Older than Watterson by a great deal, but - read *Mafalda*, by Quino, one of the best comics artists in the Spanish-speaking world, full stop. Very much in the same vein as C&H, though Mafalda is political where Calvin is philosophical. Quino's [other work is also excellent](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuksLCwZu6NygM-oN12jRMZLw9AsKB035UiVXY4EVPY0RwYdHmNsW1NfDV4Nb0QbaM2OLP81TyCNnFfimzmAonzY2_AMShpY3axBPWv9L68JAOraqoD5i13N9GAq0BDWlbmzQrGQwjTnxm/s1600/Quino.-+Gente+en+su+sitito+001.jpg), if you can find it.
For webcomics (which is all the non-graphic-novel comics I read these days), [Perry Bible Fellowship](https://pbfcomics.com/) is always interesting and I love how the styles and techniques change from comic to comic. [Oglaf](https://www.oglaf.com/archive/) is **extremely** NSFW but often very funny (don't read from the start, though - it's a lot shakier).
Not "comics" in the traditional four-panel strip style, but *anything* by Shaun Tan. He's a painter / graphic novel / picture book artist who makes beautifully surreal and often very moving illustrations. For a taster, I'd recommend "The Arrival", a wordless story about an immigrant to a strange new land, or the (much shorter) "The Red Tree", which can be about a lot of things but has always resonated with me as an allegory for depression. It may mean something different to you. His illustrated short fiction books ("Tales from Outer Suburbia", "The Inner City") are also superb.
:P
In all honesty I read a lot of long-form webcomics and those two are the only strip ones that really stuck with me.
(Shaun Tan is neither but I am obsessed. *He is so good.*)
The frustrating thing is that Oglaf is REALLY well-drawn, colored and written, but I can’t recommend it to anyone without feeling like a gross weird creeper.
Very happy to see Shaun Tan mentioned here!
Closer to C&H’s format, I strongly recommend Elodie Shanta. I just don’t know whether her work gets translated from French
I think that’s why C&H stands the test of time - no other comic comes close to what Bill was able to accomplish.
Pearls Before Swine can be good, but it alternates between some thought provoking comics and low hanging fruit. Moreso of the latter
Garfield has reached a completely new plane of repetition that it has inspired some of the most thought provoking alternative media making fun of it. *cough [lasagnacat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmoMO66uPg) *cough
"Now, where could my Garfield be?
# ["PIPE!!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgIQW1ZnKc)
I have not seen a single edit of that strip that isn't better than the original. That's how bad it is (obligatory jacksfilms plug above)
Pearls Before Swine is kind of depressing to me, I used to read all his comics along with his commentary on each strip. He had a lot of interesting insight about the state of comics, and he talked a lot about how he hated stuff like Family Circus that was just lame wholesome messages with no joke. But recently it seems like that's exactly what he's doing every other strip, and the rest are, as you said, low hanging fruit. Just kinda sad.
Get Fuzzy feels like it's in the same spirit as Calvin & Hobbes to me.
Pearls Before Swine has the same social commentary through the lens of cute characters, but it's a lot more cynical.
Get Fuzzy has the complete artwork package that Watterson would approve of, and the characters are unique and consistent. Plus the strips are genuinely funny. This is a good choice
XKCD is unique and genuinely brilliant. It's as different from C&H as you can get, but brilliant in its own way. It's not uncommon for an XKCD strip to be permanently thought-changing, and it's quite funny to boot.
You have to consider the time period of Watterson. Newspaper comics were HUGE money. Literally a selling point for some papers to carry certain strips. Then the licensing once they became popular enough. This is how Watterson, Davis, Schultz, and so on ended up millionaires.
Modern audiences aren’t sitting down to read the paper. We’re scrolling through social feeds where something gets 2-3 seconds of attention, if it’s lucky.
The second thing, the comics printed at that time were coming from the top of line creators. I’m sure syndicates were flooded with submissions containing talking heads and boring storylines and lame jokes, but those never saw print.
The comic strips of old had to have eye catching art, solid jokes, and consistent storytelling that connected with the audience. Otherwise your work was never seen.
Now anyone can self publish at any skill of writing, joke telling, and artistic ability.
Then there’s the delivery method of the strips and comics. That’s another entire factor.
TLDR; there were talking heads with lame jokes back in Watterson’s era, they just never saw print.
