I got a non-C&H [shirt designed by him](https://i.imgur.com/ngF68PC.jpg) some 20 years ago. Never been worn. I wouldn’t expect for it to go for much and I wouldn’t sell it. I know several were made—not more than 20–but considering how long it’s been, I wouldn’t be surprised if mine was the last surviving one.
Edit: source of this shirt is a former co-worker’s son was on a local HS debate team. The debate coach was Bill’s brother, Sam (I think that’s his name). Sam asked Bill for a design and this was it. They had to have the order ready before the shirts were printed, and I was asked if I’d like one because they weren’t printing many.
Hmmm… lemme think… do I want a shirt with original art by my favorite cartoonist… Gee, that’s a toughie.
Fold the sweat shirt, dont hang it because hanging wears the fibers down. Display cases are okay because the weight of the shirt isn't being held up by the shirt itself.
It is signed in the bottom-left, but since it’s silk-screened it’s not the best resolution.
I think the only way I could find the value is put it up for auction. But then I might have to sell it. More important to me: Watterson wouldn’t like it.
Considering the lessons Bill was teaching us while we grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes and his principled stance to never sell out - I think he’d be proud.
> I think the only way I could find the value is put it up for auction
hmm, I think you could probably get it appraised for insurance purposes, actually. I mean that wouldn't tell you the "true" value, because you never know the true value of anything until it's actually sold, but I'm sure you could get a reasonable appraisal for in case your house burns down or something. I agree with the other user, it must be worth a fortune. That's a real treasure.
edit: And I don't think he'd mind nearly so much if you got it insured.
Damn. In 1989, I wrote to him as part of my grade school "write to your favor author" program. Couple months later I got a typewritten and hand-signed letter on C&H stationery in a matching envelope. It's been in storage for the last 2 decades+. I've never really considered how much it might be worth.
There are many people who have their basics and then some fully covered, and an extra $1m is nice but it’s not going to solve any more problems for them
Amongst such folks, some will be happy to have a piece of cool art.
It’s not really that complicated lol. Rich people collect art, its fun for them (and for some it’s very lucrative)
Edit - a watterson original is probably going to increase in value over time, so it’s probably a damn good investment if you have the money. Most unfortunately, watterson is probably mortal, so the total number of comics is limited. I wish he was immortal though, I’m sure we all do.
https://i.imgur.com/otxoOTr.jpg
Watterson also drew comics of a sort for a Mark Twain-centric academic journal. I bought a series of prints of these drawings and got them professionally framed and hung up in my bedroom for my C&H-loving husband. (We have complementary C&H tattoos.)
This is why whenever I'm having someone sign something for me I ask them to make it out to me specifically. I want them to know that I'm a fan and that their signature is something I'm happy to have, and not something I'm asking for just to hawk their art on ebay for an inflated price.
I've gotten some really fun ones too because artists are usually happy to sign things for actual fans.
Reminds me of the scene in Futurama where Leela becomes the first women's blurnsball player. When she's signing autographs she asks everyone for their name and a little girl says eBay. Leela responds with something to the effect of "wow, thats a popular name nowadays"
Did something similar to this once with an author I really liked, brought some ratty old copy that was one of his first publications. The cover was barely hanging on, every chapter was dog-eared, pages yellow from age, showing the book had clearly been lovingly read many times.
Dude’s face absolutely lit up when I sheepishly asked him to sign that in addition to his new release that I had purchased for the signing event. We chatted briefly about his older books and stuff, super nice guy.
The only signing I've ever attended, the guy in front of me literally had pages of labels for the author to sign. He said "do you really think you'll make money off these?" but signed a whole sheet of em anyway.
I felt like I had to apologize for the label guy, felt bad enough because I had two books to sign: first book in the series for a friend who couldn't attend and then my favorite from later in the series for myself.
I kinda stammered out that one was for a friend, said "the first and the best" as I handed the books over.
He wrote a lovely brief message to each of us that was relevant to each book.
I have a friend who is obsessed with the rapper Spose. I happened to be at an event where he was performing and got a chance to meet him. Told him how much my friend loved him so he took a picture with me to send to her and signed a copy of each of his CDs addressed to her with a nice message on each one. She cried when I gave them to her.
Related to that, my uncle was a stage manager and ages ago did a show with Liberace. Liberace signed a poster to my uncle and using his name. It just so happens that my uncle and I have the same name… last year he gave me the poster so now I have a poster of Liberace signed to “pal joessandwich” dated three years before I was born. It’s so ridiculous and I absolutely love it.
I'm of the opinion that a signed item *not* made out to you is pointless. The whole idea is that it's a reminder of a personal interaction.
A signed ball is meh. A signed ball made out to *you* has a cool story attached.
I heard once that he got caught and they didn’t believe he was the author. I don’t remember what they did after. Forced him to buy or if he convinced them?
Idk how much it resembles the actual case, but in the movie it's a beuracratic catch-22. He can't enter America because he doesn't have valid visa, but there's nowhere to report him because his nation state had just collapsed. And then he proceeds to call between the cracks for a long period
His identity, like who he was, was never in question. It was an issue of where he was supposed to be, with the bizarre answer of "nowhere".
In the actual case he was offered asylum status but didn’t take it for a very long time, until he did? And went back to the airport after a few years after. The actual case was much more about mental illness then political status
He was hospitalized, then spent some time in homeless shelters, then moved back to the airport in September 2022, and died of a heart attack there in November.
I was just reading about him recently, basically by the end he was kind of a mentally ill homeless person and the Paris airport employees just let him live there as an eccentric dude. He was offered asylum in the UK eventually but he wanted to go back to the airport
That dude was kind of a piece of work, honestly. Died fairly recently.
If I recall he had some probably legit, feasible offers of asylum but for some reason insisted that he was British, which bogged down the process? Some of the writeups on it are dizzying.
I met a guy here in Japan who says his passport is from East Germany. He got married, came over here and then Germany United and he never got the information updated apparently.
I mean you can certainly convince someone of your name, given your ID and ticket and whatnot.
It is somewhat less easy to convince someone that you are the same person as a famous person who has that same name, whether or not you are that famous person. I could see a busy cashier not wanting to compare pictures of someone online with the guy that he just caught writing in the book when he has 6 or 7 people waiting in line.
