I have no use for that kind of cartooning. Unfortunatley, the more popular 'Calvin and Hobbes' became, the less control I had over its fate. I was presented with licensing capitalize on its success mounted from then on. Succeeding beyond anyone's wildest expectations had only inspired wilder expectations. To put the problem simply, trainloads of money were at stake - millions and millions of dollars could be made with a few signatures.
Syndicates are businesses, and no business passes up that kind of opportunity without an argument.
Undermining my position, I had signed a contract giving my syndicate all exploitation rights to 'Calvin and Hobbes' into the next century. Because it is virtually impossible to get into daily newspapers without a syndicate, it is standard practice for syndicates to use their superior bargaining position to demand rights they neither need nor deserve when contracting with unknown cartoonists. Universal would not sell my strip to newspapers unless I gave the syndicate the right to merchandise the strip in other media. At the time, I had not thought much about licensing and the issue was not among my top concerns. Two syndicates had already rejected 'Calvin and Hobbes', and I worried more about the contractual consequences if the strip failed than the contractual consequences if the strip succeeded.