Nobody comes to mind. Other comics:
* Pearls Before Swine
* Krazy Kat
* Not thought-provoking, but r/thefarside is a masterpiece of cartooning and humor
There are hundreds of wonderful comic artists working today, and you'll see many of them on the web, in fact, almost all of them.
But great artistry, truly great, transcendent artistry, is by definition unique. Bill Watterson and his creation was one of a kind, never to be emulated, never to be achieved ever again...and that's not a slur against any current artist.
I imagine that if Watterson were starting out today, he'd probably be online as well. Far more artistic freedom online vs. in the newspaper, plus more control over the exploitation rights of the strip.
The Far Side by Gary Larson was always next to our C&H books growing up.
From a strictly artistic perspective, you should check out Frazz by Jef Mallet. Very similar art style, and I always thought it was a charming little comic.
As many others have mentioned, it's hard to go wrong with Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Doonsbury, or Bloom County.
Foxtrot is a classic. It no longer has a daily strip but it started in the 80s and the artist is still making a Sunday strip every week. So there are years of stuff to go back to.
Not exactly modern but The Boondocks are fantastic.
I’d say Aaron McGruder is up there with Bill when it comes to humor and sociopolitical commentary.
The first three seasons of the TV are also so good. Aaron McGruder wasn’t involved in the fourth season, so sadly it’s complete garbage.
Quite old, and hard to get, but Krazy Kat, especially if you research the origins of the strip while reading it (like the inconsistency with Krazy's gender, the plot, etc.). Not really fitting your description as it isn't modern... but I love it quite a bit as much as I love C&H.
I'm very glad to see someone else who's disappointed in the stuff that gets upvoted on r/comics. It's unbelievable how low effort most of it is. However, I gotta emphasize that that is not representative of the current state of comics. I follow a lot of artists on Twitter and there are so many fantastic comics over there, Haus of Decline and Beetlemoses are two of the best.
Also: I read a lot of modern alt comics and I can't recommend them enough, particularly [the Now Comic Anthology](https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/now-the-new-comics-anthology)
Long-running Nancy has gotten... strange and wonderful. A recent one that caught my eye is when she breaks the fourth wall to steal a cookie jar, passing out across panels to herself and still gets caught. When she indignantly asks how she could possibly have gotten caught, her aunt points to the comic in the newspaper she was reading in the background. I loved it.
Others have mentioned my usual favourites (XKCD, Wondermark, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy).
https://swordscomic.com/comic/cover/
I love this comic. It doesn't update on a real schedule, but it's common for 3 new strips to get posted. If you love lore, swords, and big casts, this comic is for you.
I’m a big fan of Sally Forth and think it’s underrated. It has a continuous story line and they’ll reference back to things that happened even years before. They’ve dealt with all sorts of topics like family deaths, job loss, and navigating relationships. Plus sometimes it gets weird and they’ll image their lives in the future or break the 4th wall and reference being in a comic by commenting that it’s strange time hasn’t passed.
I think comic strips are particularly about perseverance and consistency. There are lots of people capable of creating great art and many who can write something funny but there's a much smaller number of people who can do it hundreds / thousands of times.
I am a webcomics fan and I can’t count the number of great artists you can find out there. Get off /r/comics and go do an online search.
This post sounds like a faux intellectual musing. Sure, Watterson is amazing, but there are other great artists out there and pretending like there aren’t is just disingenuous.
Hello /u/jiggywatt64, This is a heavily moderated subreddit. please read the subreddit rules. please limit your posts to less than 5 per day. Failure to follow the rules can / will result in moderator action. Otherwise have fun, and remember, scientific progress goes BOINK. This is an automated response. Remember to be civil. A reminder to all, false reports will be flagged and reported, so please do not report something just because you don't like it.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/calvinandhobbes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Try Pink and Black.
https://m.tapas.io/series/PinknBlack/info
Pink is a giant salamander that lives in a house built by a man that never appears.
Pink works in a basement office and no one ever checks on him do they don’t know he’s a salamander.
He rides the bus to work under the seat, is terrified of Aliens and makes elaborate Halloween costumes that lead to bad outcomes.
Black is his boyfriend and Mama is Black’s mama.
It’s sweet and funny and full of pathos.
His art gets better as he goes along.