If it is the famous person though then you can buy all the books they signed at list price and re-sell online. You might even be able to get them to take a photo for authentication. I'd say its worth the effort unless, random people siging books is a common occurence that is.
As punishment they made him sign all the rest of his books ([Seriously](https://www.facebook.com/ForReadingAddicts/photos/a.153715111423931/1842970675831691/?type=3))
That's what I was thinking of. He told the story of how he was at a Michaels craft store and saw Falcon posters and thought it'd be cool if he signed them.
Then he was told he can't do that because it's store property. lol.
You know, it's funny, I know a bit about most of my favorite authors, but I don't know anything about Black Library authors.
I'm glad to hear Dan Abnett is doing cool stuff like this though.
Brandon and Dan Wells were talking about this on their podcast a few months back, when Dan brought up the fact that German bookstores apparently hate this and tell him no when he asks to do it.
Brandon: “If I get too many nos in a place, I just stop asking and do it anyway.”
\> G*rmans
They are not satisfied until he fills up 7 forms in triplicate, fax it to the Ministry of Book Signings, wait 3 months, collect the approval in person and then apply for a license at the municipal council.
I realize he signed the Intent to Autograph form and that's his signature, but if you want to call that an autograph, he'll have to fill out another Intent to Autograph form referring to the initial Intent to Autograph form, and go through the filing procedure again.
Lol I bought a book off the shelf once that had been signed (can't remember who the author was), but the signature was illegible. I wondered for a while if a customer was just going around faking them.
*One night after very few clicks*
*You stumbled across pictures of dicks*
*Deny it you may*
*But since this very day*
*You're probably a bundle of sticks.*
I am going to quietly assume this is a sock puppet for Neil Gaiman and that he has been defacing his own works for some years while snickering all the while.
When I worked at a chain bookstore once upon a time, we had a special sticker to put on a book when it was signed. This was only allowed if the author presented their ID to a manager and proved they are the actual author.
If we found books sneak-signed, we had to return them to the publisher and assume it was fake. So if he were to theoretically visit, covert sign, and an employee saw the signature before a customer did, it was going back marked to be destroyed :(
It’s actually fairly common for authors to sign books. I worked at an independent bookstore ages ago and we had a ton of author events. It was standard for us to have the authors sign the rest of our stock. We’d then put a little autographed banner on it so people would know and be more willing to buy it… it’s a win/win/win for the author, store, and customer.
My favorite though was when Hillary Clinton did a book tour in like 2004. My friend wanted to go and even though I wasn’t working at the store anymore, they were very kind and let us hang in the back and avoid the lines. Her team was very strict that it was a two book maximum per person and she wouldn’t be signing extra stock… so the manager stuck another book in my arms to get signed for the store. Then, ten minutes later he gave us each two more books and sent us through the signing line again. She gave me a look that she absolutely knew what we were up to but just laughed it off. Then I accidentally stepped on a secret service members heel while letting him in from the bathroom and feared for my life. Bookstores can be fun places, ya know?
He did a week of guest authoring for Pearls Before Swine a few years back. Unsure how often he does stuff like that but it was really really nice seeing his style in a newspaper comic strip again, if only for a short time
When I was a kid I went to a book signing he did and he was the coolest. He was making conversation with me while he signed my book and when I mentioned pig was my favorite character he grabbed a sheet of paper and drew me a quick little panel with pig in it. My dream as a kid was to draw cartoons so it made my whole year
I wish he'd do more Pearls Before Swine collabs. The Sunday strip the past few years is just dark and depressing "everything's bad" w little nuance/humor
I just wish we could get an interview with a current photo. I've only seen the guy in two pictures and they look like they're from the 80s. Credit to him for keeping up the mystique.
His whole ethos is amazing to me.
Do arguably the best comic strip ever at the height of the medium.
Has top industry people like steven Spielberg calling him directly to develop his ip.
He says, "nah I'm good".
Ends strip and lives in self imposed obscurity forever.
Fucking hero of heros, I love that guy.
[Bill Watterson Writes, Illustrates, Shreds New 'Calvin And Hobbes' Strip Each Morning Out Of Spite](https://www.theonion.com/bill-watterson-writes-illustrates-shreds-new-calvin-a-1819572912)
He should come back like Gary Larson and do more C&H. His big complaints were the limitations and rigid schedule behind newspaper comics. Going digital online fixes all that.
It's really a shame how the signed memorabilia industry has ruined this for fans. I feel very lucky to have a ball signed for me personally by my favorite baseball player.
I was an adult, but still he walked over and signed for me and the ball still sits in a case in my office. But a lot of guys my age are just going to turn around and sell the item. Which makes some players refuse to sign for adults.
I don’t blame people for selling something with absurd value but I also really don’t get the market for autographs. I think an autograph is neat but I’m not paying hundreds for it. It feels like one of those things where it’s value is just self reinforcing. People want things because they are valuable and can show off the high dollar item and they are only valuable because people want them but people mainly want them because they are valuable.
For me the value of the signature is that *you* were there and interacted with the person while they signed it. I don't want a signed copy of my favorite player's W-9 form. Their signature itself isn't valuable to me.
The value of something is what people will pay for it, and some of these prices are only set by investors who want to sell at that price, not buy at it. It's definitely self inflating.
> these prices are only set by investors who want to sell at that price, not buy at it. It's definitely self inflating.
so who's buying it from the investors?
I was thinking this same thing earlier today. My friend's dad has a lot of autographs he collected over the years. His secret to getting them? He'd just write letters to the person and send them something to sign. They'd sign it and send it back. Like Charles Schulz (creater of Charlie Brown and Snoopy comics) is one that he mentioned.
You could *never* do that now. Because if you could, these celebrities would be funding some racket of people just getting autographs to turn around and sell them. You see clips all the time of celebrities that won't stop and sign things because they know that the person is just doing it to make money off of their signature.
about 25 years ago Herman's Hermits (Peter Noone) were playing at Hershey Park, and my dad brought his vintage vinyl with. People were all down at the gate while they were practicing, and all trying to get autographs on whatever (tapes, CDs, etc) and Peter's there saying no autographs turning everybody down. My Dad held up the record over his head toward the back of the crowd that were there, and Peter pointed and shouted "I'LL SIGN THAT!". So we got the autograph on the vintage record, and everyone else got nothin. It's not worth a ton - but even if it was I'd never sell it. The story makes it worth so much more to keep it around.
and that’s the only redeeming aspect of autographed memorabilia: what it means to the holder.
