The Kenyon Collegian

Source: Chagrin Falls Historical Society and Reddit

A Tradition Graduates...

Watterson Ends Collegian Reign, Heads For Cincinnati

By ROBERT A. RUBIN

You might be wondering how a boyhood spent in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and four years of college in cosmopolitan Gambier prepare a young man to join the editorial staff of a big city newspaper. 

Bill Watterson is wondering too. 

Watterson has been the Collegian's editorial cartoonist for the last four years. But the cartoon in the upper right-hand corner of today's editorial page is his last. His next job will be a little more demanding. Watterson will be drawing editorial cartoons for the Cincinnati Post.

Four years ago another Kenyon graduate started doing cartoons for a Cincinnati paper. Jim Borgman's work with the Enquirer, the city's morning paper, has earned him national syndication and a growing reputation. Now Watterson, who corresponds with Borgman, will join the staff of the city's afternoon paper on a six-month trial basis.

Watterson says he really doesn't know what to expect. "I'm a little scared about doing Cincinnati cartoons," he said, "It always takes a while to get the feel of a place. The editor said he would start sending me the Post so I could read about what was happening there, but I guess he hasn't gotten around to doing it yet."

"The Worst of Watterson," a retrospective of his Collegian work held for three days last week at the K.C., was a very revealing look into the cartoonist's considerable development since his freshman year.

Most of the cartoons are those drawn during the last two years. "I think I only had one cartoon from freshman year in the show, Watterson said. I did a lot of really terrible ones that year — real junk. I can hardly stand to look at anything I did before my junior year.

"Cartooning has been a lifelong love, I guess," he said. "Even when I couldn't draw well I could cartoon. I couldn't draw a real person but I could draw Charlie Brown. Starting in my sophomore year of high school I did a one-panel nonpolitical cartoon that was about gags and student life."

Watterson had never done political cartoons before he came to Kenyon. "I went into the Collegian having never seen Borgman's work and showed Vicki Barker (the editor at the time some of my old strips and three cartoons for Kenyon, " he said. "Two of them were the type I did in high school, and the third was a political cartoon. She wanted that one. The first was okay, but they went downhill after that."

Unlike Borgman, Watterson did not major in art at Kenyon. But while his predecessor did not decide to become a cartoonist until he was a senior, Watterson decided to try to do it for a living when he was a freshman. He took a number of art courses, but majored in political science.

"Political cartooning seemed like a profitable outlet for my cartooning," he said. "But Freshman year, I had no real understanding of the political world. I thought majoring in political science would give me a few things under my belt. I seriously considered quitting cartooning in the middle of freshman year."

Watterson said Borgman introduced him to a special paper treated with chemicals that gives the cartoonist the option of using gray tones with his line drawings. The shading appears when a chemical developer is brushed on. "That's what all the bigwigs use Watterson said. But my problem is that it's so much fun to put on that you end up with a totally gray cartoon.

"Freshman year I had absolutely no concept of design and space," he said. "I learned some things about it in (Professor) Garhart's drawing class, but they didn't really sink in until a few years later. I switched from pen to brush during the middle of sophomore year. I got rid of the shaded paper during the middle of my junior year.

"I think my cartoons are more stark and poster-like now," Watterson said. "There is lots of contrast - black and white play against each other quite a bit.

I really think politically I'm dead center. I came out with an anti-Three Mile Island cartoon last year, and this year I did one that made fun of the people opposing Three Mile Island. Neither side has a monopoly on idiocy. It is very rare that one side is right. I don't think of my cartoons changing anybody's opinions."

Watterson doesn't know if the Cincinnati Post's editorial policies will affect his cartoons. "I'm not sure how conservative they are," he said. "I know the editor made some comments sort of ridiculing the Enquirer for being too conservative, I gather the Post is more moderate. I hope the editor and I will get along - he said he expects me to argue for my ideas with him.

I know Borgman had a lot of trouble getting the things he believed in across with the Enquirer's conservative editorial policy at first," he said. "But now I understand they run a cartoon on the Op-Ed page once a week where he can really say what he wants." Watterson said that "Borgman has quite a bit of freedom now that he is nationally syndicated and somewhat famous.

"I think my drawings are fairly strong," Watterson said. "I'm in a good position coming out of college with four years of experience. There aren't too many 'hotshot artists' coming right out of college. Borgman had one year of experience. He had to do his growing and maturing in front of the city of Cincinnati; I've only had to do mine in front of 1,500 Kenyon students."

Watterson doesn't cite a single major influence among today's top cartoonists, but says he gets "snippets" from a number of sources. "You have to see which things really click as your own world. It's more than getting little pieces and parts. Gahan Wilson and Booth are two of my favorites, but you can't see much of them in my work. I think the things I get from them are facial expressions also cited MacNelly, Oliphant, Walt Kelly and Mike Peters as favorites.

"I think one of the things that's neat about Oliphant is the way he can do a cartoon that's vicious and outrageously unfair. They are very powerful cartoons. I don't usually get that worked up over the issues." 

Watterson said the Cincinnati Post is in the process of a financial comeback of sorts. It is currently owned and managed by the Enquire (which is in very good financial shape), but retains its own editorial and writing staff.

Despite the fact they will be working for the same boss, Borgman had only a minor role in getting Watterson a chance with the Post. Watterson said Borgman gave him lot of advice on putting together a portfolio and applying for jobs, but the connection with the Post was partly luck.

"John Smale, the chairman of the Kenyon Board of Trustees, evidently knew the editor," he said. "He showed him a copy of the Collegian - I think he wanted to point out some foreign policy criticism on Iran. The editor saw the cartoon, I guess and liked it." Watterson said he later received a message through President's Jordan's office that Cincinnati was interested and sent his portfolio.

He is still somewhat apprehensive about the prospect of turning out five cartoons each week. "It will be a real shift. The editor is really interested in local cartoons, but I'd like to keep going with the national ones. I think it will end up sort of 50-50."

Watterson said that he hopes his cartoons will improve with the constant exposure to news and opinion found in a major newspaper's newsroom. "Here," he said, "I usually end up watching the news Sunday night.