Calvin and Hobbes has always been one of my favorite comic strips. I got the inspiration to musicalize it in 1990 after directing a production of Snoopy! at the high school I graduated from.

It was my first real attempt at adapting a comic strip for the stage and I found myself drowning in C&H material. I found the printed collections to be numerous and massive. It was fun to see the evolution of the strip in both look and content.

As is a bad habit of mine, I tend to write or adapt material whose rights are difficult to obtain. After I had finished the first draft of the book and the score in 1995, I had planned to have a read-thru with some friends just to hear how the show sounded.

That's about the the time the Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book came out. The usually reclusive Bill Watterson wrote plenty of notes explaining whe he never licensed C&H merchandise -- of any kind. He enjoys the art and craft of the comic strip and felt that licensing greeting cards, stuffed animals, lunchboxes, etc, only cheapen the art form he loves.