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, May 27, 2012
MJFox Signed Book!
The star of Back to the Future and The Frighteners demonstrates superior penmanship in this signed copy of Team Cul de Sac and it can be yours!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Today's Cul de Sac, May 26, 2012
I've wanted to use this gag for a while and couldn't figure out how to present it. I'd planned it to be a Sunday strip and that's why I was having trouble. A Sunday page provides a bit more room to play with the layout and sometimes that's more of a distraction than an opportunity. In other words, I monkeyed around with the format so much the gag got lost, and it's a weird little gag. So it got moved to a daily which simplified it into coherency. The lesson we all learn from this is: Stop monkeying around when you don't have to. Life's hard enough as it is.
Friday, May 25, 2012
More Restaurant Closings
Jut when you thought it was safe to grab a bite. This one was probably the first one I did despite what I said before. I gotta start dating things.
Two Days!
In two days The Team Cul de Sac auction of original art begins! That's on Sunday, My 27th at Heritage Auctions. That's in two days!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Alan Gardner, Man of Taste
The first review is in, and it's by Alan Gardner, the hardest-working underpaid blogger in daily cartoonland. Go to the Daily Cartoonist for his thoughts on the book. And leave a nice comment, and/or some blog-support money.
Caricature by Mark Pett, who's up for a Reuben divisional award for illustrating The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes, and a swell guy.
The Observer-Reporter Comes Through
Yesterday the Observer-Reporter, newspaper of record for Washington and Greene Counties in Pennsylvania, ran an editorial headlined Drawing on Humor to Combat Disease. The O-R carries Cul de Sac and came out four-square behind Team Cul de Sac, for which I'm hugely grateful (they should've mentioned Chris Sparks, who's out in Vegas representing the Team at the Reubens). And, hey, wouldn't now be a great time for some other newspapers of record to do likewise?
Friday, May 18, 2012
Report from Chris Sparks
Human fireball and Sparking Design co-CEO Chris Sparks reports-
Team Cul de Sac books have been ordered to fill our online orders and all the prepaid shipping envelopes have been ordered. I just need to the books and time. Remember, you can still order your signed copy at http://sparkingdesign.com/order-team-cul-de-sac-book/
Team Cul de Sac books have been ordered to fill our online orders and all the prepaid shipping envelopes have been ordered. I just need to the books and time. Remember, you can still order your signed copy at http://sparkingdesign.com/order-team-cul-de-sac-book/
Shipping should start around the beginning of June!
That's practically tomorrow! So hurry!
CSOTD
I'm always glad when Cul de Sac makes Mike Peterson's Comic Strip of the Day. Mike is not only a newspaper man and comics lover of many years, he's also a former member of an Irish band. And he's a wise man (I don't think anyone else has name-checked Alice Roosevelt in reference to Alice Otterloop: Alice R gave me one more reason to choose the name for the O version- she was from DC and she was a hellion. Though you wouldn't know it from the above photo.)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Team Cul de Sac Book Iaunch
This is lifted from the Team Cul de Sac blog.
One More Page Books is close to my house and I hope to make it. Other local cartoonists in the book will certainly be there. My deepest thanks to Terry Nebecker and Eileen McGervey.
One More Page Books is close to my house and I hope to make it. Other local cartoonists in the book will certainly be there. My deepest thanks to Terry Nebecker and Eileen McGervey.
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One More Page | 2200 N. Westmoreland Street | #101 | Arlington | VA | 22213
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Visit to Tai Shan
This ran in the Post Magazine in January 2006 when Tai Shan mania gripped DC in a relentless hug. I'd developed an antipathy to pandas for no good reason and about the time the National Zoo was paying the Chinese through the nose to rent a coupla pandas I did a poem in the Almanac trash talking the lumbering brutes. I can't find that drawing, but part of it went "Pandas are boring, tedious and blah, Great big two-tone fuzzy cures for insomnia." It didn't do any good: the Zoo is at it again.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Farewell to Maurice Sendak
Peter Dunlap-Shohl drew this wonderful piece on the death of Maurice Sendak last week, ingeniously mashing up the Seventh Seal and the Wild Things. I especially like the casually tossed-away cane at far left. I was going to link to a documentary by director Spike Jonez where he visits Sendak at his home but it's been taken off the web. I will link to a great tribute by Philip Nel at the Comics Journal. Phil's been working on a massive biography of Ruth Kraus and Crockett Johnson and he knows his children's literature.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Two Brand New Old Cul de Sacs
Both of which have something to do with motherhood.
