Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson's artwork in Pearls Before Swine was auctioned off on Saturday to benefit Parkinson's disease research.

The three strips Watterson contributed to were put up for sale on Friday by Heritage Auctions, who thought the comics might bring in a total of $30,000, The Associated Press reports.

Instead three different buyers shelled out a combined $74,040 for the comics. The proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and were sold on behalf of charity Team Cul de Sac.

As previously reported, the reclusive Watterson teamed up with Stephan Pastis and contributed art to three comics in June for the newspaper comic Pearls Before Swine.

Up until then, Watterson had more or less disappeared for two decades after calling it a day on Calvin and Hobbes.

Pastis unveiled the news in a blog post and explained that after he sent a comic where he jokingly told a woman he created Calvin and Hobbes in order to sleep with her.

Watterson actually responded and said he would like to contribute to Pastis' comic for one week, which the Pearls Before Swine artists immediately accepted.