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

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Cul de Sac on YouTube, For Real This Time, No Kidding


Thanks to the fine folks at Ringtales and the geniuses at Jantze Studios, featuring the voice of the awesome and adorable Colette Jantze.

Talking Stick.

Fontanelle.

Badgers.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Coming Soon to a YouTube Near You


Okay, Okay, tomorrow I'll have the links up to the Ringtales Cul de Sac animations.

No, really.

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For all of you who asked for it (and I mean both of you), Uh-Oh Baby T-shirts in the above style are now available in the Uh-Oh Baby store (entrance on your right). They come in various sizes, including baby and toddler. I'm of the opinion that a baby's first word should be "uh-oh", just so he or she learns early how quickly things can go south.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Deadline Enstranglement


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

Monday, April 6, 2009

Scusi prego il mio italiano dei poveri

A tutti gli miei amici nella speranza dell'Italia- I siete bene. Ciao.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cherry Blossom Time, Again



Two cartoons from years past, reposted because some things never change.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fools!


Kathie Kerr, the gracious human whirlwind at Universal Press, sent out this photo of the just-installed sign at the new Andrews & McMeal headquarters in Kansas City. Evidently my syndicate is now in the fast food business, which, given the state of the economy, is probably wise.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Today's Cul de Sac


This Sunday strip started out as a daily, but a sudden late-developing seismic shift turned it into Sunday, BOOM, just like that. I think it turned out OK, what with the looming Alice, but I wish I'd had time to rejigger the panels some more so the third panel was the only large one. I don't do enough panel jiggering, or fool around enough with panel shape and size and order, mostly because I'm easily confused by things like that and I don't want to drag my readers down with me. Also because the jokes in CdS, such as they are, are scattered around the strip so haphazardly that if a reader gets lost amongst the panels he or she might circle for days looking for a punchline.


And here's a bonus mystery panel from the coming Tuesday's strip, just to make things more interesting.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Where I'm Going Tomorrow


My friend David Hagen, the only man I know who's met Hillary Clinton and Mr. T, has a show of his paintings up at the Century 21 Exhibit Space at 1711 Wilson Blvd in Arlington. And tomorrow there's a reception from 6 to 9! Will Hillary and Mr. T attend? Who cares? David'll be there and that's enough for me!

Cartherding


About five years ago I was in the parking lot of a big box store, probably Costco, and I saw the most sophisticated form of cartherding on the planet: guy driving a little electric tractor pushes a line of seeming hundreds of grocery carts gracefully across the lot. As he went by, warning lights flashing and horn beeping, everybody in the lot turned to watch, like he was an unexpected parade float. The fact that I remember this is further proof that the dial on my excitement meter only goes up to about five.


Not that Dill's goes any higher.

Monday, March 23, 2009

What I'm Reading


When I should be drawing. I'm poring over Stay Tooned, despite it's distasteful and off-putting cover (John! I'm kidding! aha-ha-ha!). It's been said that Stay Tooned is edited and published by John Read with the combined energy, charm and talent of ten men, plus two. And it's true! In this issue, I especially enjoyed meeting up again with RJ Matson, who I knew when he was living in DC in the 80s, reading Tom Richmond's excellent advice on drawing, and Benita Epstein's chicken cartoon, which makes me laugh every time I think of it. And I enjoyed everything else, once I got past that cover (and skipped pages 70 to 78; sheer boilerplate*).


I've reread the Stephan Pastis interview by Tom Heintjes six times at least. It's funny, passionate, misanthropic, inspiring and even thrilling. Makes me want to quit my job and be a syndicated cartoonist. And there are at least 800 articles I haven't even gotten to yet. I shouldn't waste so much time drawing so I can catch up on my reading. I'm still only on page 85 of Great Expectations, and I bought the book a year ago next week.

*John! I'm still kidding!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Dill


With the kind assistance of John Heltman, Dill now has his own Facebook page. Which is more than I ever expected for him (Dill, not John).

And Cul de Sac is on Facebook too! Who knew?

Also I'd forgotten this; Dill's last name is Wedekind, which seems like a really cheap joke. But I can't speak for his parents' sense of humor.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring Again


Here's one from '04, which as you can see is pretty similar to the one below.

Spring


Another lazy repost. I'll put up a slightly newer one later.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

St. Patrick's Day SpecPatular, Again


I posted this last year too. Lazy, lazy. But wouldn't this make a fine novelty placemat for your Irish pub?

And here, I'll make this educational, if only tangentially.
In 1963, General Mills vice president John Holahan inventively discovered that Circus Peanuts shavings yielded a tasty enhancement to his breakfast cereal. General Mills formalized the innovation and created Lucky Charms, the first breakfast cereal to contain marshmallow bits (or "marbits"). -Wikipedia

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Urquhart


"Otterloop" sounds like it's Dutch, probably, but "Urquhart" I know is Scottish. And it's as much fun to type as it is to say ("Urkut"). It's a mild reference to my favorite movie, Local Hero, and its multitasking hotelier Gordon Urquhart, and also to my own Scottish heritage. Thompson is a sept of the Clan MacTavish, but I've also got Malcolm (and Whitt and Church and Scattergood and other English names) in my familly.

It tickles me to suppose that there was some likelihood of a hyphenated name in the Otterloop household, until they said it out loud and thought better of it. But Madeline Urquhart Otterloop could console herself with the knowledge that one of the coolest castles in Scotland is Urquhart Castle. below, and that it sits on the banks of Loch Ness.