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

Monday, November 17, 2008

Hello, San Diego


I got an invitation to attend the massive San Diego Comic Convention next year as a Special Guest . My thanks to the kind people at SDCC, and to Jackie Estrada, who delivered the invitation. The only small hitch is that all attendees are required to dress as either Spiderman, Princess Leia, Captain Crunch or the Phillies Phanatic.


If you check the link you'll note there are some interesting names on the list so far, like the brilliant French polymath cartoonist Lewis Trondheim, and Pearls Before Swine genius Stephan Pastis, known as possibly the second handsomest syndicated cartoonist in America, if he'd only get his hair to behave. The guest list will eventually grow into the tens of thousands. I understand that there's legislation in the works that makes attendance at the SDCC a duty of all US citizens, like being on a jury, and anyone not an attendee will be designated a special guest, and that honor will rotate through the population until everyone has been heard from. So why wait? Go ahead and get your ticket today, and choose a nice costume.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Today's Poor Almanack


Uh-oh, it's that time of year again. We've been getting catalogs for most of a month now, some of them tinged with a little panic at the possibility that this holiday shopping season will be a disaster. My dad tells me he recently drove past a Lord & Taylor, a very elegant, high-end department store that used to kind of scare me when I was a kid. He says they had some kids out by the street with big red & yellow signs trumpeting their big sales. If the lacquered giantesses they used to hire as sales help could see that they'd spin in their vampire coffins, I'm sure.

Friday, November 14, 2008

A Thurber Carnival


For the next two weeks, on Friday and Saturday evenings, the play A Thurber Carnival will be playing at The Kellar Theater in Manassass, Virginia. Featured in the cast is my wife Amy, who not only hails from James Thurber's hometown of Coumbus, Ohio, but is also a whiz at acting, prop building, scenery painting and doing spot-on accents (her Sarah Palin imitation will make your hair just about walk off your head). If I were you I'd be buying my ticket now. Hurry!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Oops



Because of an error in bookkeeping/editing/counting/drawing, the Cul de Sacs for 11-12 and 1-13 were transposed. This may be traced back to my own innumerancy and clumsiness in telling a joke; i.e., the punch line comes after the set up. My apologies, unless you didn't notice. In which case it didn't happen, and this whole blog post is another dull figment of your imagination.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Obama Again


Here's Obama as FDR for the New Yorker. I didn't get a chance to read the article by George Packer that it illustrates, but the image seemed to fit the brief description of it they sent. Now if Obama can just find himself a Fala.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Today's Poor Almanack


Many of you may have seen this image before, though I don't remember where. With this Almanack I'm retiring the finger puppet concept, at least until I want to draw Rahm Emanuel or Joe Biden.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Never Mind


Please disregard that whiny post of about a month ago. This drawing is in this week's New Yorker. I didn't know about it till Sarah, the nice person at the Cartoon Bank, called today and told me someone was interested in buying the original. I think the suggested retail price ($17.00) might've scared 'em off though.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Balm for Elephants


This ran right after the 2006 elections. With one small edit it works just fine for today. I hope to use it again in the future too.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

44


Well dang, I feel good. At about 11 pm my wife popped open a tiny novelty bottle of champagne that's been in the fridge for 4 months and my older daughter finally went up to bed. Now I've gotta draw an Obama for the New Yorker, 'cause it's due tomorrow morning. Some things never change. But other things do.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Today's Poor Almanack


Here's today's Poor Almanack. Later I'll put up a similar one from four years ago when circumstances were similar. Hope this is helpful if you, like me, haven't yet voted.


And here's the one from four years ago, when passions were a little different if no less intense. At least the Voter Hostess changed her hair.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Three Scary Stories


My Halloween gift to you; three tales of terror for you to tell as you sit around the glow of your monitor. As Count Floyd would say, Pretty scary, huh, kids?

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Poe and the Duck


Something for the season, sorta.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Thank you,

AV Club. I apologize for making fun of you kids in high school.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Halloween


The Sunday strip that ran today is a reworked version of a Post Magazine strip of two years ago. Yet more evidence of laziness, I'd say. What I really wanted was another chance to draw Alice's oblivious self-absorption and that explosion of candy. And Dad's ghoulish face looming out from behind the tree. That's what Halloween is all about.

