Rockwell Museum Opens the First Touring Show of “Calvin and Hobbes” Original Drawings
Pen-and-ink strips and watercolors go on view Saturday, with a companion installation on “Krazy Kat” creator George Herriman.
Pictured: Bill Watterson, Illustration from, The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes, 1992. Courtesy of the Bill Watterson Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum © Bill Watterson
Opens Saturday, November 14; on view through May 31, 2027 | Stockbridge, MA
The Norman Rockwell Museum opens "Exploring Calvin and Hobbes" on Saturday. It is the first touring exhibition built from Bill Watterson’s original drawings, and the museum is the first stop to show it in its entirety. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University organized the show, curated by Jenny E. Robb. It draws on original daily and Sunday strips and specialty pieces from Watterson’s collection of more than 3,000 originals at the library.
“Calvin and Hobbes” ran from 1985 to 1995 and appeared in 2,400 newspapers worldwide at its peak. Watterson won the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year in 1986 and 1988. The strip follows six-year-old Calvin, named for the 16th-century theologian John Calvin. He has a vivid imagination, an aversion to homework and chores, and a habit of debating the meaning of life. Hobbes, named for the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, looks like a stuffed animal to everyone else but is a living tiger to Calvin.
The exhibition also looks at the strip’s history and at Watterson’s influences, including George Herriman and Charles M. Schulz, whose work is also on view. A companion installation, "George Herriman, Krazy Kat, and the Path to Calvin and Hobbes," traces the line from Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” to Watterson.
Opening-weekend programs include a classic comics family day on November 14 from 10am to 3pm and an illustrated lecture on Watterson’s strip that day from 4 to 5pm. A curatorial gallery talk is Friday, November 20, at 9:30am. The museum has also scheduled a member preview reception.
Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Glendale Road, Stockbridge, MA. Information at nrm.org or 413-298-4100.
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