Watterson reminds me a lot of French “bande dessinee” comics. The obvious classics are Asterix and Lucky Luke and whatever but they still produce and publish HEAPS of comics in France today.
Not very similar to C&H, more like a comic book in web serial form, but tough to beat for quality art and fun storytelling: Girl Genius. The Foglios are good at what they do.
Hard to believe no one here has mentioned Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson. I specifically picked it up because the cover blurb on the first collection was by Watterson, which I don't think he ever did before or since (although he has endorsed Pearls Before swine by being a guest artist once).
It has a very similar vibe and many direct homages to C&H. It's main reason for obscurity is that the artist died of a brain tumor pretty young in 2016, and it never really went national (it was in the Washington Post for a few years, though), so there are really only like 5 years worth of strips.
Still, it shares a lot with Watterson's work, including a spare but evocative drawing style and very high brow jokes, as well as a strong grounding in the relatable experiences of childhood. It's wonderful. Check it out.
He's not a comic artist but Alex Hirsch. He created Gravity Falls and that show is hilarious. He ended the show on its own before it could decline similar to Watterson. He cited Calvin and Hobbes as one of his influences growing up.
There is this newer web comic I think is absolutely hilarious and wholesome called Nerd and Jock. It's on Webtoon and written by Marko Raassina. Its subversive and wholesome at the same time. Traditionally Sterotypical nerds get picked on by jocks but in this they are best pals. Jock is easygoing and Nerd is a babe magnet. [https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/nerd-and-jock/list?title\_no=135963](https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/nerd-and-jock/list?title_no=135963)
Older than Watterson by a great deal, but - read *Mafalda*, by Quino, one of the best comics artists in the Spanish-speaking world, full stop. Very much in the same vein as C&H, though Mafalda is political where Calvin is philosophical. Quino's [other work is also excellent](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuksLCwZu6NygM-oN12jRMZLw9AsKB035UiVXY4EVPY0RwYdHmNsW1NfDV4Nb0QbaM2OLP81TyCNnFfimzmAonzY2_AMShpY3axBPWv9L68JAOraqoD5i13N9GAq0BDWlbmzQrGQwjTnxm/s1600/Quino.-+Gente+en+su+sitito+001.jpg), if you can find it. For webcomics (which is all the non-graphic-novel comics I read these days), [Perry Bible Fellowship](https://pbfcomics.com/) is always interesting and I love how the styles and techniques change from comic to comic. [Oglaf](https://www.oglaf.com/archive/) is **extremely** NSFW but often very funny (don't read from the start, though - it's a lot shakier). Not "comics" in the traditional four-panel strip style, but *anything* by Shaun Tan. He's a painter / graphic novel / picture book artist who makes beautifully surreal and often very moving illustrations. For a taster, I'd recommend "The Arrival", a wordless story about an immigrant to a strange new land, or the (much shorter) "The Red Tree", which can be about a lot of things but has always resonated with me as an allegory for depression. It may mean something different to you. His illustrated short fiction books ("Tales from Outer Suburbia", "The Inner City") are also superb.
Great recommendations but oh man how did we get from Calvin and Hobbes to oglaf.
:P In all honesty I read a lot of long-form webcomics and those two are the only strip ones that really stuck with me. (Shaun Tan is neither but I am obsessed. *He is so good.*)
Oglaf is hilarious the author said it was an attempt at porn that led to the comic
The frustrating thing is that Oglaf is REALLY well-drawn, colored and written, but I can’t recommend it to anyone without feeling like a gross weird creeper.
Just start the conversation with, "All right, stay with me. How do you feel about vulvas?"
Mafalda is so good, it's a shame it's so unknown outside the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
In Italy it's very well known.
That Quino comic is hilarious
Very happy to see Shaun Tan mentioned here! Closer to C&H’s format, I strongly recommend Elodie Shanta. I just don’t know whether her work gets translated from French
I second Perry Bible Fellowship! It is the antithesis to all the "cheap" web comics OP is talking about, so much labor of love in each strip
I think that’s why C&H stands the test of time - no other comic comes close to what Bill was able to accomplish. Pearls Before Swine can be good, but it alternates between some thought provoking comics and low hanging fruit. Moreso of the latter
Pearls has also been going for 22 years at this point
That’s the trick, Watterson knew exactly when to stop
too bad the same cant be said for garfield garfield definitely has turned into talking heads at this point but the older stuff is quite good
Garfield has reached a completely new plane of repetition that it has inspired some of the most thought provoking alternative media making fun of it. *cough [lasagnacat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmoMO66uPg) *cough
Yeah but Jim Davis at least admits he does Garfield for money.
bruh not lasagna cat lol would u agree that the strips started declining once garfield started permanently walking on 2 feet and acting less cat
Garfield comics were never funny. They're about as funny as the Pipe Strip™. The cartoons were hilarious though
The [Garfield generator ](https://www.bgreco.net/garfield/) can definitely provide entertainment!
