William " Bill " Boyd Watterson II ( born July 5, 1958 ) is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995.

Jim Borgman had graduated from Kenyon before Watterson arrived, but his work as a political cartoonist so impressed Bill that he decided to pursue a career as one himself.

In his 1990 speech to Kenyon College graduates, Watterson revealed that during his last year he had painted Michelangelo's Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel on the ceiling of his dorm room:

In 1980, Watterson graduated from Kenyon with a B. A.

Watterson has kept away from the public eye and has given no indication of resuming the strip, creating new works based on the characters, or embarking on other projects, though he has published several anthologies of Calvin and Hobbes strips.

In 2005, Watterson and his wife Melissa moved from Chagrin Falls to Cleveland.

In April 2011, a representative for Andrews McMeel received a package from a " William Watterson in Cleveland Heights, Ohio ", which contained a 6 " x 8 " oil-on-board painting of Cul De Sac character Petey Otterloop, done by Watterson for the Team Cul de Sac fundraising project for Parkinson's Disease.

His syndicate, which has since become Universal Uclick, has said that the painting was the first new artwork from Watterson that the syndicate has seen since Calvin and Hobbes ended in 1995.

Watterson Towers was named after Arthur W. Watterson, a popular professor and chair of the ISU Geography Department, who taught at the University from 1946-1966.

Watterson Towers is the tallest structure in Bloomington-Normal, and can been seen when entering the twin cities from either direction.

Campus View, from the Informal Level at the top of Watterson Towers

It had strong support from powerful Republican newspaper editors such as Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial, Horace White of the Chicago Tribune, Henry Watterson of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican and especially Whitelaw Reid and Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune.

Popular landmarks in Clintonville include the " Welcome to Clintonville " signs at the main entryways of the community, Immaculate Conception Church and Hagley Field, on lease from the Columbus City Schools for Bishop Watterson High School to use as its home field, previously utilized as such by Columbus North High School that closed as a normal high school and re-opened as a vocational school before becoming the temporary home of Columbus East High School students as their school is remodeled.

During his tenure as editor, Watterson was a Democratic representative in Congress from 1876 to 1877, and was a five-time delegate to the National Democratic Convention, where, in 1892, he received a smattering of votes for the vice presidential nomination.

The highway was completed in 1974, and in 1952 the road from Dixie Highway east to I-71 was named after the journalist and editor Henry Watterson.

The strip's creator, Bill Watterson, fought hard to keep his characters from being merchandised, leading to a large black-market industry of unauthorized reproductions of his work.

The next year, female students from St. Joseph Academy and Bishop Watterson High School played female parts in a production.

* September 22: Bill Watterson answers fifteen selected questions from fans around the world to publicise the upcoming release of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.

Watterson opposed the structure publishers imposed on Sunday newspaper cartoons: the standard cartoon starts with a large, wide rectangle featuring the cartoon's logo or a throwaway panel tangential to the main area so that newspapers pressed for space can remove the top third of the cartoon if they wish ; the rest of the strip is presented in a series of rectangles of different widths.

Like many artists, Watterson incorporated elements of his life, interests, beliefs and values into his work — for example, his hobby as a cyclist, memories of his own father ’ s speeches about ‘ building character ’, and his views on merchandising and corporations.

His comic strip work has influenced generations of artists, including creators such as William Joyce, André LeBlanc, Moebius, Maurice Sendak, Chris Ware and Bill Watterson.

Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes at the end of 1995 with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium.

He passed this, along with a message, to Watterson's parents and declared he would wait in the hotel for as long as it took Watterson to contact him.

Watterson is known for his views on licensing and comic syndication, as well as for his reclusive nature.

Later, when Watterson was creating names for the characters in his comic strip, he allegedly decided upon Calvin ( after the Protestant reformer John Calvin ) and Hobbes ( after the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes ) as a " tip of the hat " to the political science department at Kenyon.

On December 21, 1999 a short piece, written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip Peanuts, was published in the Los Angeles Times.

* Bill Watterson, creator of beloved ' Calvin and Hobbes ' comic strip looks back with no regrets 2010 interview by John Campanelli, The Plain Dealer

The syndicate desired to have a comic strip featuring the character ; they had asked Bill Watterson to incorporate the character into Calvin and Hobbes, but Watterson refused.

* Bill Watterson placed fictional children's books in his comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, saying that he could never reveal their contents for they were surely more outrageous in the reader's imagination.

The cover of The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury, a collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips by cartoonist Bill Watterson.

* Bill Watterson, creator of the comic strip: Calvin and Hobbes

Watterson was born in Washington, D. C., where his father, James G. Watterson ( born 1932 ), worked as a patent examiner while going to George Washington University Law School before becoming a patent attorney in 1960.

In 1964, when Watterson was six years old, the family moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where his mother, Kathryn Watterson, became a city council member.

Watterson, who drew his first cartoon at age eight, spent much time in childhood alone, drawing and cartooning.

From 1976 to 1980, Watterson attended Kenyon College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, while developing his art skills and contributing cartoons to the college newspaper.

Many of the cartoons and art Watterson did at Kenyon can be found online.

In " The Complete Calvin And Hobbes ," Watterson does not name the inspiration for Calvin's character, but he does say Calvin is named for " a 16th-century theologian who believed in predestination ," and Hobbes for " a 17th-century philosopher with a dim view of human nature.

Watterson has said he works for personal fulfillment.

Watterson wrote the introduction to the first volume of The Komplete Kolor Krazy Kat.

Watterson spent much of his career trying to change the climate of newspaper comics.

Watterson was awarded the National Cartoonists Society's Humor Comic Strip Award in 1988 and the society's Reuben Award in 1986 ; he was the youngest person ever to receive the latter award.