The Mysteries

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The artwork is very different from both [Watterson’s and Kascht’s] styles,” says Robb. “So I’m really curious to know how they collaborated on that and how that worked. Because it doesn’t really look like John and doesn’t really look like Bill to me.” Whether a sensible decision or not, his self-imposed exile soon grew into its own kind of mysterious legend. Would he ever return? Would he ever enchant and dazzle and challenge the world again? “The Mysteries,” his first public work in nearly thirty years, holds the awkward answer. Essentially a cautionary tale wrapped in a riddle, the book’s ultimate mystery can’t quite escape the gravity-well that is Watterson himself; is this the appropriate instrument, the ideal song, to trumpet the artisan’s long-awaited return? Bill Watterson, the mastermind behind the timeless Calvin and Hobbes, was once asked why he hadn’t published anything following the famous strip’s retirement. His reply implied what most already feared; Calvin was too good—too great—to be ever surpassed. And so, rather than trying to top impossible expectations, he chose to exit as an inimitable legend. He “quit while being ahead,” as the old cliché says.

Lastly, art appreciation is subjective. I hope for Bill Watterson and John Kascht that the experience of creating this work was 5-stars. Neither one of them owes us anything, so I'm grateful they decided to share this with us. I don't think it's the story (which is clever, but nothing new) or the lush artwork that makes this uninteresting, I think it's the medium. I think it would have been much more interesting as a short stop motion film. Short meaning 3 to 5 minutes, max. Shakespeare this is not. John Kascht's visuals are gorgeous, and beg to be in motion. The artwork is beautiful in a bizarre and discomforting way. This is not a book with the sweeping planetscapes of Spaceman Spiff or the verdant woods through which a boy and a tiger once roamed. This is a book with art that unsettles you the more you engage with it, the more your eyes linger, the more you gaze upon it. It is not a bad unsettling, I should add, but it is bleak and cold in a mesmerizing way. My hot take is that the book would have been better had there been only the art and no words. At least, then, it becomes a work that leads the audience to grapple with the meaning and find something of themselves within the interpretation. Or maybe that's too avant garde. But, if you enjoy visually striking books with stories that also make you think, you may like this one.For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right. For the book’s illustrations, Watterson and Kascht worked together for several years in "unusually close collaboration," abandoning prior work tactics,the publishing company states.. Charles Schulz, seen here in 1962, created Charlie Brown, among his Peanuts characters. Getty Images Like others have noted, this book was a fast read, but I've already read it a second time. It's a book with subtle and not-so-subtle themes and questions worth reflecting on, many of which align with past interviews Bill Watterson has given on his views. Here's some that I noticed:

I think a lot of my own sense of humor grew thru Bill's art mastery, but above all, my own abilities honed as a practicioner. In essence, Bill's work has been incredibly influential to my intellectual upbringing in many ways. It was exactly what I needed, and precisely what I knew it was going to be - beautifully succinct, perfectly weird, and amazingly detailed. Though Watterson has been described as reclusive, that might not be the best word; he lives a normal life, says Robb, one of the few people to have interviewed him, but “he doesn’t like to be in the spotlight. He wants to let his artwork speak for itself. And he’s uncomfortable in the role of a spokesperson for comics – he would prefer that people read and experience the comic strip rather than engaging with it filtered through him talking about it.” In a sense, The Mysteries is a continuation of Watterson's work on Calvin and Hobbes. It's a story about one of life's essential qualities: mystery. To that end, the book's execution embraces that idea wholesale. There are no named figures to cling to and no explanation for how the medieval world collides quite suddenly with modernity and frappuccinos. While the artwork remains simultaneously opaque and inviting, the message couldn't be more explicit about the state of the world, where it's headed, and how it might possibly ring out into a universe that is indifferent to our existence. If you're looking for more Calvin and Hobbes, you'll likely be disappointed. This isn't an extension of that universe, nor does it claim to be.