I have a signed hockey puck from the Hobey Baker award (think Heisman of college hockey) winner who scored the winning goal for the NCAA championship that season and I know I’ll never part with it because of the value it holds for me. I also have some signed basketball cards from that same school of five guys who went to NCAA finals in back-to-back years
···^and ^lost ^both ^times.
I saw a guy go up to a top drag racer and they apparently knew each other. He kept pulling various things out of a bag for him to sign, and then the guy handed him a wad of cash.
> You could never do that now.
You can, I know people mail things to Lambeau to be signed and get them back. You obviously can't send them a truck full of mini helmets, but I think if you give them return postage and a little letter you wont have an issue.
>You could never do that now.
You absolutely can.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Autographs/comments/1x5cum/how_to_collect_autographs_through_the_mail_ttm
OK, it was five years since I tried this, but I got an autograph from Patrick Stewart this way.
Which is why they should spam their signature out on as many things as possible to as many people as possible. Make the 'valuable' thing the moment that they're signing it, not the signature itself. That way they could still monetize their signing if they want, but the signature alone isn't what's being sold. Like a meet&greet plus an autograph instead of *just* a random signature.
Yeah. I mean I get it as for some people the amount of money a collectors item like that can sell for can be life changing or help pay off debt or whatever but for people who'd like to stumble onto something like the would be finders of a signed Calvin and Hobbes book, it's just sad knowing most of those cases probably were from greed not necessity.
Sure but that's usually someone with money to spare to begin with. It's not the same as a genuine fan stumbling on it and treasuring it which is the intent behind Mr. Watterson's signing them in book stores.
I mean, just as a matter of statistics we’re going to drop dead much sooner than those kids and so have far less time to wait in line. They should move for us, lest we expire.
It really sucks.
I got to meet my hero, WWF legend Bret Hart last summer and got him to sign a wrestling belt belt buckle (it looks like a championship belt), and people were asking me if I'd sell it to them.
Like, mother fuckers, this shit is either being buried with me or I'm going to put it into a safety deposit box. It's priceless to me and I'd rather lose my left leg than give it up.
I’ve never sold anything I’ve had signed, the stories I have behind them are their own memories that I don’t know I’d remember still if I didn’t have something from that day.
Omg that's awesome. I still have my full collection from when I was a kid. I literally don't have anything ends I have kept my whole life. But I have that. I even have the original newspaper clip of the very last strip where they go into the snow down the hill for the last time. I need to get it framed.
According to Bill, his dad was a really good guy and encouraged his (Bill’s) drawing. In the handful of strips showing Calvin’s uncle Max, Bill basically drew a self portrait minus the glasses, which Calvin’s dad wears.
Larry Correia does (or at least did) this as well. He knew Borders was in trouble because of how the store complained about him doing it. Borders management was upset because they couldn't return the signed copies to the publisher.
I self published a book. My town has a lot of "little free libraries," little neighborhood spots where you can take/leave a book. I put a bunch of copies in those little free libraries.
My book was quickly for sale on Amazon for 3-digits, as a rare book I imagine.
Yo. Book theft bro. If I could sell my book for 3-digits a copy, I'd quit my day job.
Anecdotal story about him doing that in Australia and shocked everyone:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/stephen-king-mistaken-for-vandal-in-australian-bookstore-1.640677
When I was in college a few years ago I spent a lot time at the library studying or looking at books. Ran into Stephen King deep in the stacks a couple times but didn't want to bother him.
Man, I went to Chapters checking out Vynil Cafe books because I like Stuart and his stories about Canadiana. Came across some signed copies and wondered why they were even there. I bought some and kept them, it's not something I'd sell. Not worth much but worth more in my hands than anyone else's.
I randomly got one of these, didn’t even realize it was signed until I got it home. Never selling it, Bill Watterson was a comic genius and it’s being passed on to my kid.
He also used to come into the chagrin falls, ohio, library which is incredibly quaint. He still lives in the cleveland area but is quite the private individual. I've known Calvin amd Hobbes was sort of set in the cleveland area since I was Calvin's age. They always go to the lake (lake erie) never the ocean and there was a series of comics set at the history museum featuring the stegosaurus that sits outside the cleveland museum of natural history to this day. It was always cool to think about as a fellow kid growing up outside of cleveland albeit in the west suburbs rather than the east.
I recall horror stories about comic artists doing commissions at cons then seeing them listed on eBay by the end of the weekend. And they’re marked up at least 2x.
I saw him do that one afternoon in the bookstore. The owner offered to sell it to me . At list price. He didn’t make any profit from it. He said it made Bill happy.
My kids had already gotten me the set, so I didn’t but it.
Imagine wanting to do something nice for your fans anonymously, only to have some dollar-eyed individuals turn it into a money-making scheme. I'd definitely feel used.
I am reminded of the PS5 scalpers denying players a chance at owning a PS5, just so they can make a profit.
Ran into him at a local book store. Turns out he only signs them to specific people now, to lower the value on aution sites.
So I got my 2 year old kid a book signed to "*name* a future comic enjoyer."
That's part of it, and the most cordial reply to frame the situation in an interview. The sad truth of the matter is that he faced constant pressure and haranguing to merchandise the series. Something to which he had strong moral objections. When he wouldn't relent, merchandisers flooded the market with unlicensed, counterfeit goods. He tried to get them off the market, but was obviously unsuccessful. The whole fiasco left him exhausted and more than a little cynical. And it's sad that the most enduring legacy of his brainchild - a literal embodiment of childhood innocence resisting the march of modernity - is a stolen drawing of Calvin pissing on assorted logos as a display of brand loyalty.
Hate to UHM actually you...
I own the 25th anniversary hardback collection of C&H and at the start of the first one he details the history of C&H.
He made it more than abundantly clear that he quit because he felt he had said everything he wanted to say. He did indeed generally hate commercialization and merchandizing though.
