And then a peculiar phenomenon happened in the comic world, and the format began to shrink, and pretty soon, even the Sunday strips were decimated to only about 8 strips, and my favourite ones began to disappear. Newspapers began to give way to stuff that they thought were more important. Longer write-ups on Sports, and World issues, and segmenting into bite sized sections for specific target markets. The comics became a forgotten art.

There is something very much different between the daily strips compared to the elaborate monthly books that boys divulge their pocket money for. Dragon ball, Spiderman, GTO and etc. The daily strip is a different breed altogether, cheering one up when the day is still long. Putting things into a wider perspective, and laughing at yourself.

My favourite of all the daily strips has and will always be Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. His work cuts across many age groups, and is able to relate to so many people. His satire attracts the cynics among us, his heartwarming pieces strike a cord in parents, and his art drawing is appreciated by artistes.

I think I started reading Calvin and Hobbs way back when I was in primary school, and Aaron had one of the anniversary books around, and I started reading it and became addicted. Whenever I could, I would go out and get the collectible books. I loved the relationship Calvin and Hobbes had, plus it was simply hilarious.

I stumbled upon this web page, compiling Bill Watterson's 25 best Calvin and Hobbs strip. Which is no easy feat, since everyone of them are great. Mr. Watterson is such a perfectionist when it came to the strip, that he remains unphotographed (almost, there are a few of his pictures out there) and virtually anonymous until today. He insists that this is because he wanted to maintain the strip's credibility and purity. Which is why he also refused to license Calvin and Hobbes for souvenirs or TV shows which he believes somehow marred Peanuts for Schultz.

Hopefully some of you out there will change on how you look at the daily strip, and together we can lobby for a larger comic section in the daily newspapers!