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Watterson has always been a outstanding modern philosophical thinker. And this book doubles down on that title. He provides some old school, Calvin and Hobbes red wagon tangents and questions, but this time there isn't a pithy conclusion. And that's ok. This graphic novel comes with a huge weight of expectations. Except for 3 strips he partly drew for Stephan Pastis’ Pearls Before Swine, Bill Watterson hasn’t done ANYTHING for the public since Calvin and Hobbes rode their toboggan down the hill one final time on December 31, 1995. So, to get this out of the way: this isn’t Calvin & Hobbes. This isn’t anything like Calvin & Hobbes, except for a few minor quirks that I recognize as Watterson’s style. Lastly, humanity is merely a blip in the span of time and the vastness of our ever-expanding universe. The mysteries were here before we existed, and they'll likely exist long after we're gone. Shortly after Calvin and Hobbes ended, Watterson took up painting, spending time creating landscapes of Ohio woods with his father. He studied a variety of artists, from the expressionist Willem de Kooning to the Italian Renaissance master Titian, according to Nevin Martell’s book Looking for Calvin and Hobbes.

I read it once, I enjoyed the story and the illustrations. That's where this work really shines. I almost wish the story had been written in some style of calligraphy, or been implemented into the artwork somehow, like The Book of Kells, or an illuminated manuscript. A missed opportunity I think.From Bill Watterson, bestselling creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and John Kascht, one of America’s most renowned caricaturists, comes a mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding. Co-creator of The Mysteries John Kascht is best known for his work as a caricaturist. Kascht’s dynamic illustrations of many of the world’s most famous faces have appeared in countless magazines, newspapers, book covers, billboards, and posters. His works are collected at the National Portrait Gallery. As a master of his art, Kascht has been profiled in multiple documentaries, and he also works as a faculty member of Marywood University’s graduate program in illustration and design. Watterson unveiled one of his paintings to the public for the first time in 2011, and the subject was an unusual one: an oil portrait of Petey Otterloop, an 8-year-old character from the comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson. thinker for a father and having been taught to appreciate philosophy at an early age & growing up as an outcast in my early years.... Bill Watterson's work, since I was about 7 years old, helped raise my mentality as a kid, downright to the end including his firm stance of artistical integrity that made me admire him all the more. I cried when I read the last strip words the day it was published, from that kid and his tiger: "Let's go explore!". Calvin and Hobbes" was a daily comic strip from 1985-1995 about a boy named Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes.

But the promotional materials don't make the book out to be anything more than what it is - a fable for grown-ups, created in a much different style than the authors' prior works. Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes” focused on the friendship betweensix-year-old Calvinand his stuffed tiger friend Hobbes. Throughout its daily publication from 1985 to 1995, the comic chronicled Calvin and Hobbes’s adventures together, taking them through childhood experiences such as performing water stunts and creating imaginative inventions. Since his retirement, Watterson hasremained relatively out of the public eye, only participatingin small projects on rare occasions. It sounded like fun and maybe something people wouldn’t expect, so I decided to give it a try,” Watterson told The Washington Post. “Dave sent me a rough cut of the film, and I dusted the cobwebs off my ink bottle.” As a lifelong fan of Calvin and Hobbes, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I'm pleasantly surprised.This book is a visual poem. Poetry is at its core terse and welcomes interpretation. It's specific in its broadness. I know that's hard to comprehend and even come up with to be honest, but thats what poetry is, trying to say the most with the least. In June 2014, three strips from the Pearl Before Swine comic featured its artist Stephan Pastis being schooled by a second-grader on how to properly draw. The child’s drawings were a different style than Pastis’ normal work, and it was later revealed that Watterson had been the one behind them. The Mysteries has a message, maybe several. The sins of Man’s arrogance? The significance of Myth? Ignorance is bliss? Climate change is serious? The death of Faith means a race to Death? Other than looking at the pictures a few more times, or maybe rereading the story one more time just to kind of ponder, I think I'm done with it. It'll sit on my shelf for the rest of my life I suppose.