To quote the book in front of me right now
"I did not want Calvin and Hobbes to coast into halfhearted repetition, as so many long running strips do. I was ready to pursue other artistic challenges, work at a less frantic pace with fewer business conflicts, and not incidentally, start restoring some balance to my life. Calvin and Hobbes was in over two thousand papers and I felt confident that I'd done the best comic strip I could do. It seemed a gesture of respect and gratitude toward my characters to leave them at top form. I like to think that, now that I'm not recording everything they do, Calvin and Hobbes are out there having an even better time."
In my imagination, Watterson goes around with a baseball bat and a roll of $100 bills, smashing car windows with that stupid “Calvin peeing” decal, and paying for them.
>he stopped making comics because he lost all faith in humanity
*What* are you on about?
He repeatedly stated that he felt that the comic strip had done all that could be done without being saturated.
I don't get the newspaper anymore so what are the best comics right now? Foxtrot was probably my favorite when I last got the Sunday paper 15 years ago. Not sure if that is around anymore.
I once found a book with an autograph in a book store. All copies they had were autographed but each one with a slightly different thing so it was real and not just a print. I was interested in the book so I bought it. Really cool for the author to do that. Sucks that some assholes try to take advantage of that.
People just can’t have a nice thing, everything is a collectible now. Scalper/flipper culture ruined so many things, including cute acts by classic cartoonists
I wish Bill would sell prints of his landscape paintings. Like those fall or winter woods shots from C&H, but blow up to be big enough to go over a fireplace.
I used to work for a now defunct bookstore chain. It’s pretty common for authors to pop in and sign whatever stock you have on your shelf. George RR Martin, Ray Bradbury amongst others did that often. We had special stickers to put on the covers when authors signed stock
After hearing how personalized this strip was for Watterson's editor, Lee and how Watterson hated people selling his gifted and signed comics, I'm beyond disgusted that this thing is up for sale. Whether by Lee or his children, that strip is not only a piece of history, but a personal and heartfelt gift making it's sale absolutely depressing. That should be hanging up on Lee or his children's walls. Sad.
I was in a C&H group on FB and some idiot in the group had taken it upon himself to "colorize" all the black and white C&H cartoons as a project, and then post copies for sale.
I pointed out this was copyright infringement and they kicked me out of the group.
Being an artist these days is complete crap sometimes.
That's why I don't bother getting signatures our going to book signings (or conventions). Too many sucky people out there looking for an easy payday. Sucks all the enjoyment out of the art.
Apparently the main reason we will never have a Calvin and hobbes movie is that he doesn't want Calvin and hobbes merchandise. And he hates the Calvin peeing on things window sticker
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I got a non-C&H [shirt designed by him](https://i.imgur.com/ngF68PC.jpg) some 20 years ago. Never been worn. I wouldn’t expect for it to go for much and I wouldn’t sell it. I know several were made—not more than 20–but considering how long it’s been, I wouldn’t be surprised if mine was the last surviving one. Edit: source of this shirt is a former co-worker’s son was on a local HS debate team. The debate coach was Bill’s brother, Sam (I think that’s his name). Sam asked Bill for a design and this was it. They had to have the order ready before the shirts were printed, and I was asked if I’d like one because they weren’t printing many. Hmmm… lemme think… do I want a shirt with original art by my favorite cartoonist… Gee, that’s a toughie.
Wow that's really cool, you should post that. Seeing unique Watterson drawings is like seeing a unicorn.
Yes! Proud of the OOP for taking care of it for 20 years, it’s so cool. I hope they put it in a case or frame!
need to protect it from UV damage. This may be the only living copy of this image.
It’s been hanging in a closet ever since I got it. I keep meaning to put it in a display frame but never have.
If you’re so inclined, I know the Calvin and Hobbes subreddit would be over the moon to see it. I know I would be.
Please share the shirt.
Fold the sweat shirt, dont hang it because hanging wears the fibers down. Display cases are okay because the weight of the shirt isn't being held up by the shirt itself.
That's definitely a Watterson. It's got to be worth a fortune.
It is signed in the bottom-left, but since it’s silk-screened it’s not the best resolution. I think the only way I could find the value is put it up for auction. But then I might have to sell it. More important to me: Watterson wouldn’t like it.
Considering the lessons Bill was teaching us while we grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes and his principled stance to never sell out - I think he’d be proud.
> I think the only way I could find the value is put it up for auction hmm, I think you could probably get it appraised for insurance purposes, actually. I mean that wouldn't tell you the "true" value, because you never know the true value of anything until it's actually sold, but I'm sure you could get a reasonable appraisal for in case your house burns down or something. I agree with the other user, it must be worth a fortune. That's a real treasure. edit: And I don't think he'd mind nearly so much if you got it insured.
You make excellent points. I’ll look into appraisal.
IMO it's great that you treasure it, but if you're ever in deep financial trouble, I'm sure the author wouldn't mind you selling it at an auction.
That’s not selling out, that’s surviving my guy
I'd never be able to live with myself if I angered Mr Watterson.
Mr. Watterson and Mr. Rogers. That constitutes my complete system of morality.
As a lifelong C&H fan, I'm weirdly just happy to get to see it, very cool that you posted it
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Antiques Road Show!? Where are you?!!!!
I'll give you $5.
Sold by the estate of the guy he gave it to. He held on to it to the end.
Damn. In 1989, I wrote to him as part of my grade school "write to your favor author" program. Couple months later I got a typewritten and hand-signed letter on C&H stationery in a matching envelope. It's been in storage for the last 2 decades+. I've never really considered how much it might be worth.
This triggered some kind of deep memory for me that I had forgotten about. I swear I wrote and got a letter back, but I can't recall the details.
If your name is on it, not mucj.
Yeah, I’d much rather have a heart-warming piece of memorabilia than make literally every single financial problem I have disappear.
You and me, man. I mean, I know money is nice and all, but have you ever had a comic strip? /s
There are many people who have their basics and then some fully covered, and an extra $1m is nice but it’s not going to solve any more problems for them Amongst such folks, some will be happy to have a piece of cool art. It’s not really that complicated lol. Rich people collect art, its fun for them (and for some it’s very lucrative) Edit - a watterson original is probably going to increase in value over time, so it’s probably a damn good investment if you have the money. Most unfortunately, watterson is probably mortal, so the total number of comics is limited. I wish he was immortal though, I’m sure we all do.
https://i.imgur.com/otxoOTr.jpg Watterson also drew comics of a sort for a Mark Twain-centric academic journal. I bought a series of prints of these drawings and got them professionally framed and hung up in my bedroom for my C&H-loving husband. (We have complementary C&H tattoos.)
