[close] William B. "Bill" Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is an American cartoonist, and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and select Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly Magazine drawings.

Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., where his father, James G. Watterson worked as a patent examiner while going to George Washington University Law School, before becoming a patent attorney in 1960. The family moved to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where his mother Kathryn became a city council member when Bill was six years old. He has a younger brother, Thomas, who is currently an English teacher at Austin High School in Austin, Texas. [close]