The above is from May 16, 2004. I didn't like Madeline's job that much. It seemed too sitcommy.
Marcus has always had a difficult relationship with his mom. This appeared August 19, 2005.
Marcus has always had a difficult relationship with his mom. This appeared August 19, 2005.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Savings Galore
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_kdlCVx8wRw0EHaRVNfO7n2Pq_HvbSL5viLOE_8h1E675aRdFRhIXFb7T5c38I9uJnoJtfjM1pfuwTQdRM6jXD_tBN-92Jv-IPzt_MVCWAREzT5sEmzgnCgcGBtfIaN-DrWFdAnjILg/s320/Picture+1.png)
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
This Week's Cul de Sacs, April 30 to May 6, 2012
Here are the roughs I sent to Stacy Curtis for this week of strips. Besides inking Cul de Sac, Stacy's got a full plate of children's book work, some of which involves traveling for school visits. This means he has to do the inking in a hotel room, not the most ideal situation for us sensitive art types whose psyches demand a familiar work environment to maintain creative flow.
So I thought a repeating Petey might make things easier all around. And as Petey tends to freeze up under mild duress all it needed was a stinkbug to provide just that.
I hope. These are representative of the batch of roughs I foist on Stacy every week. Note how they get gradually sloppier as I lose track of the progress of the meager story arc. In fact I had no idea how to end it, so I told Stacy I would do the climactic Saturday strip, which features enough second panel exposition by Alice to frighten off anyone who dislikes text-heavy balloons.
So it all worked out well enough.
I did the Sunday about a month ago. It's photoshopped out of a dozen bits and pieces but, ssshh, don't tell anybody. Alice and Dill have had several Drawing Fights; victory has been disputed in all of them.
So I thought a repeating Petey might make things easier all around. And as Petey tends to freeze up under mild duress all it needed was a stinkbug to provide just that.
Having decided on repeating Peteys-
it was an easy jump to overdoing it-
and piling the Peteys on.
If one flustered Petey is funny then an infinite number of them'd be a riot-I hope. These are representative of the batch of roughs I foist on Stacy every week. Note how they get gradually sloppier as I lose track of the progress of the meager story arc. In fact I had no idea how to end it, so I told Stacy I would do the climactic Saturday strip, which features enough second panel exposition by Alice to frighten off anyone who dislikes text-heavy balloons.
So it all worked out well enough.
I did the Sunday about a month ago. It's photoshopped out of a dozen bits and pieces but, ssshh, don't tell anybody. Alice and Dill have had several Drawing Fights; victory has been disputed in all of them.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
It's National Cartoonists Day Again Again, Again
You may be wondering, "How can I best celebrate this festive day?" You might consider:
- Finding a cartoonist near you and mowing his (or her) lawn, at least the front lawn (especially the hard part with the hill).
- While you're at it trim his shrubs, so the mailman can find his front door again.
- I'll bet he needs a haircut pretty bad.
- Does his house need vacuuming? Well, what are you waiting for?
- Who left all these dishes in the sink?
- The cats; somebody feed the cats.
- Are you handy with a pen? Ink some cartoons for him!
- You could take him to lunch at the Mexican place down the street, where they're having some no doubt cartoonist-related celebration.
- For God's sake laugh at his cartoons. If they appear in a newspaper, buy extra copies (or multiple subscriptions, even) and laugh at them too.
- Is he not posting anything new on his stupid blog and it's driving you crazy? You should send him a cheerful card stuffed with cash to inspire him.
Note:
if the cartoonist near you is a lady, please substitute "her" for
"his". The original of the cartoon reproduced above is in the collection
of the fabulous Mr. Jef Mallett, so this is a scan of the Almanac book
page. And it's the same one I ran last year, and the year before, if it
looks familiar.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
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