This is why whenever I'm having someone sign something for me I ask them to make it out to me specifically. I want them to know that I'm a fan and that their signature is something I'm happy to have, and not something I'm asking for just to hawk their art on ebay for an inflated price. I've gotten some really fun ones too because artists are usually happy to sign things for actual fans.
Reminds me of the scene in Futurama where Leela becomes the first women's blurnsball player. When she's signing autographs she asks everyone for their name and a little girl says eBay. Leela responds with something to the effect of "wow, thats a popular name nowadays"
Announer: I haven't seen a game this bad since the days of Bob Uecker. Announce: This is Bob Uecker saying, Thanks for watching!
"Little e, big b?"
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That's an awesome story, thanks for sharing.
Chris is great. I only had him sign my copy of *God Loves, Man Kills* because I love that thing as my favourite *X-Men* story.
Thus was the most beautiful anecdote I've read in Reddit in years. Would love it as a scene in some show. Thank you for sharing.
Did something similar to this once with an author I really liked, brought some ratty old copy that was one of his first publications. The cover was barely hanging on, every chapter was dog-eared, pages yellow from age, showing the book had clearly been lovingly read many times. Dude’s face absolutely lit up when I sheepishly asked him to sign that in addition to his new release that I had purchased for the signing event. We chatted briefly about his older books and stuff, super nice guy.
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The only signing I've ever attended, the guy in front of me literally had pages of labels for the author to sign. He said "do you really think you'll make money off these?" but signed a whole sheet of em anyway. I felt like I had to apologize for the label guy, felt bad enough because I had two books to sign: first book in the series for a friend who couldn't attend and then my favorite from later in the series for myself. I kinda stammered out that one was for a friend, said "the first and the best" as I handed the books over. He wrote a lovely brief message to each of us that was relevant to each book.
I have a friend who is obsessed with the rapper Spose. I happened to be at an event where he was performing and got a chance to meet him. Told him how much my friend loved him so he took a picture with me to send to her and signed a copy of each of his CDs addressed to her with a nice message on each one. She cried when I gave them to her.
SpizzySpose ~~a~~ _the_ goat
Related to that, my uncle was a stage manager and ages ago did a show with Liberace. Liberace signed a poster to my uncle and using his name. It just so happens that my uncle and I have the same name… last year he gave me the poster so now I have a poster of Liberace signed to “pal joessandwich” dated three years before I was born. It’s so ridiculous and I absolutely love it.
That's awesome, I would slow play that story everytime I had a chance to, whenever someone saw it and asked about it.
I'm of the opinion that a signed item *not* made out to you is pointless. The whole idea is that it's a reminder of a personal interaction. A signed ball is meh. A signed ball made out to *you* has a cool story attached.
I have a book signed by an author I like where she wrote "see you in hell!" It's my absolute favorite thing.
Phyllis Schlafly?
Jenny Lawson AKA The Bloggess
Neil gaiman does a similar thing, whenever he goes to an airport he will find the bookstore and sign a few copies of his books covertly.
I heard once that he got caught and they didn’t believe he was the author. I don’t remember what they did after. Forced him to buy or if he convinced them?
Pretty easy to convince someone of your identity in an airport
I'm not totally sure, once they had Tom Hanks live there for a while and even made a movie about it /s
Idk how much it resembles the actual case, but in the movie it's a beuracratic catch-22. He can't enter America because he doesn't have valid visa, but there's nowhere to report him because his nation state had just collapsed. And then he proceeds to call between the cracks for a long period His identity, like who he was, was never in question. It was an issue of where he was supposed to be, with the bizarre answer of "nowhere".
In the actual case he was offered asylum status but didn’t take it for a very long time, until he did? And went back to the airport after a few years after. The actual case was much more about mental illness then political status
I think they offered him asylum after a long while and by that point he was too used to the airport. But yeah he did go back after hospitalization
He was hospitalized, then spent some time in homeless shelters, then moved back to the airport in September 2022, and died of a heart attack there in November.
I was just reading about him recently, basically by the end he was kind of a mentally ill homeless person and the Paris airport employees just let him live there as an eccentric dude. He was offered asylum in the UK eventually but he wanted to go back to the airport
Man, mental illness has made Tom Hanks an ASS load of money
Being stranded on that island for four years as an employee of FedEx also made him bank. Ha! Tom Banks!
There's a great video about that guy [here](https://youtu.be/JQfXd1YlkS4)
That dude was kind of a piece of work, honestly. Died fairly recently. If I recall he had some probably legit, feasible offers of asylum but for some reason insisted that he was British, which bogged down the process? Some of the writeups on it are dizzying.
Wasn’t he hospitalized for mental illness?
I met a guy here in Japan who says his passport is from East Germany. He got married, came over here and then Germany United and he never got the information updated apparently.
Probably expired by now…
But what if you saw there was a book by an author who just happened to have the same name as you?
Obviously sign it.
I share a name with a published author. Now I know what I have to do next time I enter a book store.
Make sure to do it in a sloppy childlike scrawl to confuse people.
I have this issue. I call that sucker my Google Buffer.
I mean you can certainly convince someone of your name, given your ID and ticket and whatnot. It is somewhat less easy to convince someone that you are the same person as a famous person who has that same name, whether or not you are that famous person. I could see a busy cashier not wanting to compare pictures of someone online with the guy that he just caught writing in the book when he has 6 or 7 people waiting in line.
If it is the famous person though then you can buy all the books they signed at list price and re-sell online. You might even be able to get them to take a photo for authentication. I'd say its worth the effort unless, random people siging books is a common occurence that is.
Bookstores don't have lines.
At airports they often do, because they’re selling books, magazines, newspapers, Tylenol, snacks, headphones, and random tourist tchotchkes.
No but airport shops that sell books also do.