Saturday's Almanack


Here's yesterdays. I'd done a few of these Treat Giving Guides before, but this is the most up-to-date and useful, at least for the next 5 to 8 days.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Saturday Night at the Writer's Center


Tomorrow night the Writer's Center in Bethesda MD is holding a panel discussion called Political Cartooning in an Election Year at 7:30. On the panel will be King Kevin Kallaugher , Master Matt Wuerker and me . Kal and Matt will present an informative, dazzling multi-media tour of recent politics, a landscape right out of Hieronymous Bosch for sure. I'll mostly defer to them, as they're far more experienced, wiser and slightly older than me. And I don't know how to work a powerpoint thing, so I'll do a chalk talk.
And afterwards we're all heading over to the Tastee Diner, so the waitress can call us Honey and bring us a plate of scrapple and eggs.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Bark the Vote


This is a cover for the Comic Book section of Nickelodeon Magazine. I'd probably vote for dogs, as they'd more likely have the good of the pack in mind, whereas cats would think only of themselves. Yet somehow the rodents keep getting into office.
There, that's my political thought for the day.

(The patriotic dog in the upper left corner is by the great Sam Henderson.)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hello, Sailor!


This is from this very week's New Yorker, drawn for a story about how over the years Gov. Palin may have actually been courting those very inside-the-Beltway elites she so professes to despise. Shocking, shocking. Go read it.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Great Divide


This was done about four years ago for the Wash Post Mag. The differences between Maryland and Virginia (the suburban parts around DC anyway) are many yet ineffable; everybody knows them but nobody can quite define them. And the Post Mag had wanted to do an issue exploring them, but it never happened, so I stepped into the breach just to muddy the waters.
I grew up in the outer Maryland suburbs, but I've lived in the inner Virginia suburbs for 16 years. So you think I'd be an expert, but as it is I still think of DC as being to my south, when it's directly east. On the other hand I don't get lost in VA like I used to, but going back to the first hand I don't leave the house often enough to have a chance to get lost.
Those of you familiar with the area will notice that Arlington is actually over about an inch to the right from what's indicated on the map. Everything else is entirely accurate.

My Personal Commintment to Recycling, or, Today's Poor Almanack


Above is today's Poor Almanack. It's a pretty bald-faced steal from one I did eight years ago when there were some undecided voters who needed help. That one is below.


And four years ago, under similar circumstances, I did another one, also meant to help undecided voters. I guess indecisive voters are just an ongoing problem.


Though I can't help but note that the indecisive voter guy who's featured in the two top cartoons sure seems decisive enough in his choice of loud-checked jackets. And I have to admit that the original cartoon of eight years ago has the strongest finish in the yard sign joke. Maybe I'll use that again in four years, when we're due for another spate of Undecided Voters

Friday, October 17, 2008

Metro Games

In these purse-tightening times it behooves us to make our own fun. This is for all you commuters out there killing some time on the Metro each day. Anybody who wants to organize a team, please let me know.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Media Darling, or, More Than You Need to Know


I talked to that nice Zack Smith at Newsarama , and that nice Amanda Hess at the DC City Paper . And they went and published it.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

How Things Work

It's been a while, so here are three drawings that describe How Things Work. I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of these, as I don't have a clue how anything works. It's all string theory or donut theory or little magic homunculi pulling levers to me.

The first is The Government. This was for a Dave Barry article in the Post Magazine.


The next is The Senate, and it was for the New Yorker, back when a group of senators was threatening the "nuclear option". They may be better behaved now.


The last is Everything Else. It was for a NYer piece on conspiracies and how they comfort the idiots who believe in them.


There now, hope it's all clear. I'm working on one on The Economy, so you won't have to worry about that any more.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Unseen New Yorker


This was done two or three weeks ago for a piece in the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell, a book review, that will likely never run. The book dealt with a long-time head of Goldman Sachs who'd grown up poor in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood and started at the firm as an assistant janitor while in his mid-teens. He'd gone on to be a titan of finance, deal-maker & adviser to presidents, and Gladwell's take was that outsiders can often do things within the system that others can't, and hence do well. One of his counter-intuitive pieces, and it was interesting.

Well, Wall Street looks different now, and the piece may now be too out-dated to run without a lot of revisions, which is too bad. But here's the drawing to go with it, selected for finish from 3 roughs, and tweaked some. At SPX last weekend I talked to two artists who do New Yorker illustrations, Joost Swarte and Istvan Banyai, and we wept over drawings we'd done for them that because of circumstances will never see print. That collection of rejected NYer cartoons "The Rejection Collection" needs a counterpart for illustration work. Maybe call it "The Refuseum".

Two More Days of Poetic Inspiration-

Before your poetic licence expires! Michael Cavna's Comic Riffs blog is offering a signed copy of the Cul de Sac book to the winning Cul de Sac poem! See here for details!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Saturday's Almanack


In case ya need such a thing. I got one for ya.

