Strippedfilm.com 
 
 Calvin and Hobbes fans, rejoice! 
 
 Bill Watterson, the creator of the beloved comic strip, which ended in 1995, has debuted his first cartoon in nearly 20 years — in the form of the cover art for the upcoming documentary Stripped. 
 
 Described as a “love-letter to comic strips” and a meditation on the state of the newspaper industry, Stripped is the brainchild of cartoonist Dave Kellett and filmmaker Frederick Schroeder. The pair used Kickstarter to fund the doc, which features interviews with more than 60 cartoonists — including Watterson, who provided a brief voice-over. Perhaps even more exciting than that interview, however, is the fact that Watterson also agreed to create the film’s movie poster. 
 
 “Aside from supplying a few sentences to the documentary, I’m not involved with the film, so Dave’s request to draw the poster came completely out of the blue,” Watterson told the Washington Post. “It sounded like fun, and maybe something people wouldn’t expect, so I decided to give it a try. Dave sent me a rough cut of the film and I dusted the cobwebs off my ink bottle.” 
 
 The result is the first cartoon Watterson has shared with the public since Calvin and Hobbes was retired, and it’s decidedly bawdier than the strip he was known for. “Given the movie’s title and the fact that there are few things funnier than human nudity, the idea popped into my head largely intact,” Watterson explained. “It’s a silly picture that sums up my reaction to the current publishing upheaval, so I had a good time, and I hope it brings the film some attention.” 
 
 Stripped, which was funded through Kickstarter, will be available on iTunes April 1 and on DVD on April 2. ||||| After almost two decades retired, Bill Watterson—the genius who crafted the universally beloved Calvin & Hobbes from 1985 to 1995—has published a new cartoon: A movie poster for Dave Kellett and Fred Schroeder's Stripped. (Wait, is that Calvin 20 years later?) 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 He appears in the movie too, in his first-ever recorded interview. Some of his words: 
 
 In the right hands, a comic strip attains a beauty and an elegance that really I would put against any other art. 
 
 The New York Times reports that the reclusive artist "was so pleased with the documentary that he also supplied the artwork for the poster of the film." In other words, you can't miss this. 
 
 I just realized that, rather than a generic cartoonist this could be Calvin himself, 20 years later. The blonde hair, the haircut, those eyes, the green socks... hmmmm. 
 
 SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook ||||| Courtesy of Heritage Auctions 
 
 Bill Watterson may have given his Calvin and Hobbes book collections prestigious-sounding names like Indispensable and Authoritative as a joke, but in 2012 his cartoons are fetching fancy fine-art prices. 
 
 This past Wednesday, a 13″ x 10″ watercolor and ink illustration was auctioned. It featured Calvin and his best friend/stuffed tiger Hobbes taking a nap on a lazy summer day (probably before a water-balloon fight with neighbor, and arch nemesis, Susie Derkins). 
 
 (LIST: Top 10 Reclusive Celebrities) 
 
 The nostalgic image sold for $107,550, the Washington Post reported. That’s more than $50,000 more what the low presale estimate was when it was first put up for sale by Heritage Auctions. The painting was previously owned by historian Rick Marschall, and his name along with the words “komic konnoisseur” are inscribed in the print. 
 
 Since Watterson almost never does interviews, we don’t know what he thinks of the sale. But we do know how much he treasured fine illustrations. In 2005, he answered a few questions from readers for an interview posted on his publisher’s website, in which he explained the value he put on a finished picture as opposed to early sketches. 
 
 “My pencil sketches were just minuscule notations of who was talking, so I have no particular reverence for them,” he wrote. “In my case, the finished pictures captured more of the visual impact I was after. In fact, I did as little preparatory pencil work for the finished strip as possible, so the inking would be a real drawing encounter, and not a sterile tracing of pencil lines. Ink is a wonderful medium all on its own.” 
 
 MORE: Calvin and Hobbes Creator Grants First Interview In 20 Years
– Calvin and Hobbes fans have a little something to celebrate: a rare, new drawing by Bill Watterson, creator of the retired but still beloved cartoon. Watterson agreed to make the poster for a new documentary about the cartoon industry called Stripped, reports the Washington Post. "It sounded like fun," says Watterson, who is among those interviewed in the film, though his appearance is brief and in voice only. As for the resulting image: “Given the movie’s title and the fact that there are few things funnier than human nudity, the idea popped into my head largely intact,” he explains. “The film is a big valentine to comics, so I tried to do something really cartoon-y." Watterson did a painting for charity in 2011, and this new drawing is being breathlessly hailed as his "first cartoon" since the end of Calvin and Hobbes. At Sploid, Jesus Diaz wonders if the adult in the movie poster might be a grown-up Calvin.