The Bill Watterson Exhibit

Each year the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded to a living creator honoring his/her lifetime achievement, and the Grand Prix winner becomes president of the next year’s festival. Last year the winner was the legendary Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes. 

That’s Ivan on the right, Master of PR & Events at comiXology. 

A walk around the room gives an overview of Watterson’s influences, before breaking down Calvin & Hobbes into its basic elements, focusing on things like the importance of various seasons to the characters in the strip and the emphasis on C&H’s naive yet poignant philosophical discussions. 

There was a glass case displaying some of Watterson’s tools, which at first glance looked kind of boring to someone who is not a creator themselves, but upon closer inspection each object had a description matching the wit that made Calvin & Hobbes so famous. 

With so much of Angoulême being unfamiliar to me, it was comforting to see such a nice display of admiration for a work very close to my heart.