grew up. She was the paper’s editor during the 1973-1974 school year when Bill was a sophomore. She describes 15-year-old Bill as quiet and reserved, “but unlike my other classmates, he always turned his work in by the deadline!”

This editor has rediscovered several copies of three different issues of the high school paper containing Bill’s early work and she’d like to find a home for these issues with one or more collectors. She has 21 copies of May 13, 1974, which contains two of his comics. She also has seven copies of a Nov. 6, 1973 issue also containing two cartoons. From her description, she has two copies of one other issue that contains one comic. 

Daily Cartoonist