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, February 19, 2012

The Lost Unintentional Adventures Of Danders

Here we have a mystery. In May of 2007, Danders was launched in a toy truck, exited Blisshaven Preschool and disappeared into the Metro subway system. At one point the class went on a field trip to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. I know this because I lent a few pages to the Museum to put on a wall somewhere in an area accessible only to the staff. But the rest of it, about 3 or 4 pages, went missing, like Danders.

I do remember that Danders bumps into a Smithsonian employee on the Metro. Who then press-gangs him into  the Mammals exhibit by offering him a high-visibility PR position for his species. This turns out to be standing in a display case with embarrassing guinea pig facts on a little sign.
He's eventually rescued, but I don't remember exactly how. Anybody save the Washington Post Magazine from May to June, 2007? A substantial reward will be yours if you step forward in the next 15 seconds.

6 comments:

carl craig said...

wow ive never seen this one before i hope someone has got a copy of it i would love to see the rest of it

htilden said...

This is exact same time I started saving Cul-de-Sac strips.

Going back in the archive, it appears that Danders was rescued by Alice asking the museum guard nicely. There was also a sub-plot about Alice not being able to find the water fountain.

gilda92 said...

Mr. Danders quotes Dorothy Parker? and he's only in nursery school? Some pig!

LizB said...

These were the strips where I first discovered Cul de Sac! I worked in a library that subscribed to the Washington Post; we would keep issues for 3 or 4 months and then discard them. I pulled out the magazine sections when we discarded them so I could do the crossword puzzles and I started reading the articles. And I fell in love with Cul de Sac. Sadly, I didn't keep any of the issues.

richardcthompson said...

htilden- That's right. I do remember the guard being scolded by another guard, who says something like, "Remember what happened when you gave away the blue whale?"

The museum had a life-size model of a blue whale in their hall of undersea life that I loved when I was a kid (I thought it was real). When they redid the hall in the 90s, they gave the by-then decrepit blue whale to one of the contractors. Who put it, in pieces, in his garage.

So that's why it's funny. At least, to me.

All information on the Smithsonian's blue whale nodel from the DC City Paper.

el cornichon said...

I can just tell some little part of my mind won't rest until I see the rest of this story.
I remember seeing that blue whale when I was ten. I thought it was real, but how much stuffing would that take?