Thirdly, Watterson is a fucking god for one reason and one reason alone:
People sometimes ask cartoonists if they're in it for... heh eheh heh heh... in it for the... *snicker* MONEY.....

Watterson proved to the world that he was NOT. At the height of his popularity, he decided that although the strip was wildly successful, he wasn't up to doing it anymore. Boom, he quit.

Exactly. Ex-fucking-xactly.

Part of why I've gone gonzo for Flem is you didn't just do great stuff, when you were done with it, you were done, and went on to do what you had the bent to do now. Garfield is easy. Get your staff to churn out lasagna jokes and dork Jon jokes and abuse the dog jokes and collect the merchandising. Walking away from adulation because the art's done, damn it... that's balls.