More Deadline Enstranglement

Here's the Happy Deadline Clown, instead of the Creepy Deadline Zombie.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 31 2010

Okay, yesterday's. My apologies, I'm wrestling with the a deadline zombie (below). More to come later, including an investigation of the Multiple Petey Phenomena. 

Today's Cul de Sac, August 30 2010

I felt bad about the Otterloops not getting a vacation this year so I squeezed one in. Their last two trips to Geek's Neck were much more extensive, in part because I've always found beach towns hugely entertaining places and fun to parody. In the early 80s I tried to put together a strip about a beach town called Geek's Neck, loosely based on some of the towns scattered along the Mid-Atlantic coast that I know, like Ocean City MD, or Rehoboth DE, or anything on the OBX. But it was a half-hearted attempt and I gave up.

And here's a Bonus Unnecessary Spot Illustration for Today, this one for an article about college kids trashing beach houses for Smithsonian Magazine several years ago.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 29 2010

Well, yesterday's. Several readers have rightly complained about the lack of 3-D viewing glasses on Mom and Alice in this strip. It so obviously spoils the joke and renders the whole thing illogical and confusing. In my defense I can only say, I forgot that the audience had to wear glasses for the 3-D effect to work  I've been to only one 3-D thing, an amusement ride with pirates in it and all I remember is a flat parrot inexplicably flying at me and the brief resultant headache afterward. Also, I was drawing this so close to deadline that the printers were loading rolls of newsprint into the presses even as I was putting ink to paper, leading to one of those exciting race-against-time montages of an inexorably spinning roll of newsprint cutting to pen scratching on bristol board, back and forth in quick succession, till Wham! the cartoon is finished, scanned, sent, distributed and arrives at the printers just in time to make the Sunday edition and anger readers by its lack of 3-D glasses. 

Baltimore! Today! Again!

I had so much fun at the Baltimore Comic Con yesterday I'm going back again today. As I was sitting at my table all day Saturday, this time I plan to get up and walk around more and take in the sights. If you're one of the sights there I hope to see you.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 28 2010

I got nothing to say, except to remind you it's Read Comics in Public Day, and that you should celebrate by going to the Baltimore Comic Con.

Baltimore! Today!

As I mentioned I've got a table at the Baltimore Comic Con for today only thanks to John Gallagher, the genius behind Buzzboy comics, in his Comic Book Diner Fun Zone. I'll share a table with my friend Shannon Gallant, and I'll have a pile of books- all three Cul de Sac collections & Richard's Poor Almanac- and the 2011 CdS calendar, various other merchandise, and original strips. So I hope some of you good people stop by and take this junk off my hands because, really, this house isn't big enough.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 27 2010

About 20 years ago PBS showed a filmed version of Jean Shepherd's antic short memoir Ollie Hopnoodle's Cabin of Bliss. Shepherd is, of course, the author of the collected works that was turned into A Christmas Story, and he had a long career as a writer, raconteur, radio & TV host and other things as interesting. Ollie Hopnoodle was about the annual family vacation to a lakeside cabin, and one bit was about the bee that annually invaded the family car on the way to the cabin, supposedly the same damn bee every year. In the TV version it was wonderfully staged: the late '40s car coming to a sudden halt on the country road and the four family members jumping out, most of them dancing around and swatting and the youngest taking off lickety-split down the road, away from the camera. The camera held on them for a little while and it became funnier as it went on, especially the youngest gradually disappearing into the distance.

Anyway, I remember that pretty vividly and I laughed when I thought of this strip. It's not real inspired, and when I make myself laugh it's usually a warning sign of lameness. But it did let me off the hook as far as thinking up the full title of Petey's comic book is concerned. If you get a chance to see Ollie Hopnoodle sometime jump at it, and read the book too.

SPX!

The Small Press Expo site has just put up the programming information for 2010! And look, there's somebody with my name on it! Even better, there are some of my favorite people listed, too many to repeat here as I'd leave someone out and feel bad. So take a look, mark your calendar, and show up ready to be entertained, enlightened and something else that starts with en-. Really, SPX is a good time!

Today's Cul de Sac, August 26 2010

In the rough for this strip the text for Loris's middle balloon ran on and on with the words getting smaller and smaller and it looked, I thought, real funny. But when drawing the final it became obvious that all those words wouldn't stand any reduction and it just looked messy and self-indulgent, so it got curtailed into shorter and less funny form. That's pretty much all these daily posts will be from now on: evasive explanations of how that day's strip was really funny until it got drawn.

In answer to the many, many queries I've received from both of you, yes, Loris and Andre will be in the strip from now on. Not every day! Andre's too big and Loris wouldn't hold still. I've been trying to expand Petey's end of the strip for a while to give him more room to socialize, and I like these two just fine and they're both fun to draw. Expanding a comic strip is always a dicey business as strips are fragile little soap bubble things, so I won't push it too far and pop it. Introducing all of Dill's brothers, for example, would tear the whole space-time continuum to tatters. Though that might be good for a one-time laugh.

National Dog Day

Today is National Dog Day, so here's an appropriate repost, this cartoon having run 4 or 5 years ago. I dedicate it to my friend Nick Galifianakis, who draws the best dogs around, and who just lost his beloved friend Zuzu.

Your Unnecessary Spot Illustration of the Day

I've been slack in posting these vitally irrelevant spot illustrations, so here's one from the Washington Post Magazine of about 13 years ago. The story accompanying the drawing dealt somehow with alcohol in politics and these two, Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge, represented two extremes on the drinking-alcohol spectrum; most bibulous and most teetotal respectively. 

