Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 10, 2010

I should probably ignore posts like the one above by “Soozee-cue” (God, I hate screen names), but I’m going to address it anyway to help clear up confusion by such people who love to leap to such conclusions.

I realize that Bill Watterson’s fans are legion, and deservedly so, but I haven’t read any Calvin and Hobbes strips since he retired in 1995. And unlike his fervent fans, I don’t have all his work committed to memory. I don’t even have MY work committed to memory! So I honestly don’t know what C&H cartoon is being referred to here, saying it’s copied “frame for frame”. If someone could direct me to it, I’d love to see it.

The way this cartoon came about is quite simple… it came from me a couple of months ago (we work on long deadlines, especially for Sunday editions) when I was trying to suppress a little sneezing attack in the middle of the night, trying not to wake my wife and startle the dogs. I felt myself making those faces, and later thought it would make a nice little silly cartoon. The next morning, I sketched it out, while the memory of those faces was fresh in my mind. That’s it. And that’s how a lot of cartoons are created, out of real life experience, exaggerating it for humor.

Similarities in cartoons happen all the time. I see my gags appear in other cartoons all the time, but I don’t leap to the conclusion that they’re ripping me off. They just went through the same thought process I did in coming up with the idea.

And if I was going to rip off someone else, it sure wouldn’t be the work of someone whose work is as widely known as Bill Watterson’s! That’s just plain stupid. I should also point out that I’m with the same syndicate that Bill Watterson was, so if I was stealing his material, they would certainly let me know about it!

I know how devoted and protective the Calvin and Hobbes fans are, but please take a moment to think before posting such inflammatory statements.