Honoring "Calvin and Hobbes" on its 30th birthday

Talk about an important anniversary! Legendary cartoonist Bill Watterson launched Calvin and Hobbes 30 years ago, on Nov. 18, 1985. Now Andrews McMeel Publishing and GoComics, Watterson’s publisher and syndicate, have joined forces to commemorate the strip, which Watterson discontinued on Dec. 31, 1995, after a mere 10-year run. A new web site offers background about the strip, ordering information for books and prints and a daily Calvin and Hobbes from the archives.

Readers who are familiar with the strip about an uncontrollable, wildly imaginative young boy and his (ostensibly) stuffed tiger need no reminders of its greatness, both in narrative and artistry. To say that it’s a fine example of the art form is like saying William Shakespeare was a fine writer — true as far as it goes, but a heck of an understatement. As Christopher Caldwell wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, Watterson's gem “was not only the strangest American comic strip. It was also the funniest, the most touching and the most profound.”