What Have You Done For Me Lately?

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".

Fuck you Bill Watterson. This is what you got for me after 16 years? I treasure the universally beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip like no one else and it hurt my heart when it went away. Like Firefly, there is some purity in knowing that there is a complete body of work and one can enjoy it in that sense. But how does my mind get around the fact that Watterson just quit having things to say or contribute to civilization? He has such an insight into the human condition through truly iconic and lovable character and then the inspiration just goes away? How much could we have used a good Calvin and Hobbes strip in the past 16 years? Those have not been the funnest of times for us here on planet Earth. How did he evolve to hate the rest of us so because that can be the only explanation that works for me. I don't even want to research the answer because I know it will only depress me. I guess I should be happy he produced SOMETHING but this only serves to remind me of all his stuff we didn't get over these lost years.

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 a 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.