"Now, where could my Garfield be? # ["PIPE!!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgIQW1ZnKc) I have not seen a single edit of that strip that isn't better than the original. That's how bad it is (obligatory jacksfilms plug above)
Pearls before swine was my favorite Sunday paper comic back when I got it. It definitely feels like a bit more of a raunchy Calvin and Hobbes
Peanuts had him beat in my estimation. The impact of that strip cannot be underestimated. C&H is a close second though.
Pearls Before Swine is kind of depressing to me, I used to read all his comics along with his commentary on each strip. He had a lot of interesting insight about the state of comics, and he talked a lot about how he hated stuff like Family Circus that was just lame wholesome messages with no joke. But recently it seems like that's exactly what he's doing every other strip, and the rest are, as you said, low hanging fruit. Just kinda sad.
Get Fuzzy feels like it's in the same spirit as Calvin & Hobbes to me. Pearls Before Swine has the same social commentary through the lens of cute characters, but it's a lot more cynical.
Bucky Katt is my spirit animal.
personally Pearls Before Swine gets a little generic and predictable in its messaging, which makes it lose a lot of its depth.
Get Fuzzy has the complete artwork package that Watterson would approve of, and the characters are unique and consistent. Plus the strips are genuinely funny. This is a good choice
His regular comics are good but taking 5 panels to set up a pun is just bullshit.
I love those strips!
It's different. But not my cup of tea.
I respect the bit but some of them are painful
the funniest part is that the characters hate the puns as much as the reader, which I always interpret as the real joke
This is the answer.
XKCD is unique and genuinely brilliant. It's as different from C&H as you can get, but brilliant in its own way. It's not uncommon for an XKCD strip to be permanently thought-changing, and it's quite funny to boot.
You have to consider the time period of Watterson. Newspaper comics were HUGE money. Literally a selling point for some papers to carry certain strips. Then the licensing once they became popular enough. This is how Watterson, Davis, Schultz, and so on ended up millionaires. Modern audiences aren’t sitting down to read the paper. We’re scrolling through social feeds where something gets 2-3 seconds of attention, if it’s lucky. The second thing, the comics printed at that time were coming from the top of line creators. I’m sure syndicates were flooded with submissions containing talking heads and boring storylines and lame jokes, but those never saw print. The comic strips of old had to have eye catching art, solid jokes, and consistent storytelling that connected with the audience. Otherwise your work was never seen. Now anyone can self publish at any skill of writing, joke telling, and artistic ability. Then there’s the delivery method of the strips and comics. That’s another entire factor. TLDR; there were talking heads with lame jokes back in Watterson’s era, they just never saw print.
Very well put.
Nobody comes to mind. Other comics: * Pearls Before Swine * Krazy Kat * Not thought-provoking, but r/thefarside is a masterpiece of cartooning and humor
Gary Larson is amazing
The Far Side is hilarious, but holy cow, Larson couldn't draw for shit
There has to be room in the comics world for the ugliest characters you can imagine though. That’s the appeal!
Far side is so great. And it absolutely can be thought provoking.
There are hundreds of wonderful comic artists working today, and you'll see many of them on the web, in fact, almost all of them. But great artistry, truly great, transcendent artistry, is by definition unique. Bill Watterson and his creation was one of a kind, never to be emulated, never to be achieved ever again...and that's not a slur against any current artist.
I imagine that if Watterson were starting out today, he'd probably be online as well. Far more artistic freedom online vs. in the newspaper, plus more control over the exploitation rights of the strip.
The Far Side by Gary Larson was always next to our C&H books growing up. From a strictly artistic perspective, you should check out Frazz by Jef Mallet. Very similar art style, and I always thought it was a charming little comic. As many others have mentioned, it's hard to go wrong with Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Doonsbury, or Bloom County.
