Did Bill Watterson see his shadow?

In case you haven't seen it all over the web, Bill Watterson poked his head above the surface of the Earth this past week, collaborating with Stephan Pastis, the author/artist of the entertaining Pearls Before Swine comic strip.

Pastsis waited - at Watterson's request - to reveal the collaboration on his blog until after the third of the Watterson-drawn strips had shown up in the funny pages. In the blog, he wrote (among a lot of other words which are well worth reading):

Let me tell you. Just getting an email from Bill Watterson is one of the most mind-blowing, surreal experiences I have ever had. Bill Watterson really exists? And he sends email? And he’s communicating with me?

Apparently - to the shock of us all - Watterson does, indeed, exist and sends email, though that's apparently the only technology he uses:

And this is when I found out that Bill Watterson is not comfortable with scanners or Photoshop or large email attachments. In fact, by the end of the process, I was left with the distinct impression that he works in a log cabin lit by whale oil and hands his finished artwork to a man on a pony.

Watterson did pop his head up in the recent year by drawing the poster for Stripped, a documentary about the comic strip industry - and to win the Grand Prix, but to get a series of three strips drawn by Watterson is a revelation for those of us who grew up loving Calvin & Hobbes.

Here's the first of the three strips, but you can see all six strips in the series (two introducing the Libby character) at this link.

They're pretty well perfect, and Pastis even referenced the final Calvin & Hobbes strip with the wrap up.

Thank you, Stephan Pastis...and for so many spectacular strips in your career, thank you Bill Watterson.