The creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, is back with an interesting new project. The project is titled The Mysteries and it’s described as a “fable for grown-ups”. He worked on the book with caricature artist John Kascht and it’s set to be released on October 10th! This is just a little reminder post for you. As a fan of Watterson’s work, this is something that I’ve been excited about.
Publisher Simon & Schuster describes the book as a “mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding.”
The description reads: “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.
“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.”
I’ve included some new preview images below which features a two-page spread with a short narration on one side and an illustration on the other. The publisher says that for these illustrations, Watterson and Kascht “worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration,” and “abandoned their past ways of working” in order to create something new.
I love the haunting fantasy-style of the art. Kascht’s caricature work is renowned, appearing on billboards and magazine covers, but its Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes work that most people are familiar with, this book is very different from that.
