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

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Today's Cul de Sac, August 22 2010


Dill's Grand Tour of local places of interest. As happens too often, I didn't know how this should end when I started it. This leaves open all kinds of possibilities, very few of which are necessarily funny. Having someone else barge into the strip is always a good solutions; it enlarges the conversation, gives a sense of life & activity beyond the panel borders, and offers me an easy punchline when all the other characters may be all talked out.

Actually what this one mostly offered was a chance to draw some pretty simple still life-landscapes and only a few people, which is good when deadlines are nigh. Though drawing the great dirt was harder than I thought it might be. I'd forgotten it, but the subject of socks in trees was discussed previously in Cul de Sac as part of a visit-to-the-library arc, back when the strip ran in the Post Magazine. 


4 comments:

Linette Moore said...

I got a good laugh out of "signs warning that new people are coming" (Petey probably views them the same way.)

The word verification for this comment: dojrtshe, which I'm sure means "really great dirt" in some language.

paul bowman said...

Petey intrudes with punchline in the final panel of that earlier strip — and he doesn't say a thing! Masterful.

Laurie Lindop said...

I've never written you before but I absolutely love your strip and feel like I can't get enough. I'm liking a whole repeat idea of things found in bushes and trees in the neighborhood (referencing back to good ol' Charlie Brown's kite) but was thinking that maybe something ends up in Alice's private shrub? Maybe the socks? Or someone else's toy? Perhaps the kid who moves in at the house that's for sale? or maybe some stray detritus from one of Petey's dioramas? Or maybe a mystery item that sends Alice and Dill and the bucket-head on a tour of the neighborhood to find who might've left/missed aforementioned item? It could be something like, oh, I dunno, a popper like ALice's but somehow cooler? Or somehow makes her feel threatened? Well, just an idea. Love your work!o

Anonymous said...

That old sock-in-the-tree strip made me laugh so hard the first time I read it. First Alice putting her dad in his place, then Petey's panic-attack face. Too hilarious.