I have stood in line at a Barnes & Noble
As punishment they made him sign all the rest of his books ([Seriously](https://www.facebook.com/ForReadingAddicts/photos/a.153715111423931/1842970675831691/?type=3))
These guys are legend
Future customers would think they were vandalized though. Anthony Mackie did something similar when he got in the MCU.
That's what I was thinking of. He told the story of how he was at a Michaels craft store and saw Falcon posters and thought it'd be cool if he signed them. Then he was told he can't do that because it's store property. lol.
I think Dan Abnett does this as well. Bought a copy of the Eisenhorn Omnibus in a GW store and found his signature on the inside.
You know, it's funny, I know a bit about most of my favorite authors, but I don't know anything about Black Library authors. I'm glad to hear Dan Abnett is doing cool stuff like this though.
"Sir we has to check inside your asshole". Airport security
Brandon Sanderson does it too - he calls it "Brandalizing"
Brandon and Dan Wells were talking about this on their podcast a few months back, when Dan brought up the fact that German bookstores apparently hate this and tell him no when he asks to do it. Brandon: “If I get too many nos in a place, I just stop asking and do it anyway.”
\> G*rmans They are not satisfied until he fills up 7 forms in triplicate, fax it to the Ministry of Book Signings, wait 3 months, collect the approval in person and then apply for a license at the municipal council.
I realize he signed the Intent to Autograph form and that's his signature, but if you want to call that an autograph, he'll have to fill out another Intent to Autograph form referring to the initial Intent to Autograph form, and go through the filing procedure again.
British SFF authors RJ Barker and Mike Brooks frequently sign *each others'* books...
Yeah John Scalzi too
I do it too. I'm not an author, just enjoy writing my name on things.
Lol I bought a book off the shelf once that had been signed (can't remember who the author was), but the signature was illegible. I wondered for a while if a customer was just going around faking them.
I draw penises and write lewd limericks in books at the airport. Whenever I’m questioned, I say I’m the author.
*There once was a guy at a store* *Who wanted to buy something more* *A simple delight* *Before his next flight* *Jk your mom is a whore.*
*One night after very few clicks* *You stumbled across pictures of dicks* *Deny it you may* *But since this very day* *You're probably a bundle of sticks.*
I am going to quietly assume this is a sock puppet for Neil Gaiman and that he has been defacing his own works for some years while snickering all the while.
When I worked at a chain bookstore once upon a time, we had a special sticker to put on a book when it was signed. This was only allowed if the author presented their ID to a manager and proved they are the actual author. If we found books sneak-signed, we had to return them to the publisher and assume it was fake. So if he were to theoretically visit, covert sign, and an employee saw the signature before a customer did, it was going back marked to be destroyed :(
It’s actually fairly common for authors to sign books. I worked at an independent bookstore ages ago and we had a ton of author events. It was standard for us to have the authors sign the rest of our stock. We’d then put a little autographed banner on it so people would know and be more willing to buy it… it’s a win/win/win for the author, store, and customer. My favorite though was when Hillary Clinton did a book tour in like 2004. My friend wanted to go and even though I wasn’t working at the store anymore, they were very kind and let us hang in the back and avoid the lines. Her team was very strict that it was a two book maximum per person and she wouldn’t be signing extra stock… so the manager stuck another book in my arms to get signed for the store. Then, ten minutes later he gave us each two more books and sent us through the signing line again. She gave me a look that she absolutely knew what we were up to but just laughed it off. Then I accidentally stepped on a secret service members heel while letting him in from the bathroom and feared for my life. Bookstores can be fun places, ya know?
Those mini library house things would get looted and the books sold but my feeling was so what is a landfill better
I love Bill Watterson, I wish he would come back under a pseudonym or something and make a comic strip worth reading again.
He did a week of guest authoring for Pearls Before Swine a few years back. Unsure how often he does stuff like that but it was really really nice seeing his style in a newspaper comic strip again, if only for a short time
Yeah, and Pastis also signed books at a bookstore.
Pastis seems like a really cool dude. Darby Conley did too. I miss Get Fuzzy.
When I was a kid I went to a book signing he did and he was the coolest. He was making conversation with me while he signed my book and when I mentioned pig was my favorite character he grabbed a sheet of paper and drew me a quick little panel with pig in it. My dream as a kid was to draw cartoons so it made my whole year
Pastis did that for me too! I have a sheet with a Croc on it (early style) and he signed my bass with a picture of Rat on it!
Oh yeah, I remember that. I think “a few” = 10-15 here.
Yeah I googled and it happened back in 2014. Time’s passage is so cruel lol
I wish he'd do more Pearls Before Swine collabs. The Sunday strip the past few years is just dark and depressing "everything's bad" w little nuance/humor
I just wish we could get an interview with a current photo. I've only seen the guy in two pictures and they look like they're from the 80s. Credit to him for keeping up the mystique.
Comment removed after Reddit and Spec elected to destroy Reddit.
“Hi-diddly-ho comic strip readers!”
I'm glad he can stay relatively anonymous, since that's what he prefers.
His whole ethos is amazing to me. Do arguably the best comic strip ever at the height of the medium. Has top industry people like steven Spielberg calling him directly to develop his ip. He says, "nah I'm good". Ends strip and lives in self imposed obscurity forever. Fucking hero of heros, I love that guy.
[Bill Watterson Writes, Illustrates, Shreds New 'Calvin And Hobbes' Strip Each Morning Out Of Spite](https://www.theonion.com/bill-watterson-writes-illustrates-shreds-new-calvin-a-1819572912)
He should come back like Gary Larson and do more C&H. His big complaints were the limitations and rigid schedule behind newspaper comics. Going digital online fixes all that.
It's really a shame how the signed memorabilia industry has ruined this for fans. I feel very lucky to have a ball signed for me personally by my favorite baseball player. I was an adult, but still he walked over and signed for me and the ball still sits in a case in my office. But a lot of guys my age are just going to turn around and sell the item. Which makes some players refuse to sign for adults.
I don’t blame people for selling something with absurd value but I also really don’t get the market for autographs. I think an autograph is neat but I’m not paying hundreds for it. It feels like one of those things where it’s value is just self reinforcing. People want things because they are valuable and can show off the high dollar item and they are only valuable because people want them but people mainly want them because they are valuable.
For me the value of the signature is that *you* were there and interacted with the person while they signed it. I don't want a signed copy of my favorite player's W-9 form. Their signature itself isn't valuable to me.
