Does anybody remember a crazy rumour that Watterson was creating a Calvin/Hobbes animated cartoon all by himself? Literally drawing it cell by cell in his basement?

Seems pretty far fetched, but I just bought a Windsor McKay DVD containing the first (supposedly) filmed animation, which was a beautiful Little Nemo vignette that lasted maybe five minutes. Apparently it was 100% McKay's work, so I suppose that it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Watterson is burning the midnight oil for a similar purpose.

"For starters, I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo. . . ."

Heh.

nickdanger: Moriarty at AICN went to bat for those rumors back in '02. The voice-actor database at Fuzzy.com might also know something. But Watterson also said he didn't want to have people supplying the voices in readers' minds.

Also, I can't see a movie being distributed without demands for cash from merchandising, which would be anathema to Watterson.

The new book and media blitz (i.e. wow, a couple of actual interviews) have me wondering, though ...

Calvin & Hobbes reprints also suddenly started appearing in the Boston Globe a little while ago, without much explanation.

I just chalked it up to a dearth of decent current comic strips, but you never know.

A mystery for the ages, I'm afraid.

The Dallas Morning News is running the strips again too. It's an agreement with the syndicate as a run up to the book.

The book/collection itself is a response to how well the Giant Tome of Far Side sold. Although, as the owner of the Tome of FarSide, it's a monster to hold and read, so if the C&H collection comes out in the same format, I'll probably not buy it. I like to be able to hold and read the books I own.