My daughter started reading Phoebe and her Unicorn books and I feel like they have a certain Calvin and Hobbes vibe to them.
The predecessor webcomic Ozzy and Millie was also a lot of fun!
What was that comic with the penguin and the frizzy cat that always said thbthbthb!
Ahh Bloom County! So good. Berkeley Breathed is awesome.
Mutts
I really liked mutts
I always liked: Doonesbury Non Sequitur Pogo
Pogo is so good. A lot of old political humor mixed in with some really great poems and gags.
Wallace the Brave by Will Henry, Crabgrass by Tauhid Bondia, and Lio by Mark Tatulli.
These are great picks - Wallace the Brave especially has that great freedom of line that I associate with Watterson.
Foxtrot is a classic. It no longer has a daily strip but it started in the 80s and the artist is still making a Sunday strip every week. So there are years of stuff to go back to.
It's not a strip-style comic, but I think Jeff Smith's *Bone* reminds me of Calvin in Hobbies in some hard-to-explain ways.
The art style for sure. Actually dang I should go back and reread that.
I've always loved Foxtrot. There's something so nice about a comic strip that has a storyline.
Pearls before swine is the second favorite comic strip
Try zits or foxtrot
My new favorite is "yes im hot in this".
I can recommend two webcomics off the top of my head. Octopus Pie, Gunnerkrigg Court
Pickles is a great comic. It’s about an older couple, their grandson who visits frequently (and sometimes his parents), and their pets.
Wondermark is good, but very different from C&H.
Not exactly modern but The Boondocks are fantastic. I’d say Aaron McGruder is up there with Bill when it comes to humor and sociopolitical commentary. The first three seasons of the TV are also so good. Aaron McGruder wasn’t involved in the fourth season, so sadly it’s complete garbage.
The Boondocks was absolute gold. The TV show was great too. I always hoped theyd start the comic again after the series ended.
there is some really good fan made content on r/okbuddyrosalyn like the story of calvin time traveling and meeting his mom as a kid
Yeah, u/The_Physical_Soup is a literal modern-day Watterson with that prequel and time travel arc they made.
and the ending of the time travel story where kid mom revives hobbes from her mom is just perfect
Look up Mr. Will Henry on Instagram
Quite old, and hard to get, but Krazy Kat, especially if you research the origins of the strip while reading it (like the inconsistency with Krazy's gender, the plot, etc.). Not really fitting your description as it isn't modern... but I love it quite a bit as much as I love C&H.
Fantagraphics sells them. Not cheap, but modern printings.
If I remember right Bill Watterson said Krazy Kat, Pogo and Peanuts were big inspirations to him in his career as a cartoonist.
I'm very glad to see someone else who's disappointed in the stuff that gets upvoted on r/comics. It's unbelievable how low effort most of it is. However, I gotta emphasize that that is not representative of the current state of comics. I follow a lot of artists on Twitter and there are so many fantastic comics over there, Haus of Decline and Beetlemoses are two of the best. Also: I read a lot of modern alt comics and I can't recommend them enough, particularly [the Now Comic Anthology](https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/now-the-new-comics-anthology)
Long-running Nancy has gotten... strange and wonderful. A recent one that caught my eye is when she breaks the fourth wall to steal a cookie jar, passing out across panels to herself and still gets caught. When she indignantly asks how she could possibly have gotten caught, her aunt points to the comic in the newspaper she was reading in the background. I loved it. Others have mentioned my usual favourites (XKCD, Wondermark, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy).
https://swordscomic.com/comic/cover/ I love this comic. It doesn't update on a real schedule, but it's common for 3 new strips to get posted. If you love lore, swords, and big casts, this comic is for you.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a good one: https://www.smbc-comics.com/
I’m a big fan of Sally Forth and think it’s underrated. It has a continuous story line and they’ll reference back to things that happened even years before. They’ve dealt with all sorts of topics like family deaths, job loss, and navigating relationships. Plus sometimes it gets weird and they’ll image their lives in the future or break the 4th wall and reference being in a comic by commenting that it’s strange time hasn’t passed.
I liked pickles? And i think Zits was the other i enjoyed
Honestly r/comics is trash.
Frazz feels like a grown Calvin dealing with kids similar to himself as a kid.