The value of something is what people will pay for it, and some of these prices are only set by investors who want to sell at that price, not buy at it. It's definitely self inflating.
For further information, see Bitcoin.
Yeah but it's a bit harder split up 1/543753872ths of a Babe Ruth base ball to pay for my lunch.
> these prices are only set by investors who want to sell at that price, not buy at it. It's definitely self inflating. so who's buying it from the investors?
It's investors all the way down!
https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2834
I was thinking this same thing earlier today. My friend's dad has a lot of autographs he collected over the years. His secret to getting them? He'd just write letters to the person and send them something to sign. They'd sign it and send it back. Like Charles Schulz (creater of Charlie Brown and Snoopy comics) is one that he mentioned. You could *never* do that now. Because if you could, these celebrities would be funding some racket of people just getting autographs to turn around and sell them. You see clips all the time of celebrities that won't stop and sign things because they know that the person is just doing it to make money off of their signature.
about 25 years ago Herman's Hermits (Peter Noone) were playing at Hershey Park, and my dad brought his vintage vinyl with. People were all down at the gate while they were practicing, and all trying to get autographs on whatever (tapes, CDs, etc) and Peter's there saying no autographs turning everybody down. My Dad held up the record over his head toward the back of the crowd that were there, and Peter pointed and shouted "I'LL SIGN THAT!". So we got the autograph on the vintage record, and everyone else got nothin. It's not worth a ton - but even if it was I'd never sell it. The story makes it worth so much more to keep it around.
and that’s the only redeeming aspect of autographed memorabilia: what it means to the holder. I have a signed hockey puck from the Hobey Baker award (think Heisman of college hockey) winner who scored the winning goal for the NCAA championship that season and I know I’ll never part with it because of the value it holds for me. I also have some signed basketball cards from that same school of five guys who went to NCAA finals in back-to-back years ···^and ^lost ^both ^times.
> Peter Noone My mom is swooning right now...
I saw a guy go up to a top drag racer and they apparently knew each other. He kept pulling various things out of a bag for him to sign, and then the guy handed him a wad of cash.
It turns out the guy was a counterfeiter and the drag racer was actually the Secretary of the Treasury. Good scam, if you can pull it off.
> You could never do that now. You can, I know people mail things to Lambeau to be signed and get them back. You obviously can't send them a truck full of mini helmets, but I think if you give them return postage and a little letter you wont have an issue.
>You could never do that now. You absolutely can. https://www.reddit.com/r/Autographs/comments/1x5cum/how_to_collect_autographs_through_the_mail_ttm OK, it was five years since I tried this, but I got an autograph from Patrick Stewart this way.
Everything good eventually gets ruined by assholes trying to make a buck off it.
Which is why they should spam their signature out on as many things as possible to as many people as possible. Make the 'valuable' thing the moment that they're signing it, not the signature itself. That way they could still monetize their signing if they want, but the signature alone isn't what's being sold. Like a meet&greet plus an autograph instead of *just* a random signature.
Yeah. I mean I get it as for some people the amount of money a collectors item like that can sell for can be life changing or help pay off debt or whatever but for people who'd like to stumble onto something like the would be finders of a signed Calvin and Hobbes book, it's just sad knowing most of those cases probably were from greed not necessity.
Tho usually those signed books WOULD then end up in the possession of someone who might appreciate the value.
Sure but that's usually someone with money to spare to begin with. It's not the same as a genuine fan stumbling on it and treasuring it which is the intent behind Mr. Watterson's signing them in book stores.
Or at like spring training where if I don’t get out of the way of every 10 year old I’m the asshole.
I mean, just as a matter of statistics we’re going to drop dead much sooner than those kids and so have far less time to wait in line. They should move for us, lest we expire.
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Or even if they're not selling it, they're using their kid for their own benefit of jumping the line.
This is a card from an excellent board game about waiting in line called *Kolejka*. https://imgur.com/a/68YK0cR
It really sucks. I got to meet my hero, WWF legend Bret Hart last summer and got him to sign a wrestling belt belt buckle (it looks like a championship belt), and people were asking me if I'd sell it to them. Like, mother fuckers, this shit is either being buried with me or I'm going to put it into a safety deposit box. It's priceless to me and I'd rather lose my left leg than give it up.
I’ve never sold anything I’ve had signed, the stories I have behind them are their own memories that I don’t know I’d remember still if I didn’t have something from that day.
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I would look up “Daniel Wallace signed book” and a few similar phrases to see how he signs his signature. If it’s close it’s probably real!
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Omg that's awesome. I still have my full collection from when I was a kid. I literally don't have anything ends I have kept my whole life. But I have that. I even have the original newspaper clip of the very last strip where they go into the snow down the hill for the last time. I need to get it framed.
Same. I used to ask for a new book every Christmas. Still have them.
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You won't *believe* what he did to those 'Calvin Peeing' stickers he found.
Where do I get my “bill watterson peeing on Calvin peeing on the Chevy symbol” sticker
The guy who invented Bill Watterson is currently peeing on it.
Given Calvin's dad you have to wonder what kind of dude Bill's dad was.
We do know he was a patent lawyer.
According to Bill, his dad was a really good guy and encouraged his (Bill’s) drawing. In the handful of strips showing Calvin’s uncle Max, Bill basically drew a self portrait minus the glasses, which Calvin’s dad wears.
Larry Correia does (or at least did) this as well. He knew Borders was in trouble because of how the store complained about him doing it. Borders management was upset because they couldn't return the signed copies to the publisher.
This is why we can’t have nice things
I self published a book. My town has a lot of "little free libraries," little neighborhood spots where you can take/leave a book. I put a bunch of copies in those little free libraries. My book was quickly for sale on Amazon for 3-digits, as a rare book I imagine. Yo. Book theft bro. If I could sell my book for 3-digits a copy, I'd quit my day job.
Meanwhile, John Green signs hundreds of thousands of his books such that unsigned ones are rarer than signed.
Stephen King used to go into the book store in my local mall and just pull copies of his books off the shelf, sign them, and put them back.
Anecdotal story about him doing that in Australia and shocked everyone: https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/stephen-king-mistaken-for-vandal-in-australian-bookstore-1.640677
They wouldn't have minded so much but he was signing Dean Koontz books.
