Bill Watterson, the legendary yet reclusive genius behind Calvin and Hobbes, has been retired for the better part of 20 years. However, the cartoonist has recently been enjoying something of a resurgence. In a surprising move that's sure to excite fans, Watterson this week secretly worked with Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis to a series of brand new newspaper comics.

"Like getting a call from Bigfoot."

According to The Washington Post, the idea of collaborating with Pastis has been brewing for some time. "Several years ago," Watterson told the Post, "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." However, when the opportunity to raise funds for Team Cul de Sac, a charity co-founded by fellow cartoonist Richard Thompson to fight Parkinson's Disease, arose, Watterson reached out to Pastis to do a team-up. For Pastis' part, Watterson reaching out to him "is like getting a call from Bigfoot."

(2014 Stephan Pastis / distr. by Universal Uclick)

Watterson's work can be seen in Pearls strips from this past Wednesday through yesterday's, where he plays talented little artist known as Lib. True to Pastis' style, she puts him to shame in her short run. Thankfully, this isn't the only time Watterson has been seen cartooning recently. Earlier this year, the author contributed the poster for Stripped, a documentary about cartoonists struggling with the death of newspapers. Hopefully, this isn't his last foray back into comics either.