Cow and Boy: Life's hard, Cow.

This comic is a good example of Cow and Boy's standard format. The first two panels are devoted to Boy's abstract philosophical argument. The third panel consists of Cow's rejoinder to that argument. And the fourth panel contains the absurd literalization of the argument, which reveals that Boy's argument is specious and that Cow is in the right. It's an effective, often very funny formula.

Cow and Boy owes a certain debt to Calvin and Hobbes, of course. The philosophical discussions, Boy's self-interest, and Cow's general correctness are all lifted from the school of Bill Watterson. As is to be expected, Cow and Boy suffers by the comparison, as it is quite a bit more limited in the scope of its themes and the depth of its relationships. That said, it also allows itself to get a lot more ridiculous than Calvin and Hobbes ever did, and indeed its fourth panels often seem more inspired by single-panel cartoons than any multi-panel comic, thriving as they do on absurdity. The combination of sensibilities makes for a surprisingly unique comic strip.