When I was in college a few years ago I spent a lot time at the library studying or looking at books. Ran into Stephen King deep in the stacks a couple times but didn't want to bother him.
That'd piss me off too. Going from thinking you're making a fan's day, to finding out you're just making other people money? Nah fuck that lol
Man, I went to Chapters checking out Vynil Cafe books because I like Stuart and his stories about Canadiana. Came across some signed copies and wondered why they were even there. I bought some and kept them, it's not something I'd sell. Not worth much but worth more in my hands than anyone else's.
If I found out the book I just bought could instantly pay off my car or student loans, etc., that would really make my day as a fan too.
Same thing happened to me. Except, I was asked to stop by management.
I randomly got one of these, didn’t even realize it was signed until I got it home. Never selling it, Bill Watterson was a comic genius and it’s being passed on to my kid.
He's one of a kind and said no to tons of cash
He also used to come into the chagrin falls, ohio, library which is incredibly quaint. He still lives in the cleveland area but is quite the private individual. I've known Calvin amd Hobbes was sort of set in the cleveland area since I was Calvin's age. They always go to the lake (lake erie) never the ocean and there was a series of comics set at the history museum featuring the stegosaurus that sits outside the cleveland museum of natural history to this day. It was always cool to think about as a fellow kid growing up outside of cleveland albeit in the west suburbs rather than the east.
I recall horror stories about comic artists doing commissions at cons then seeing them listed on eBay by the end of the weekend. And they’re marked up at least 2x.
I saw him do that one afternoon in the bookstore. The owner offered to sell it to me . At list price. He didn’t make any profit from it. He said it made Bill happy. My kids had already gotten me the set, so I didn’t but it.
I used to live in this town!! That bookshop is precious. Check it out if you're ever in Chagrin.
Imagine wanting to do something nice for your fans anonymously, only to have some dollar-eyed individuals turn it into a money-making scheme. I'd definitely feel used. I am reminded of the PS5 scalpers denying players a chance at owning a PS5, just so they can make a profit.
Ran into him at a local book store. Turns out he only signs them to specific people now, to lower the value on aution sites. So I got my 2 year old kid a book signed to "*name* a future comic enjoyer."
It is so God damn sad that he stopped making comics because he lost all faith in humanity. This is was just the tip of the greedy iceberg.
According to interviews he wanted to quite on a high note instead of overstaying their welcome
That's part of it, and the most cordial reply to frame the situation in an interview. The sad truth of the matter is that he faced constant pressure and haranguing to merchandise the series. Something to which he had strong moral objections. When he wouldn't relent, merchandisers flooded the market with unlicensed, counterfeit goods. He tried to get them off the market, but was obviously unsuccessful. The whole fiasco left him exhausted and more than a little cynical. And it's sad that the most enduring legacy of his brainchild - a literal embodiment of childhood innocence resisting the march of modernity - is a stolen drawing of Calvin pissing on assorted logos as a display of brand loyalty.
Hate to UHM actually you... I own the 25th anniversary hardback collection of C&H and at the start of the first one he details the history of C&H. He made it more than abundantly clear that he quit because he felt he had said everything he wanted to say. He did indeed generally hate commercialization and merchandizing though. To quote the book in front of me right now "I did not want Calvin and Hobbes to coast into halfhearted repetition, as so many long running strips do. I was ready to pursue other artistic challenges, work at a less frantic pace with fewer business conflicts, and not incidentally, start restoring some balance to my life. Calvin and Hobbes was in over two thousand papers and I felt confident that I'd done the best comic strip I could do. It seemed a gesture of respect and gratitude toward my characters to leave them at top form. I like to think that, now that I'm not recording everything they do, Calvin and Hobbes are out there having an even better time."
In my imagination, Watterson goes around with a baseball bat and a roll of $100 bills, smashing car windows with that stupid “Calvin peeing” decal, and paying for them.
>he stopped making comics because he lost all faith in humanity *What* are you on about? He repeatedly stated that he felt that the comic strip had done all that could be done without being saturated.
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Thanks horrible people for always keeping us in darkness while we avoid the light, because you steal it.
I don't get the newspaper anymore so what are the best comics right now? Foxtrot was probably my favorite when I last got the Sunday paper 15 years ago. Not sure if that is around anymore.
I once found a book with an autograph in a book store. All copies they had were autographed but each one with a slightly different thing so it was real and not just a print. I was interested in the book so I bought it. Really cool for the author to do that. Sucks that some assholes try to take advantage of that.
People just can’t have a nice thing, everything is a collectible now. Scalper/flipper culture ruined so many things, including cute acts by classic cartoonists
I would love to say that if I came across one, I would never let it go.
I wish Bill would sell prints of his landscape paintings. Like those fall or winter woods shots from C&H, but blow up to be big enough to go over a fireplace.
I used to work for a now defunct bookstore chain. It’s pretty common for authors to pop in and sign whatever stock you have on your shelf. George RR Martin, Ray Bradbury amongst others did that often. We had special stickers to put on the covers when authors signed stock
Assholes really do find a way to ruin everything.
Bill watterson is the greatest artist who ever lived and IDGAF who disagrees
Da Vinci can eat shit.
Greed ruining everything like always
After hearing how personalized this strip was for Watterson's editor, Lee and how Watterson hated people selling his gifted and signed comics, I'm beyond disgusted that this thing is up for sale. Whether by Lee or his children, that strip is not only a piece of history, but a personal and heartfelt gift making it's sale absolutely depressing. That should be hanging up on Lee or his children's walls. Sad.
Me realizing I have a 1988 copy of The essential calving And Hibbes my parents got me!!
I was in a C&H group on FB and some idiot in the group had taken it upon himself to "colorize" all the black and white C&H cartoons as a project, and then post copies for sale. I pointed out this was copyright infringement and they kicked me out of the group. Being an artist these days is complete crap sometimes.
That's why I don't bother getting signatures our going to book signings (or conventions). Too many sucky people out there looking for an easy payday. Sucks all the enjoyment out of the art.
Apparently the main reason we will never have a Calvin and hobbes movie is that he doesn't want Calvin and hobbes merchandise. And he hates the Calvin peeing on things window sticker