Richard Thompson's Blog, page 42

The Final Cover

Dorothy O'Brien et al at Andrews & McMeel did all of the work and Chris Sparks made me post this. I just do what I'm told*.

And so should you. Go order this, or at least bid a lot at the auction this summer.

Old Portfolio Find: The Clinton Years

Since we're all wallowing in Bubba nostalgia, what with the Clinton documentary on TV that I didn't watch, I thought I'd put up some old tearsheets of that era. Because I don't know what else to do with them. All are from US News & World Report, except for Kabuki Linda Tripp, who's from the New Yorker.






Q. What have we learned today?

A. Nothing ages faster than old political gossip.

The Lost Unintentional Adventures Of Danders: A Missing Piece is Found

Here, thanks to the archives of Jennifer Hart, is the next-to-last strip in the previously posted Lost Adventure of Danders. I forget what happened in the last installment, but this one I recalled semi-clearly.As I said in the comments under the previous post-

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.

The information on the Smithsonian's blue whale model from the DC City Paper. I hope it's accurate. Also I hope Alice found a drinking fountain.

Today's Cul de Sac, February 22 2012

This strip is a fine example of the kind of multigenerational collaboration that all families should strive to emulate. But only a family as talented as the Flying Jantzes of Savannah could pull off successfully. Drawn by Michael, written by daughter Collette and starring, in an unseen cameo, son Harrison, with the cooperation and support of mom Nicole.

Mike wrote this earlier today in the comments section under the strip on Gocomics-

Today's strip was written by my 9-Y-O daughter (who also voices Alice in the animated shorts)…and she wrote the gag from a real conversation she and I had while looking for a sweater in her room…in reality? The candy was still in the bucket, half eaten AND there was a Christmas gift unopened! She took the original cartoon to her fourth grade class today for show and tell. Signed, a proud papa.

As usual, the best strips come from real life. Anyone wishing to learn how to animate the Jantze way should take one of Mike's courses at SCAD.

And read The Norm, of course.      

Mardi Gras! Tonight!

Once again the party-loving burghers of Clarendon are throwing open their streets for the friendliest  Mardi Gras parade in, or near, DC. You're invited to come on over and let some bontomps roolay tonight at 8. For fun it's unbeadable! Poster courtesy of Bono Mitchell.

Some scenes from previous Mardi Gras parades-

2009-



2008-

Happy Presidents' Day Memories

  

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.

The Magnificent Six

Tomorrow you'll notice a slight difference in Cul de Sac. For one thing, the strip will likely debut at at least #4 on the New York Times Bestsellers List of Children's Picture Books. That's because it'll be written and drawn by the Magnificent Mo Willems , whose work always appears on the NYT list pretty much soon as it occurs to him. Mo very kindly agreed to take over the strip for a week to give me time to laze around the house and eat store-bought pie.

Mo's week of CdS leads the way for a month or so of guest artists, all of whom will make you forget I ever even tried to draw the thing. At least until I show up in a month or so and forcibly remind you. Other luminaries doing Otterloop duty will be Lordly Lincoln Peirce, Superior Stephan Pastis, Mighty Michael Jantze, Cool Corey Pandolph and Keen Ken Fisher *. For a more detailed and informative article about this, please visit Mike Cavna's Comic Riffs blog or a brief article on the size of my feet at Robot 6.

I'm speechless with delight that I'll get more time to laze around and eat pie. And I can't wait to see if they'll come up with gags I can reuse later, with a little tweaking. These guys are my heroes!

*Better known as Ruben Bolling's lawyer

The Unintentional Adventures Of Danders in Hi-Def 3-D, Part 3

Oh what the heck, here's the rest of it.
The end.

The Unintentional Adventures Of Danders in Hi-Def 3-D, Part 2

We return to our epic from days gone by, featuring a character unseen for some years.
It was right about here that I figured out that Danders is protean by nature; he's mutable, capable of infinite variation, surviving by assimilation and camouflage. Or maybe he's just so bland that he's forever confused for something or someone else. He's such a dull little lump that no one notices he's not what they think he is.

This strip cracks me up still, after 8 years. I think it's because he's lost sight of the whole point of his job, and I like his piratical gobbledy-gook.
Whatever, I still distrust talking animals.