My Sunday newspaper comics have recenly been running the "Opus" cartoon on the front page, and giving it a full half-page of space. This got me thinking about Bill Waterson's comments on space constrictions, and how the shrinking size of comics was one factor in his decision to retire C&H. So I went looking for info on Opus, specifically if there is a syndication clause that requires newspapers to run it that size. I didn't find that out yet, but I did find a very interesting article on Berkely Breathed:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45450-2003Sep8

The interesting thing is that you could have replaced "Berkely Breathed" with "Bill Waterson", and "Opus" with "Calvin and Hobbes", and the entire article would have still made sense. I was struck by how similar these two artists think.

I also strongly agree with the last paragraph:

"I think there's been three great strips that have gone away over the last five, 10 years that I really miss: 'Bloom County,' 'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'The Far Side.' Those are the three strips that never should have ceased."

CJ <---dreaming that Bill will see Opus and decide to make a comeback