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

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Cul de Sac for February 5, 2012

This is the last Sunday I drew before my hiatus. It's one of those strips that tickles me no end, which is kinda rare.What I most enjoy is a strip that spins in a circle then takes off in an unexpected direction and this one does that if nothing else. I hit a wall in writing it until the phrase "spray cheese" popped into my head then all the pieces fell into place (note to playwrights, novelists & New Yorker short story writers; when in a bind think "spray cheese"). Otherwise the only thing I struggled with was the expression on Alice's face. That took a stack of paper and half a bottle of ProWhite to achieve; you'll note the relative stiffness in Alice's face in the first panel after I'd tweaked it into lifelessness. By the third panel I had it down.

Alice, you'll remember, has tried to wink before.

UPDATE: Regarding "squince" - I was too late. Though mine incorporated "wink." For what that's worth.

9 comments:

G. Friday said...

OMG I made a special trip to the store for spray cheese just before reading this. Put in on Chicken in a Biskit crackers; you won't regret it!

G. Friday said...

Also, I remember my teacher Sister Theresa trying to teach me to wink in third grade with little success. I eventually learned by pulling my eyelid down with my finger, letting go and seeing if I could hold it there.

richardcthompson said...

Now I'm all hungry...

Unknown said...

Thanks for the advice....

...I have a practical this Tuesday where I have to name all the major arteries and veins in the human body-rather then just leave the spaces for the structures I can't remember blank, Ill just write in "spray cheese"

naam said...

Oh my that -is- quite tickly, I love how it feels like "just stuff happening" and yet still tickle that much. Lovely.

I'm quite curious about the ProWhite struggles though, would love to see a subtle scan of your work sometime, showing these battles. I never use it, but maybe I have never found the good stuff...

Jerry said...

It was fabulous and I was laughing when I read it. Good luck, Richard.

Unknown said...

Yours is the first strip I read when I open the paper every day. I don't know how you think of these things--well, I do.

Thank you so much for the daily laugh!

Mary Adams said...

There will probably a lot of people playing with "spray cheese" at superbowl parties today and "squinceing" :)

Andy said...

G. Friday: YES! Spray cheese on Chickn-in-a-Biskit crackers is teh awesum!

And I had my partner worried about me when he heard me LMAO over the last panel. He had to ask me if I was laughing or crying. Pretty much both.