Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson Is About to Return With The Mysteries

Bill Watterson has authored a mysterious new book with John Kascht that's set to arrive on October 10th.

By Sean Fallon

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Bill Watterson, the cartoonist behind the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, has been almost completely off the radar since the last newspaper comic of the series ran in 1995. However, there are signs that this reclusive genius isn't completely content with living a normal life outside of the spotlight. In 2014 Watterson collaborated with Stephan Pastis as a guest artist on his Pearls Before Swine comic and co-wrote a book about the art of Richard Thompson. Now he's set to release The Mysteries, which is available to pre-order here on Amazon now ahead of tomorrow's October 10th release date. 

What is The Mysteries you ask? Well, The Mysteries is a book by a mysterious man that's full of...mystery. Indeed, little is known about this "fable for grown-ups" that was written by Bill Watterson and illustrated by caricaturist John Kascht outside of the official description:

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"In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns."

And the mystery doesn't stop there:

"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."

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This is interesting given that Watterson is known for his outstanding artwork, so his choice to collaborate with Kascht is likely due to the unique qualities that his work can bring to the story. Kascht's art has appeared in countless major newspapers and magazines, and you can see examples of what they produced for The Mysteries in the handful of sample pages that are posted in this article. 

According to Ideastream Public Media the story of the book centers around "our current climate crisis" and "our collective anxiety about the environment", which makes sense when you plug it into the official description. The article also notes that no pre-release copies were made available, so very few people know exactly what to expect. That said, many fans of Calvin and Hobbes would happily plunk down money sight unseen for anything that Bill Watterson does. If you are one of those fans, you can reserve your copy here on Amazon now and unravel this mystery when it arrives on your doorstep this week. 

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