The fantastic tale of how Stephan Pastis, author and artist of the very fine (though not, in my humble opinion, truly great) comic strip Pearls Before Swine, ended up drawing the reclusive genius of Calvin and Hobbes (very simply, one of the four or five utterly essential comic strips in the entire history of the medium), Bill Watterson, back to America's newspapers under the greatest secrecy has been bouncing around social media today, and probably everyone who is the sort of person who would geek out with delight at such news has already heard it. Well, so what? If for whatever reason you're reading this blog post, and you--like all right-thinking people--dearly miss Calvin and Hobbes, but somehow haven't heard the amazing story of how Watterson actually emerged from his world of privacy and secretly shared his wit and skill with the reading public, well, read this, and then enjoy the resulting strips. And see if you can spot Watterson's work (hint: it's not hard).
As they say, some guys have all the luck. But fortunately, sometimes they share it.
Name the other three or four great cartoons, then.
ReplyDeleteAlong with Calvin and Hobbes, I'd put Peanuts, Doonesbury, and The Far Side. Debates can rage over whether Krazy Kat (I don't get its humor, but I acknowledge its significance), Bloom County (which I adore, though it's mixture of surreal humor and pop culture references became tiresome once the 80s ended), Pogo, or B.C. can nudge any one of the four out of their top spots.
ReplyDeletePeanuts way over any of the competitors.
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