text: 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 ||||| 
   
   Original art by Bill Watterson for Team Cul de Sac (for Richard Thompson of "Cul de Sac"). 6" x 8" oil on board. (Bill Watterson) 
   
   This painting — by “Calvin and Hobbes” creator Bill Watterson — is the first new art from him that his syndicate has seen in the 16 subsequent years, say executives with Universal Uclick and its parent company, Andrews McMeel. The artwork is of the character Petey Otterloop from Richard Thompson’s comic strip “Cul de Sac.” 
   
   “The strip depicts all sorts of moments that ring true with regard to childhood,” the long-reclusive Watterson tells Comic Riffs, “but I’d say Petey is a truly original insight.” 
   
   The artwork — 6”-by-8” oil on board — is Watterson’s contribution to the Team Cul de Sac fundraising project for Parkinson’s research. 
   
   “Let’s just say I got a package from a William Watterson ... ,” says Andrews McMeel editor Caty Neis, who is helping lead the Team Cul de Sac effort. “I have been carrying it around and showing everyone. I didn’t get my hopes up that [Watterson] would contribute. ... 
   
   “Just the fact that this is first art that we have seen from him in 16 years is just so exciting, and what a great cause.” 
   
   Team Cul de Sac — which is working with Team Fox of the Michael J. Fox Foundation — is the brainchild of North Carolina-based web and print designer Chris Sparks. The project hopes to raise $250,000 for Parkinson’s research through such efforts as an Andrews McMeel-published book of “Cul de Sac”-inspired art created by dozens of Thompson’s professional colleagues, including Watterson. 
   
   Thompson — who is a finalist for the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award in May — announced in the summer of 2009 that he had received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
target: – 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.