Autodrivelalia


This is one I've wanted to draw for a while now, but I couldn't figure out quite how to do it, or if it'd be something that anyone would recognize. A daily strip about daily lives is obviously dealing with the quotidian, the mundane and homely, and the hard part can be teasing out the unexpected, unnoticed and weird from all that day-to-day stuff without making it unrecognizable.
That was unnecessary exposition to lead into a personal admission: I make silly noises when I'm driving, sometimes silly faces, too. And I don't think I'm alone in this (Hi, Paul!). I once heard a radio announcer say that on the way to work every morning he'd sing the Modern Major General patter song from Pirates of Penzance, just to loosen up his face and get his tongue going. He at least had some reason to do it, but me, I just babble, sing, talk in accents, parrot radio commercials, even do bbrrrm bbrrrm car sounds. It doesn't affect my driving, on the contrary, I'm sure it makes me more alert and speeds up my reflexes.
There, I've said it and I'm proud.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Hello!


To Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Frank, Ngoc, Kevin, Claire, Mark, Mark, Marc, Joost, Mary, Istvan, Brendan, Raina, Dave, Keith, Libby, Dustin, Van, Dave, Jen, Warren, Andrew, Charles, Joe, Matt, Rob, John, Zack, John, Brian, Chris, Trade, TJ, Matt, LInda, Jason, Jason, Joel, Abby, Magnolia, Calla, Paul, Jackie, Nell, David, Greg, Drew, Casey & Matt. Good to see you all at SPX!
If I've left your name off the list, please remind me.

Friday, October 3, 2008

SPX!

SPX - The Expo
Just a reminder. I'll be there both days hanging around. I'll sell anybody a book who can find me. On Sunday at 5, I'll talk with Mike Rhode, mostly about our kids.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Poetry Slam

Michael Cavna at the Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog thinks I know about poetry . Here's my fragmentary entry-

There once was a rodent named Danders,
Who spoke in a voice like George Sanders,

And that's all I got.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Walk Like Groucho Day


This is a repeat of a post from a year ago. October 2nd is the birthday of Groucho Marx, born Julius Henry Marx in 1890. In celebration, I propose a national Walk Like Groucho Day, to be held on this date annually. Everybody walks like Groucho, or we line 'em up against the wall and Pop goes the weasel!

How do you walk like Groucho? You just squat and scuttle, taking long strides, not as extreme as a duck-walk and not as athletic as a Silly Walk. If you can wear a tail coat that flaps behind you so much the better. I've included this chart which illustrates Newton's 2nd Law of Motion (Force = Mass x acceleration), and shows ground reaction forces measured in various strides and different types of footwear. Please note the looping blue line labeled "Groucho". I'm sure this'll help you a whole lot. The chart was taken from Dr. Chris Kirtley's site Clinical Gait Analysis http://www.univie.ac.at/cga/. (You can't propose a day of national celebration without some kind of scientific & academic support.)

So quick everybody! Squat 'n' Scuttle!


It's also Wash Post Genius Gene Weingarten's birthday! I detect a theme, and it may not be in the way they walk.

Old Glamor Job

About 17 years ago I got a call to do a cover for one of a series of Honeymooners VHS tapes. What made the job particlarly cool was that it was art directed by Lou Dorfsman (a legend in the field), the other illustrators doing covers were some of my heroes (Hirschfeld, Brodner, Burke...), the money was swell (they bought the originals) and coolest of all there was no deadline (within reason).

So they sent me the tape I was to illustrate, something about Ed Norton sleepwalking and dreaming about his dog. Unfortunately the tape was the wrong one, and I'd never watched much Honeymooners (though I'd seen the cartoons with the Honeymooner mice several times). But I found enough photos that I could fake up a scene okay; Norton sleepwalking, dreamed-of dog, and annoyed Kramden. Here's the first skech I did, just a quick one of Kramden & Norton. I like the Norton, though from the little pen mark over Kramden's head you can see that Lou Dorfsman chose the Kramden. This was back when roughs were exchanged leisurely with a client via FedEx, or carrier pigeon, or footmen with velvet cushions. However we did it, I eventually came up with a usable sketch.



Here's the final, and the first thing you'll notice is that I slightly mismeasured the height, leaving some dead space between the focus of the illustration and the main type, but nobody minded. I did it in alkyd paint, which is somewhat like oil but it dries faster and it's a little more tar-like in consistency, and it's a little less aesthetically pleasing, if you're into that. Despite there being no firm deadline and despite the fast-drying quality of the paint, two hours before FedEx closed on the day before it was due I was down on the floor spraying the finished illustration with half-a-can of Krylon in hopes of forcing the paint to dry. I understand Norman Rockwell worked the same way.



The last cool things about the job were that the original went into a museum in New York City, I forget what it's called but it's full of TV stuff, and when the complete series of VHS tapes was released Leonard Maltin showed several of the covers on Entertainment Tonight, and not only showed mine but said my name out loud on TV (along with Hirschfeld, Brodner, etc). That was when my career peaked. The most I could hope for now is a mention by Pat O'Brian on Access Hollywood, and who wants that?

