'Calvin And Hobbes' Documentary Blows Past Kickstarter Goal

If the idea of a documentary devoted to Calvin and Hobbes doesn't make you grin, then it can be surmised that you clearly hated your childhood.

It could also be supposed that you're not among the people who Paste reported Monday pushed the Kickstarter campaign to fund the comic-strip documentary "Dear Mr. Watterson" to 150 percent off its initial funding goal. The fan-funded campaign doesn't close for another four days and started out asking for a meager $50,000, but has to date topped the $76,000 mark.

Filmmaker Joel Schroeder started making the project examining the cultural impact and lasting memories of Watterson's strip about a mischievous six-year-old named Calvin and his stuffed tiger named Hobbes in 2007 - 12 years after Watterson said "goodbye" to his strip's 1985-1995 syndicated run. Along the way, he conducted interviews with Watterson's editor, actor Seth Green and cartoonist Berkeley Breathed. From the sounds of it, the actual shooting is all but complete.

Nevertheless, Schroeder started his initial 2010 campaign with a near-$25,000 effort, and has recently sought the remaining funds to round out the 90-minute feature's legal fees and final production costs.

It's an intriguing story worth telling, since Watterson has been notoriously reclusive in his retirement. A longtime believer during his career that newspapers' shrinking spaces cheapened comics' collective artistic value, he frequently fought against the merchandising of his characters throughout the strip's two-decade run and continues to do so into his retirement.

Yes, that certainly means that every bumper sticker you've ever seen depicting Calvin pissing all over a Ford/Chevrolet/what-the-Hell-ever logo was made without any approval of Calvin's sire whatsoever. To this day, Watterson isn't a fan of granting even autograph requests; he's expressed disgust and disappointment at past occasions when he's aceded to such demands, believing the seeker a devoted fan wanting a keepsake, only to see his signature end up on eBay.

To keep piling on the support, make a donation at the film's Kickstarter page here. Also, check out the video below profiling Schroeder's project. As a Child of Calvin myself, I await the finished project like a tiger crouched behind a suburban home's front door...