Cool. I just wish it wasn't a picture of a guy's ass.

I like the dog on the iPad though.

It's kind of surprising that Watterson never had the urge to publish a cartoon in 19 years.

I can't wait to watch the actual documentary -- I've become a huge fan of newspaper strips, really moreso than comic books at this point in my life.

Fake fan.

This isn't a cocktail party Jay... take your effete banter somewhere else.

Wow.

effete banter

Mewling quim!

Wow. It turns out Bill Watterson has been ghosting portions of Stephan Pastis' "Pearls Before Swine" strip this past week (The sequence involves a second-grade girl mocking Pastis for his lack of drawing ability. He says "let me see you do better" and she responds by drawing strips for him that are way better than anything he can do. Watterson is the one who did the drawings by the little girl):
http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2014 ... -just-did/

Here's one of the strips:

Our paper runs "Pearls Before Swine." I don't usually like it, and I haven't much liked this week's little girl sequence. But the art on that example above is indeed far better than anything one normally sees on that strip.

His old stuff is better.

I really like Pearls Before Swine. It is most definitely a talking heads strip, not an art-driven one like Calvin and Hobbes (I'm hard-pressed to think of a good art-driven strip that's come out in the past decade anyway, though). But it's consistently funny in my opinion.

I wouldn't say Calvin and Hobbes is art driven; as good as that is, the best thing about it is the writing, IMO.

Yeah, that came out the wrong way. What I meant was that there are successful strips where the writing and art are both exceptional, and there are talking head strips where the art is simpler and seems kind of an afterthought. "Pearls" is in the latter category. But I can't think of any successful strips that have relied solely on great art and haven't also been well-written.

Calvin and Hobbes is probably the most well-drawn comic strip of its time and the current era. That's all.

So. F'ing. Cool.

And Jay is right. obviously.

There used to be a comic strip called "Overboard". The art was extremely simple, but it was hysterical.

"Overboard" is still running. I read it regularly. I'd call the art "crude" rather than simple. But it is funny sometimes, especially after the mice showed up.

"Calvin and Hobbes" had great writing, but it was also beautifully drawn. Ideally, every good comic strip or comic book should be beautifully drawn and written great, but there are plenty of comics that were sold ONLY because of the artwork. "Pearls Before Swine" HAS to be written well, otherwise it wouldn't have an audience.

I always get a kick out of the crocs in "Pearls Before Swine."