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Faces


Often when I'm drawing faces I find myself mimicking the expression that I'm trying to convey. Like today I did a string of roughs with Mrs. Otterloop going from nonplussed to dawning comprehension to full awareness, and my face kept going from slack to alert in sympathetic response. Nothing too hammy, just enough that I could feel it while I drew it. Animators do it purposefully, and even keep a mirror handy so they can model for their drawings. I once read a hilarious account of Goofy's animator jumping out of his chair and lurching around the studio with that slap-footed Goofy walk, working his adam's apple and everything, then throwing himself back in the chair and drawing what he'd just done. It's the same process that kids use when they make kkkkapppcccccccchhhh noises when drawing battleground explosions. And I'm sure fine artists do it in the privacy of their studio. I'll bet Picasso yanked his face around to the point of malocclusion when he was in his cubist period. His girlfriend of the moment probably told him to quit it before his face stuck like that, too.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Saturday's Almanack


This was the Almanack for last weekend. I'm not sure if it makes sense. I was going to do a map of the National Book Festival, but I got bored with the sketch I had for it and started this about five hours before deadline. Which should be plenty of time, but I didn't realize what I was doing until I lettered the last line. I think the idea was to compare Astronomy, Astrology and Economics just to see which had the most sway over events. I think Astrology won.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Exciting Book Signing Event Thing


I'll be sigining copies of Cul de Sac at the Politics & Prose booth at the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair this Sunday at 1 pm. The fair is at the Marie Reed Learning Center in at 18th St. and Wyoming Ave., NW, in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in DC. Those are the two most information-stuffed sentences I've ever typed, but if you need more, go here.

Update: Hello and thanks to those who came by, chatted, bought a book, or all three. It was a hoot, and thanks to my hosts Mike, András and Chad & family.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

First Anniversary Special Offer

Today is this blog's first anniversary, having opened with the memorable, oft-quoted post Okay, Now What? on September 24th back in 2007. In recognition of this important milestone I'm announcing this unique, one-time offer, which I'll be repeating as often as I deem necessary.

Now that the Cul de Sac book seems to be generally available, the thousands/many/several/both of you who've ordered it may want to have it defaced in some way. And I'd like to help you out! If you'd like me to sign my name on your book, please email me through the "My Complete Profile" link to your right ->, I'll provide my address, you send me your book (with a sase), I'll sign it, I'll send it back to you, you'll open it up and say "jeez, that took forever". What could be easier than that?

But wait! It gets more complicated! To make your book's inscription even more personalized, I'm offering this selection of autographs for you to choose from, each one a work of art in itself! Just look-


1. Otterloop Bold Distended 2. Otterloop Grotesque 3. Palmer Method 4. Otterloop Hasty 5, Otterloop Serif Formal 6. Otterloop Extra-Hasty Verging on Sloppy 7. Otterloop Slapdash Bold 8. Otterloop Fancypants 9. Otterloop Wrong-End-of-the-Pen 10. Otterloop Corroding (genuine iron gall ink) 11. Otterloop Erratum (discontinued).

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

FOLIAGE!


Here, you may need this. For those of you outside the DC-MD-VA area, I'm sorry, you're on your own.

FALL!


Yesterday was the first day of Fall and I didn't even notice, mostly because I didn't even step outside. It's perpetually summer in my studio, of course.

I see Mother Nature as Hermione Gingold in the Music Man, particularly where she's immitating a Grecian urn.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Toddler's Roundtable

This is another of the proto-Cul de Sacs from 8 or 9 years ago, back when I could still use a cartoon to make a coherent point. That skill didn't last long, but fortunately comic strips don't need a point. A couple of balloons, maybe an onomatopoeia, a laff, then off you go.

Watch me recycle that lycanthropy joke when I think nobody's looking.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Fontanelle, the Imperiled Infant



This was Oswaldo Twee's first appearance, a year or so before he reappeared to read at the library, much to Alice's dismay. From his reactions here, I don't believe Twee has had much contact with actual children which, from the others I've met, isn't the norm among children's book authors.

Both my daughters read a lot, sometimes too much, like to the point of trying to multitask while reading and subsequently falling down the stairs. This only happened once, but it was memorable, and no harm was done so it was also funny.

Friday, September 19, 2008

(Formerly) Happy Amazon Robot


The Cul de Sac book is now officially listed as "in stock" at Amazon. My thanks to Mark Tatulli for pointing this out to me, as I hadn't checked the Amazon site in almost 15 minutes.

UPDATE: It's now reverted to "ships in 3 to 5 weeks". Next time I see JeFf Bezos I'm going to give him a stern lecture on Not Yanking People Around.