*animation *history *geek *documentary

Adding video to channels (Animation, Geek, History) - requested by ant.

My son was reading Calvin & Hobbes this morning at the breakfast table.

Then you have done well as a parent!

Calvin and Hobbes was the first thing my kid read on their own and got sucked into. There is a great odumentary on watterson that used to be on the netflix.

my 10 year old son was reading it before bed!

"Dear Mr. Watterson" is still on Netflix in Canada.

I think there is something fundamentally broken in anyone who doesn't love Calvin and Hobbes.

[author flagged as a spammer - redacted]

I never even thought about the fact that there is no super commercialization of Calvin and Hobbes; now I love Watterson and his characters even more!

The only official Calvin and Hobbes merchandise item ever made was sold in Norway, branded under the Norwegian name Tommy & Tigern (Tommy and the Tiger) - a binder for the monthly localized Calvin & Hobbes comic. I got most of the issues.
You can see several of the binders on a table here: http://m.finn.no/bap/forsale/gallery.html?finnkode=69073070#image1

What about all the window stickers with Calvin pissing on (X)? Were ALL of those knockoffs and stolen IP? If so...wow. They mentioned that they're awful, but are they also rip-offs?

ALL depictions of Calvin & Hobbes, barring the comic itself and the comic binders from Norway, are knockoffs and stolen IP. All stickers, t-shirts, posters, sweaters, shorts, lunchboxes and whatever is non-licenced stolen IP.
There's the comic itself, plus the sole footnote of the Norwegian comic binders.
As for the peeing sticker: https://triviahappy.com/articles/the-tasteless-history-of-the-peeing-calvin-decal
The interesting part is of course that even the nice looking, respectful stuff are unlicensed knockoffs.

That's a video that lasts 6:21, and I just took about 20 minutes watching it, pausing every comic frame to read.

Nothing compares.

@Zawash -- all true. And yet, just because Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson are/were awesome, it doesn't make IP and copyright rules any more sensible.

My opinion: those respectful and well-done parodies and homages (say, Pants are Overrated's Hobbes and Bacon) are fair use. The person/people that drew Calvin peeing on things? Fair use also. There is a big difference between "tasteless" and "should be illegal".

Selling car decals with those images is different, because then you're treading all over the "not for profit" element of fair use. However, tracking down tons of small-scale infringers on that, or even worse, average people who simply buy the decals/shirts/whatever and likely don't know or care to know about IP and copyright laws is ... a losing battle at best, and punitive towards *fans* of the IP at worst.

There are many many examples of going to idiotic (IMO) lengths to protect IP. Disney suing local bakeries for drawing some character in icing on top of a kids birthday cake. Metallica suing Napster, University internet hosts, and even individual downloaders of their music. Teachers being sued for playing a clip of a TV show, movie, or song as part of their lessons. Etc. etc.

At some level, copyright is a good thing. Or at least a necessary evil. But the litigious zeal with which IP and copyright are "protected" these days seems like we've lost sight of the "art before commerce" element that is a huge part of why Calvin and Hobbes was so awesome. And why IP is something worth protecting (within sensible limits).

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Calvin, Hobbes, Bill Watterson, Art, Monetization' to 'Calvin, Hobbes, Bill Watterson, Art, Monetization, kaptainkristian' - edited by eric3579