Bill Watterson Letter from 1987

[glendgold]

This isn't my auction. I just happen to enjoy the content. Here's how Bill Watterson responded when a fan asked to trade him a Krazy Kat for a Calvin & Hobbes in 1987.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Letter-from-Bill-Watterson-to-a-Calvin-and-Hobbes-fan-/142229766617

 

 

[Unca Ben]

Very neat!

So I wonder if the trade went through?

[J.Sid]

Highly entertaining.

[vodou]

..also throw in a daily strip...

Wow. Those were the days.

 

And this is so people know what we're talking about after eBay drops the image:

[stinkininkin]

That's great!

 

I wonder if Watterson also expected ALL the C&H pieces he gifted/traded back then that have made their way to market and into collections to have either been kept or donated to OSU?

 

Scott

[mtlevy]

I doubt he'd expect this letter to be offered for $4,000 either...

[SquareChaos]

I doubt he'd expect this letter to be offered for $4,000 either...

 

Probably not, but he also didn't suggest anything around his own responsibilities towards the art he'd get.

 

Sort of an "I do what I want, you do what I say" type of deal. I wonder if he was taken up on it? I imagine he was.

[glendgold]

I doubt he'd expect this letter to be offered for $4,000 either...

 

Probably not, but he also didn't suggest anything around his own responsibilities towards the art he'd get.

 

Sort of an "I do what I want, you do what I say" type of deal. I wonder if he was taken up on it? I imagine he was.

 

That's really funny. I'm betting that if the letter's addressee had asked him to keep the Herriman, Watterson would have been fine with that. Otherwise I imagine him getting the Krazy Kat and then IMMEDIATELY selling it on Heritage. "Ha, sucker!"

[grapeape]

Bill Watterson continues to amaze. This was neat to see as we close out 2016. Cheers to all on the OA Boards!!!

[Hekla]

that's a great letter - thanks for posting

[Twanj]

anyone know what a Krazy Kat went for in 1987?

 

I've just been going through my C&H that I cut out of the newspaper 20+ years ago. still great!

[Mighty Hal]

If Watterson had drawn a little Hobbes image in one corner of the letter, it would have sold by now.

 

[buyatari]

#3 is the deal killer.

 

You are just a custodian for a time.

[NelsonAI]

Conditions 2 AND 3 are deal killers.

Once the trade is complete, there is no way I would let the former owner dictate what I can do with the art, even if he were the artist.

 

What if the KK art owner stipulated that the KK art was not to be traded or sold AND had to be donated to the University of Michigan?

 

I doubt if the trade went through.

 

Cheers!

N.

 

 

[pinupcartoonguy]

Watterson forgot to include in the letter the condition that the letter itself not be sold to another collector.

[Rob Stolzer]

Interestingly, Watterson did do such a trade with a a friend of mine, back around that time. I don't recall all of the specifics, but there was a sweet Spaceman Spiff watercolor involved, and a Sunday page.

[Rob Stolzer]

In '87, Krazy Sundays were somewhere around a grand, I believe.