Calvin and Hobbes was one of the most popular comic strips of the 1980s and 1990s, reaching over 2,000 newspapers at its peak with 45 million books sold since its debut. However, creator Bill Watterson refused to compromise his artistic vision through commercialization or prolonged serialization of the strip. · Watterson declined lucrative licensing deals that could have earned an estimated $400 million from games and toys featuring the beloved characters. · Hollywood producers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg approached Watterson to develop an animated Calvin and Hobbes series, though he turned them down to preserve the strip's original comic format. · As the sole writer and artist of the strip, Watterson felt strongly that outside influences or prolonged serialization could diminish the purity of his creative expression. · For this reason, he ended Calvin and Hobbes after 10 years, concluding the storylines while still popular rather than continuing indefinitely. In a 2010 interview, Watterson explained his principled decision to conclude the strip at its peak: "By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say. It's always better to leave the party early." He believed overextending the strip's run for commercial reasons could have weakened its legacy, as readers would have "wished me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips." Watterson appears confident that preserving the strip's integrity through a defined conclusion helped Calvin and Hobbes retain fans decades later. His stance exemplifies putting artistic vision before profit. #integrity #vision #legacy #principle #conclusion