Korinthian: have you read the introduction to the Tenth Anniversary edition of C&H? Watterson explains at great length how he went out of his way to defend his content at the expense of money, even to the point of losing artistic rights to the comic (it was standard practise for new cartoonists to sign these over to publishers). Watterson trod on a lot of publishers’ toes by insisting that C&H never be merchanised, then he trod on a lot of other cartoonists’ toes by insisting that the cartoon be published in newspapers in full half page format, leaving room for fewer others. Diplomacy in these matters may not be his strong point, but there’s no way in hell he can be accused of selling out.

That’s his side of the story, anyway. If anyone else knows of any facts that contradict this, fire away.