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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

Is it just me or are the strips... just not that funny? All three of them are basicly the same joke, with one containing a minor reference to Watterson's page formatting preferences. Now that I think of it, that's really par for the course (or maybe a birdie) for newspaper comic strips in general. I guess it just seems strange to see the world's best living cartoonist come out of the fortress of solitude and do something other than leave the audience in tears of profundity.

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Were you a fan of C&H? I think that the lens of nostalgia strengthens our pleasant memories of the books and can't really ever compare to these new strips. You need character development, plot... most of his stories would extend across the entire week or longer. (Oh man, the family camping trips in C&H were hilarious)

Just appreciate it for what it is--a window into our fond memories of Watterson's work.

After spending years reading Web comics I now find that "C&H" maps to Cyanide & Happiness rather than Calvin & Hobbes. (Which is crazy; I read all the Calvin & Hobbes strips and grew up in Cleveland Heights for pete's sake!)

It didn't used to be that way. Modern Webcomics are starting to be big cultural phenomena (income comparable with a comfortable full-time job or better for the stars in the industry)

At least on Reddit Cy&H is used for that.

For Watterson that might literally be the funny.

Like finding Jeff Gordon driving your kids' school bus one idle morning.

I think you're right. The Washington Post article backs this up,“Several years ago, when Stephan did one of his strips that mocked his own drawing ability and mentioned my strip in comparison, I thought it might be funny for me to ghost ‘Pearls’ sometime, just to flip it all on its head,” the goateed Watterson tells me, offering a clear indication that he still follows the funnies. “It was just a silly idea, and I didn’t know Stephan, so I never pursued it, and years went by.”

I think the jokes are by Stephan, and Bill just did the drawing. And yes, it's just a bunch of references to Bill and Stephan's work.

Also, the final strip is pretty good. Not the one drawn by Bill ... the followup here - http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/07

It's a bit of a pity then, since the primary strength of Watterson's work is his writing. His art is good, sure, but what made his name was the underlying substance, methinks.

He did it for fun (and for the charity auction). I think he should be able to do that without people complaining that they didn't get enough out of it.

(I mean, I think he quit, at least in part, because he'd said a lot of what he thought he had to say and started feeling like a turnip)

I find it pretty funny, but this kind of humor is not for everybody. All people have tastes, so if it's not in yours, that's OK. And the world's best cartoonist doesn't owe us anything - including leaving us in tears. I think if you one likes him - one should be grateful for the opportunity to enjoy his talent once again. And if it's not your cup of tea - well, there are many other things to enjoy :)

I think you have to have followed Calvin and Hobbes all the way through its run. If you did there's is so much good will that flows back when you see a new example of his art after all these years that it really doesn't matter what he draws.

Although sadly for me he really hits his stride in the last strip of the series.

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/07#.U5Lhtv...

I think their funnier if you understand the subtle Watterson references. The 3rd panel of the 2nd strip for instance references Bill's career-long battle over the confinement of the existing panel structure.

Pastis is no stranger to playing with panel structure too. I guess most of the cartoonists had the idea at some point.

You had the context of the ruse going in. I bet it would have been even better without it.

That said, even with the context, I thought they were wonderful. The third made me laugh a lot.

Perhaps he just misses it. I would.

Give it 48 hours and Boing Boing, HuffPo, Medium, etc will all have long posts revealing the hidden profundity to you.

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