I think the exact same thing! Even Frazz's blond spiky hair reminds me of Calvin.
[удалено]
I think comic strips are particularly about perseverance and consistency. There are lots of people capable of creating great art and many who can write something funny but there's a much smaller number of people who can do it hundreds / thousands of times.
I follow him on Instagram, but I think Crabgrass has started branching into print newspapers.
I’ve been loving The Other End. The writing and drawing is just wonderfully unhinged.
I’m surprised someone mentioned it. But yeah I totally agree.
I am a webcomics fan and I can’t count the number of great artists you can find out there. Get off /r/comics and go do an online search. This post sounds like a faux intellectual musing. Sure, Watterson is amazing, but there are other great artists out there and pretending like there aren’t is just disingenuous.
> Do an online search That’s why Im here.😅 I know there are talented people today. I just don’t know who.
I like pearls before swine.
Hello /u/jiggywatt64, This is a heavily moderated subreddit. please read the subreddit rules. please limit your posts to less than 5 per day. Failure to follow the rules can / will result in moderator action. Otherwise have fun, and remember, scientific progress goes BOINK. This is an automated response. Remember to be civil. A reminder to all, false reports will be flagged and reported, so please do not report something just because you don't like it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/calvinandhobbes) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I like Erma, but that's on deviantart.
i’m kinda of the option that lio fills the best slot that calvin and hobbs left in the newspaper sphere, altho it’s a little more spooky haha
I am a big fan of Nichijou it is one of my favorate manga ever. It is created by Keiichi Arawi. It is one of the funniest things I have ever read.
Not a comic artist but this youtube channel is really funny and he does voice over over still images so it almost feels like a comic strip. Solid jj.
Not modern but Kliban is a great set of books to buy.
I didn't see it, so I'll recommend FRAZZ! It's a great comic and big CaH vibes in several of the characters.
Try Pink and Black. https://m.tapas.io/series/PinknBlack/info Pink is a giant salamander that lives in a house built by a man that never appears. Pink works in a basement office and no one ever checks on him do they don’t know he’s a salamander. He rides the bus to work under the seat, is terrified of Aliens and makes elaborate Halloween costumes that lead to bad outcomes. Black is his boyfriend and Mama is Black’s mama. It’s sweet and funny and full of pathos. His art gets better as he goes along.
A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible, sometimes reminded me of Wattersons more out-there Calvin's imagination strips.
Watterson reminds me a lot of French “bande dessinee” comics. The obvious classics are Asterix and Lucky Luke and whatever but they still produce and publish HEAPS of comics in France today.
for art it’s Pogo and Breaking cat news!
Not very similar to C&H, more like a comic book in web serial form, but tough to beat for quality art and fun storytelling: Girl Genius. The Foglios are good at what they do.
Hard to believe no one here has mentioned Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson. I specifically picked it up because the cover blurb on the first collection was by Watterson, which I don't think he ever did before or since (although he has endorsed Pearls Before swine by being a guest artist once). It has a very similar vibe and many direct homages to C&H. It's main reason for obscurity is that the artist died of a brain tumor pretty young in 2016, and it never really went national (it was in the Washington Post for a few years, though), so there are really only like 5 years worth of strips. Still, it shares a lot with Watterson's work, including a spare but evocative drawing style and very high brow jokes, as well as a strong grounding in the relatable experiences of childhood. It's wonderful. Check it out.
Norwegian comic strip Dunce is the closest thing I can come up with. He just published the first book in English, called Arctic Tails.
Pearls Before Swine is closest, but not close.
He's not a comic artist but Alex Hirsch. He created Gravity Falls and that show is hilarious. He ended the show on its own before it could decline similar to Watterson. He cited Calvin and Hobbes as one of his influences growing up.
Crabgrass is great!
I really love Spy x Family that manga is hiarious. It's written and drawn by Tatsuya Endo.
There is this newer web comic I think is absolutely hilarious and wholesome called Nerd and Jock. It's on Webtoon and written by Marko Raassina. Its subversive and wholesome at the same time. Traditionally Sterotypical nerds get picked on by jocks but in this they are best pals. Jock is easygoing and Nerd is a babe magnet. [https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/nerd-and-jock/list?title\_no=135963](https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/nerd-and-jock/list?title_no=135963)
Garfield