Nevin Martell’s Looking for Calvin and Hobbes details (as best it can) the life of reclusive cartoonist Bill Watterson. The book allegedly suffers from the very problem that drives it—Martell can’t find, much less speak to, Watterson.

Watterson isn’t as maniacal about his invisibility as Salinger was, and he’s even emerged to give a rare interview (over e-mail) to Cleveland.com. Yet another scoop for Cleveland.com! The results are what you might expect from someone so intensely private. He doesn’t seem eager to discuss much, and Martell may be lucky to have not found him. Watterson certainly doesn’t sound conflicted about his beloved strip’s relatively short life:

It’s always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip’s popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now “grieving” for “Calvin and Hobbes” would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I’d be agreeing with them. I think some of the reason “Calvin and Hobbes” still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it. I’ve never regretted stopping when I did.

(Via Galleycat)