Richard Thompson's Blog, page 43

Eight

Cul de Sac is now eight years old, having launched in the Washington Post Magazine in its 2004 Valentine's Day issue. Above is the first sketch and the drawing used on the Post Mag cover the week it debuted. Originally it was going to be on the plastic bag holding the paper too, but that didn't happen. Which is a relief, as it might've scared away Post readers and depressed sales.
This proto-Alice is a little weirder looking than the more recent model. But I like the sketch a lot, and I wish I could draw the strips so loosely. Drawing things in little boxes cramps looseness and forces the lines to behave and stay in place. Especially when they have to share the available space with words which, for reasons of coherence, get more elbow room and the choice spot in each panel.

The Unintentional Adventures Of Danders - Now in Hi-Def 3-D

My newest ambition is to be the George Lucas of the comic strip. To this end I'll be reissuing some really old Cul de Sacs in unnecessary spiffy new hi-res scans! We'll start with episodes 1 and 2 of Mr. Danders first unintentional adventure from way back in March of 2005-


Actually, I'm doing these for the Italian comics magazine Linus and figured I might as well feed 'em to the blog too. More episodes to come...

Westminster Dog Show

I drew this in early 2003 for Washingtonian Magazine, one of the few pieces I did for them. Every year when the Westminster Dog Show rolls around, like clockwork, I forget to post it.

Dang

That is one incredible list. I'm speechless.

More Holy Tango

Her are a few more caricatures from Francis Heaney's Holy Tango of Literature. You'll remember that Francis took the author's name, anagramized it and used the result as the author's work, which he then turned into a parody of that author's work.
Matsuo Bashō, HAS B.O. a haiku. "Why is that monk still wearing, Winter robes in June?"
Geraldine Brooks, WE LONG BONY DORKS. "We long bony dorks We  Real big on quarks. We  Quote Python lines. We  know arcs and sines."
Emily Dickinson, SKINNY DOMICILE. "That's why I don't go out that much- I can't fit through that Portal. How dumb- to waste my Social Life On Plans to be- immortal-"
Robert Frost, BRR FOOTREST. "My house is cozy, warm, and small, With just one thing that wrecks it all: The ottoman that makes me fall, The ottoman that makes me fall."
A.A.Milne, AN E-MAIL. "Whatever I do, there's always Pooh, there's always Pooh and Me. 'Let's write an r-mail,' I say to Pooh. "That sounds like a wonderful thing to do,' He says. I say, 'I think so to.'"
Samuel Beckett, BAKE ME CUTLETS. Drammatis Personae: VLADIMIR,  the co-host of a cooking show  ESTRAGON, the other co-host   LUCKY, their guest

Cul de Sac for February 5, 2012

This is the last Sunday I drew before my hiatus. It's one of those strips that tickles me no end, which is kinda rare.What I most enjoy is a strip that spins in a circle then takes off in an unexpected direction and this one does that if nothing else. I hit a wall in writing it until the phrase "spray cheese" popped into my head then all the pieces fell into place (note to playwrights, novelists & New Yorker short story writers; when in a bind think "spray cheese"). Otherwise the only thing I struggled with was the expression on Alice's face. That took a stack of paper and half a bottle of ProWhite to achieve; you'll note the relative stiffness in Alice's face in the first panel after I'd tweaked it into lifelessness. By the third panel I had it down.

Alice, you'll remember, has tried to wink before.

Newt Gingrich Caricatures- Post 'Em If You Got 'Em

I've posted the Newt above before. I don't remember what the story was (probably a piece about his post-speakership life), but it was drawn for US News & World Report. As was the one below-
Which was pretty obviously for a story on Newt's departure from the Speakership of the House in 1998. I like the upper drawing better than the lower, though the flag background in the second looks good. My chances to post old drawings of Newt Gingrich are running out, so I'm grabbing them while I can. Like I've said, he's fun to draw, with that enormous, tetradodecahedral head and that teeny, obnoxious mouth. Sometimes I really miss drawing caricatures.

Holy Tango of Literature

 I tried to find this drawing of Robert Burns last week for Burns Day but I looked in all the wrong places. I drew it to illustrate a great book, the Holy Tango of Literature by the polymathical word-sleight-of-handist Francis Heaney. The trick that Francis played here is to take a well known writer and anagramize his or her name into a title from which he spins a parody. Thus Robert Burns becomes "Robber Runts," in which the great Scots poet is bedeviled by "Wee, sneaky, glowrin, vill'nous thiefies" in rhythms so Burnsian that it screams to be read aloud by Craig Ferguson.
My favorite is Heaney's remix of William Blake, titled "Likable Wilma," which I'll quote entire:

Wilma, Wilma, in thy blouse,

Red-haired prehistoric spouse,

What immortal animator,

Was thy slender waist's creator?


When the Rubble clan moved in,

Was Betty jealous of thy skin?

Thy noble nose, thy dimpled knee?

Did he who penciled Fred draw thee?


Wilma, Wilma, burning bright, ye

Cartoon Goddess Aphrodite, 

Was it Hanna or Barbera

Made thee hot as a caldera?

I'll post more as I find them. All literature (c) Francis Heaney

Something Unseasonal

This is from 2006, though I shortened it for a daily in 2008. It's just been freshly scanned for a project and I thought I might as well post it here. This is exactly how I handled the news that it was time to leave the beach, and I still do.

That Time Again

Again. Or this.