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

Showing posts with label today's cul de sac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label today's cul de sac. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, March 7 to 13, 2011

We've fallen behind again. How does this happen?
 This week was all about the fun of drawing mud.
 And at some point it occurred to me: how did she get out there anyway?
 I just hoped that it didn't occur to anyone else, that everyone would be too caught up in the riveting drama to question the logic. Like a Hollywood movie.
 But you have to admit, that is some nicely drawn mud.
 She skipped. Of course, how simple.
 Thus ends one of the randomest weeks of strips I ever foisted on an unsuspecting yet disinterested public. I do like the idea that 15 minutes to her mother equals days to Alice.
This is a salute to all those double reed wind players out there, especially those who can manage circular breathing (I tried it and all I can manage is rhomboidal).

Monday, March 21, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, February 28 to March 6, 2011

It's time to claw our way somewhat closer to present-day.
 The pre-Alicians were first mentioned in early 2009.
 Or more likely, the hairdo is immortal and Miss Bliss is its present avatar.
 Petey's semi-aversion to being photographed was first shown here.
 Marcus briefly had his own blog, putatively run by his mother, until a certain unnamed person lost interest in it.
This could've been expanded on. And I wish I'd pulled the face in that second panel even more. It looked more distorted when drawn at 5 inches tall, the usual size I draw these things.
 Boy, now that plot will really take off.
Trees are among my favorite things to draw. I may drop the human characters from the strip and introduce a flock of comic birds so I can draw trees all the time.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, February 14 to 27, 2011

Uh-oh, the weeks have flown by and once again the supposed purpose of this blog (to force people to read Cul del Sac) has been ignored.
Rutherford B. Hayes has long had a vital place in the life of America's children. Just look at the following Almanac from the early 2000s (which is at least somewhat historically accurate).
So really it's hard to justify Petey's aversion to Hayes in the following strips.
The fun part of this for me was putting in Petey's little under-table gestures.
I had originally planned another shoebox diorama, but c'mon, it's getting a little old. The third panel above was taken from some of my favorite Ah-ha moments in various movies, where someone gives the protagonist an unwitting insight and he gets to say all that "I could kiss you" stuff. The B. stands for Beard; most people, especially historians, don't know this.
Someone pointed out that there has been an actual pop-up comic book. However, until I'm told otherwise, I claim this as the first pop-op comic strip.
Even though it doesn't really pop-op. And I claim this as the second.
On the other hand, I hope some kid somewhere has done this.
When I was in lower grade school all the music appreciation stuff we got dealt with the stories music told. It's a hard habit to shake.
I've been trying to find a role for Loris as she's kind of an untethered character. Maybe she needs her own Sunday strip, like Roscoe Sweeny was Buz Sawyer's comic-relief friend who took over the Sunday page duties.
Clowns again. Clowns are comedy gold, but not the way they intend to be.
The ceiling in panel two was fun to draw, the crowd scene in panel three less so.
Poor Kevin.
And poor Marcus too. I'm starting to feel sorry for my characters, which can be a hindrance to writing for them
This is because I forgot to draw a Valentines Day strip. It was overcome by Rutherford B. Hayes.
This was an excuse to draw in a childlike style. The punchline came much later. A drawing fight does sound like fun, but then I played Pictionary recently and got creamed.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, February 5 to 13, 2011

Let's see if I can remember what happened this week.
Oomaboogy Wow Wow is the closest I could come to Yo Gabba Gabba, the mildly insane, acid-trip show for young children that my older, high-school-size daughter watches. She also likes the Upside Down Show.
I'm still stuck on Captain Kangaroo and I'll imitate the Banana Man anytime and anywhere whether anyone gets it or not.
I don't know how the Oomaboogy theme goes and I don't think I want to know.
Someone wisely pointed out that this replicates the common horror movie situation where someone is shown alone in a wide shot, then in a close up shot a hand comes out of nowhere to tap them on the shoulder. It's a cheap trick but effective.
I just realized that there's another strip coming up where Petey ends up with a bandaged nose. Sounds like a theme best left unexplored.
Is there any doubt that things would turn out like this?
Petey's not real involved with toys. This started out as a stray thought that Petey would likely only have one plastic army man. What can you do with one plastic army man? Not much, except maybe pretend he's one of those soldiers lost in a jungle who still thinks World War II is going on. I'd already mentioned Mr. Uggins, the Jarred Bear, so I just had to fill out Petey's catalog of toys a little and boom, there's a Sunday strip.

Something I've noticed talking to people who read Cul de Sac: they say, "I really like Alice, but I'm more like Petey." Believe me, I know how you feel.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, January 31 to February 5, 2011

How quickly the week slips by when you're having so much fun.
To begin, here's Timmy Fretwork's first appearance from an October '04 Post Magazine, which I redrew three years later for the syndicated strip. Mr. Fretwork is based on about five real people.
Ha! Kids say the most awkward things! And they keep on doing it once they're adults.
 They're also impressed by all the wrong things, and ditto.
 I like the sootis so much I'm going to refer to them every chance I get. At least until some major studio latches onto them for a crowd-pleasing 3-D movie.
 I'd've liked to've heard that Snowpile song. I imagine it would've gone something like, "Snowpile, snowpile, Watch it grow, Snowpile, snowpile, Lots of snow!" Sung to Freight Train, of course.
 The hand sanitizer thing was pulled from real life, except for the part about it being arisanal and mole-scented.
This opens up all kinds of possibilities, maybe. There've been a few instances of Ernesto interacting with people other than Petey, which seems to point to his being a mass hallucination. Because no way can he be real.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, January 27 to 30, 2011

Now, where were we?
Snow jokes, right. This might've been a little sharper if I hadn't shown the airborne snow in the second panel, leaving Dill's and Alice's reactions to indicate what was happening, But I like the idea of a snow blower trebuchet and I think it has a viable place in people's garages.
I redrew this a coupla times trying to make Alice as animated as possible and maybe one more time would've done it, but maybe not. Somebody, maybe S.J;.Perelman, said something to the effect that he reworked his prose to hit the perfect balance between the incoherent and the lapidary, and I know what he means. Or I did after I looked up "lapidary." And it was probably Mark Twain who said it anyway.

Ew.
This started out as a parody of shampooese: the weird hybrid language used on hair care products. I was going to have a conversation entirely in shampooese but I couldn't figure out how to carry it off and have it make sense. So I used the old plot-counterplot trick and wrapped it up with Petey plotting out a chapter of Toad Zombies. And yes, having a small child washing her own hair with a possibly volatile combination of products is a Bad Idea That Should Not Be Attempted in the Home.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Today's Cul de Sac, January 24 to 26, 2011

As we're getting a bit of snow here these seem almost timely, in a timeless comic strip way.
 Sure, blame the weatherman. Alice is talking about this, of course.
 Oh boy, crosshatching! It might've gotten a little dark for a snow cloud in that second panel. Hence the phrase, "Please help! I've crosshatched myself into a corner!"
I started to add a sound effect as the snow hit the ground in the third panel, but I remembered a Peanuts strip that had a flake hitting the ground making a loud and inappropriate noise, which was the gag, and I decided not to. And now I forget what that onomatopoeia was. "Plink?" "Blam?"