I'm pretty sure I stole Coolidge's head shape from a caricature by the spectacular Miguel Covarrubias, though it does have a proto-Peteyness feel that creeps me out some. And the handling of the watercolor is kind of soft and timid. But I do like the looks of mutual disgust that flash between the former presidents.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 25 2010

Here we have a teachable moment: "borborygmus" is the scientific term for "stomach growling" (plural borborygmi, pronounced /ˌbɔrbəˈrɪɡməs/; from Greek βορβορυγμός). It comes from the ancient belief that digestion was the purview of a grouchy dwarf named Borbory residing in the stomach. His grousing at the lousy job he had pushing food around your innards, instead of bowling with his cousins, was heard as a growling sound, as opposed to the more dignified thunder that his bowling relatives caused.

I think that's right; it's late and the mind wanders, y'know? Anyway, the Stapling Ceremony seemed like a good way to wrap up the whole Cartoon Camp story and gives everybody a chance to dress up. The kids might be dressed as their titular superheroes, though that undercuts the fact that Petey isn't a big fan of superheroes- he's more likely to enjoy Jimmy Corrigan or Pim and Francie. Which is not to say his taste is sophisticated, just grimmer than a taste attuned to the gaudy spectacle of superheroics.

By now superheroes are mostly beyond parody. Stuff like the Tick and Herbie Popnecker pushed the absurdity of the tights little world about as far as it could go while still being funny. But the actual genre is its own best parody. I'd originally used the name "The Kaboomerang Kid" in Andre's comic title. A quick googling let me know that Kaboomerang is already a superhero who throws exploding boomerangs, of course.

Publisher's Weekly Says-

Publisher's Weekly, for years the industry bible for news & reviews, has nice things to say about the Cul de Sac Golden Treasury (for which you'll have to scroll down slightly at the link). They even gave it a star, which, critically speaking, is comparable to a Happy Face Sticker for Work Well Done. My thanks to mighty Mike Lynch, whose blog is more informative than this one, for passing this along on the Twitter.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 24 2010

Looking at this now I wish I'd put in a little more background. It had some in the sketch, but I worried about the busyness it might inflict, what with the top-heaviness of all those words and the silly costumes to look at. And the vital importance of drawing the eye to that stupid, old-timey-looking stapler.

More later....

Today's Cul de Sac, August 23 2010

Petey's favorite distancing mechanisms were first mentioned back when he tried to wear it to his oboe recital in one of the old Post Magazine strips and again when he wore it to Thanksgiving dinner. I had a box of hats when I was a kid and whichever hat I chose for the day would define who I was that day. My favorite for a long time was an orange plastic helmet that said Dennis the Menace on it. I didn't turn into Dennis the Menace when I wore it, but it was a good looking hat. I also had an array of capes, most of which came from the towel shelf in the linen closet.

I haven't done much with a dress-up theme, a glaring oversight as dressing in silly costumes is a vital part of childhood. Except for the above, a strip that originally appeared in the Post Magazine and got reused as a Sunday. In one of next week's strips a Dress-Up Corner is mentioned at Blisshaven and that might be the beginning of a new whatchamacallit: a new "meme". If that's the word I want.

To reference another British movie, there's a character in The Snapper, a little girl in an extensive family, who appears in completely different get-ups in every scene. Including a drum majorette outfit and once with shaving cream all over her head. That made me laugh and stuck in my head as a useable idea for future whatchamacallit: future "homage". No, "theft" is the word I want.

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. 

Today's Cul de Sac, August 21 2010

Cartoon genius Stephan Pastis, whose approach to writing Pearls Before Swine is an adroit balance of left and right brains, has talked about having a go-to character he relies on when the ideas aren't flowing freely. That is, a character who'll inspire him, who's personality is forceful enough that he or she will pretty much take over the writing chores. For Stephan it's Rat: of course it's Rat, the evil characters are always the most fun to write because they're the unconstrained ids who can get away with stuff.

I'm not sure I've got a real go-to character, but I've always got Petey and when he's lying on his bed reading and half-ignoring Alice's unwanted presence the writing is always pretty easy. And it's pretty fun to draw too. A few times earlier on I varied the perspective a little or showed the bed from the other side, but it usually works best shown as it is here. It's easier to draw and looks more iconic, "iconic' being a nice way of saying if you repeat an characteristic image often enough it sticks in people's heads.

Shapes and Colors at Amazon

There'll be a delay in posting Today's Cul de Sac. To make up for it here's a distraction- I've just noticed that Shapes & Colors, the third in the regular, non-golden-treasury Cul de Sac books, is up at Amazon. And it's got the Look Inside feature, so you can preview a few random pages. Including the foreword by  Petey Otterloop, who thinks the strip is Okay, but he's seen better.

Today's Cul de Sac, August 20 2010

Alice's final appearance as a family spokesman. I've finally figured out a resolution to her fish-slapping-bear obsession, though that won't happen till at least December of 2013, as I'm working that far ahead (insert sarcastic-laughter emoticon here, if there is such a thing).

Actually I'm nowhere near there, so if you'll excuse me I'm going to go finish a Sunday strip for this Sunday (not really! you can put that same emoticon here, only make it slightly more rueful). And to make matters worse, I'm going to close with a commercial message.

On September 9th I'll be signing copies of the Cul de Sac Golden Treasury at Politics & Prose along with the wonderful Keith Knight, who'll be signing The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead. For a small fee, we'll switch over and sign each other's book instead. There may be a talky thing beforehand, which I'll let Keith handle as he's vastly more entertaining than I am. More details here.