'Stripped' poster penned by 'Calvin and Hobbes' cartoonist Bill Watterson

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The creator of the beloved "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip is back -- with a movie poster.

After doing an interview, Bill Watterson was asked to draw a poster for a new comics documentary, Stripped, by film creator Dave Kellett. Luckily for comics fans everywhere, he decided to accept.

The poster is just the second piece of public art that Watterson has put out since he retired Calvin and Hobbes in 1995.

“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 image that Watterson came up with is a little more risqué than anything he would have gotten away with while drawing Calvin and Hobbes.

“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 said. “The film is a big valentine to comics, so I tried to do something really cartoon-y. I had thought of having it colored with off-registered printing dots like newspaper comics, but Dave asked if I’d paint it instead, and I think he made the right call.”

Stripped will be available on DVD on April 2.

“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,” Watterson said of his contribution.

For those who have forgotten about Watterson’s original work, here’s a look back:

[Washington Post] [NPR]