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Bill Watterson, shown in this 1986 file photo, has provided the poster art for "Stripped," a new documentary about comic strips.

(C.H. Pete Copeland, The Plain Dealer)

It's been almost 20 years since Calvin and his tiger buddy Hobbes pulled up and rather suddenly left the comics pages.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Bill Watterson, the Chagrin Falls native who created the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, is involved with a new project.

Watterson, who ended "Calvin and Hobbes" in 1995, has provided the poster art for a new comics documentary, "Stripped," created by web cartoonist Dave Kellett.

As the New York Times reported, in putting together "Stripped," a documentary exploring the art and evolution of newspaper comic strips, Dave Kellett and Fred Schroeder, the co-directors, interviewed more than 70 cartoonists. One of the biggest gets was Bill Watterson, the reclusive creator of "Calvin and Hobbes," the beloved newspaper strip about a mischievous boy and his stuffed tiger, which ran from 1985 to 1995.

"In the right hands, a comic strip attains a beauty and an elegance that really I would put against any other art," Mr. Watterson says in his interview. Mr. Schroeder said, "It seemed like he really wanted to express some thoughts about comics and cartooning, where they had been and where they are going." The retired cartoonist was so pleased with the documentary that he also supplied the artwork for the poster of the film.

As the Washington Post reported, Kellett had done a voice-only interview with Watterson for "Stripped," but made an even bolder proposal in asking Watterson to consider providing the film's poster art.

"'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 Comic Riffs early Wednesday afternoon. "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."

Slideshow:

When Bill Watterson was editorial cartoonist at Sun News

Bill Watterson editorial cartoons 19 Gallery: Bill Watterson editorial cartoons

Soon, Watterson was rendering an image that never would have passed the syndicate censors during his "Calvin and Hobbes" days: An adult springing to full-color life in all his dorsal nudity.

Watterson, in a 2010 interview with the Plain Dealer, explained how he used "Calvin and Hobbes" to capture readers' hearts.

"I just tried to write honestly, and I tried to make this little world fun to look at, so people would take the time to read it," he said. "That was the full extent of my concern. You mix a bunch of ingredients, and once in a great while, chemistry happens. I can't explain why the strip caught on the way it did, and I don't think I could ever duplicate it. A lot of things have to go right all at once."

Watterson said he ended the comic strip in 1995 because, "By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say."

Kellett said "Stripped" is available for advance ordering on iTunes. On April 2 the DVD will go on sale.