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

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Imaginary Places in the Comics


Brian Walker sent me these photos of the show he co-curated at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa CA. It's the third of a trilogy of exhibits called The Language of Lines, and it focuses on Imaginary Places in the Comics (like I said if you'd been paying attention). It's got all my favorite places, from Coconino County and Slumberland to Camp Swampy, the Okefenokee Swamp and Dingburg. And somehow Cul de Sac snuck in there too. I'm  enormously proud to be in this neighborhood.



Here's a trio of paintings by the mighty George Herriman.


On the Beetle Bailey wall there's a pretty accurate looking map of Camp Swampy.




Here's the text for Bill Griffith's wall, and a few Zippies.




Here's Cul de Sac's corner, in a tasteful pistachio green.


A very slightly different view, with less of the floor visible.




And here's most of the art, handsomely framed and labeled.

My thanks to all the fine folks at the Schulz Museum and to Brian Walker. Sorry I missed the opening, but I hope you saved me some wine. For those closer than me (and really, if you're anywhere west of the Continental Divide you should go to this) the show runs for April 24 to August 22. If I start hitching right now I should just make it.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

When we could afford to live in California, we visited the Schulz Museum. It was well worth the time and seeing notices of cool exhibits like this always makes us wish to go back!

BullCityFats said...

Uh, the Okefenokee Swamp isn't imaginary - it's on the Florida-Georgia border, and is the largest peat-based blackwater swamp in North America.

FSogol said...

Congrats on a well deserved honor. Glad to see your swimming pool there, it was one of your funniest strips. Wish they had included the grocery store mounds of dirty snow with the Yetis.

Mike Lynch said...

This is such a great idea for a comics show!

Lesley Vamos said...

Congrats!! much deserved ^_^

Jason James Curtis said...

One day, I hope to get to the Charles M. Schulz Museum!

Congratulations on being included, it's well deserved.

richardcthompson said...

Thanks to you all! Yeah, I'd love to see the place some time. I'd love to afford living in California too for that matter.

And yeah, George, I know the Okefenokee is real. I've heard that Walt Kelly didn't visit it until years after he's started Pogo. I guess it was included in the show because Kelly had so completely reimagined the place. Unless there are talking possums down there and nobody's told me.

fritzoid said...

Coconino County (Arizona) also really exists, but Herriman's imaginary version of it (Kokonino Kounty) was so fully realized that it, like Kelly's Okefenokee, surely deserves a place in this exhibit.

I knew that Krazy's neighboring town of Kaibito, AZ exists as well, but I was surprised to find that I cannot disprove the actual existence of Fort Mudge, GA. If you look for it on Google Maps, it'll take you to a latitude and longitude just ouside the NE limits of the Okefenokee N.W.R. (on Memorial Drive, SE from Waycross), but it appears to have no buildings, cross-streets, or population...