The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Talking Animals


As today's Cul de Sac features the first syndicated appearance of the guinea pig Mr. Danders, I'd like to talk a bit about talking animals. But I can't think of anything to say except dang, they're fun to draw. If I meet someone around here for the first time and we have the what do you do? conversation and I say, I draw cartoons and they say, which one? I say a couple that appear in the Post and this draws a blank, then they say wait, is it the one with the guinea pig? oh, I love that guinea pig, he's on my refrigerator, in my cubicle, tattooed on my baby's head. Why? It's because everybody loves talking animals, even when they're pompous little things, like Mr. Danders. I've found the key to his character is that nobody calls him anything but "the guinea pig", nobody calls him "Mr. Danders" except for him. It must drive him crazy.

4 comments:

Mike Rhode said...

I thought they said, "the one with the hamster?" At least that's what I say.

richardcthompson said...

And it drives me CRAZY.

Unknown said...

I had a single parent growing up, my mom and dad split up, but when my Dad would come see us or pick us up, he would always bring "the guinea pig"

I don't know why he kept bringing them, they would only ever live for a week. You see, for some reason he would bring them over in in like an old opened beer box, the point is, it had no lid. Well at night, the little bugger would get out, and crawl under the rug and underpad, and that's where it's journey would end.

The next week he would show up with a new guinea pig, either he never learned or we never learned.

Also, each one was always named the same. Alfred.

richardcthompson said...

You wonder how nature comes up with these things.