The Calvin & Hobbes Documentary Stars Everyone Except the Artist

Bill Watterson, the Salinger-esque creator of what still may be the most popular comic strip in the United States even 18 years after it ended, does not appear in this trailer. For all we know, Calvin & Hobbes‘ artist will only communicate with the audience as he has for the past 30 or so years: by letting his work speak for itself.

So that leaves it to director Joel Allen Schroeder to reach out to other artists, contemporaries, and historians, to describe the comic strip’s impact and lasting appeal, leaving on top as it did in late 1995, right as the commercialized Internet dawned and swallowed newspapers whole. “Dear Mr. Watterson,” a Kickstarter-funded documentary, will release on Nov. 15—three days before the 28th anniversary of Calvin & Hobbes’ debut.

“This film is not a quest to find Bill Watterson, or to invade his privacy,” the filmmakers write on the documentary’s official site. “It is an exploration to discover why his ‘simple’ comic strip made such an impact on so many readers in the 80s and 90s, and why it still means so much to us today.” I don’t know if they’re walking up to Watterson’s door there at the end of this trailer, but that makes it sound like they aren’t.

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