Richard Thompson's Blog, page 44

If you've been in Angouleme, France recently

© FIBD, Jorge Fidel Alvarez... then you most likely were there for the now-wrapped-up 39th annual Festival International de la Bande Desinée. For three giddy days high-ranking cartoonists are borne on floats through Angouleme's medieval streets and the populace cheers, throws flowers, smothers them with kisses and makes them hold symposiums. From the photos I've seen, these are people with interesting faces and they can wear hats and scarves with great aplomb.

by Matthias Wivel, I think Or something like that. Last year the formidable Art Spiegelman won the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême , an honor that brings with it all kinds of responsibilities, like putting together most of this year's show. So in 2012 he was honored for a lifetime of work in comics' inky vineyards with a career-spanning show of his original art; pages and pages of Maus, New Yorker covers, Garbage Pail Kids, Raw Magazine, etc. And, with the able help of Bill Kartalopoulos, Spiegelman curated a Private Museum of cartoons that inspired him or that tickles his fancy. In this show were gems like Justin Green's epochal Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, works by Rodolphe Töpffer, Chris Ware, Walt Kelly, George Herriman, Bill Watterson, Daniel Clowes, Jack Davis, Loinel Feininger, Ernie Bushmiller, Caran d'Ache, Patrick McDonnell, Los Bros, Hernandez, and on and on. In fact, the list went on so far it reached me, and the cartoon below was slipped into the show.
It'll be there, sitting with the quality, till May 6 2012, in case you find yourself in Angouleme, France.

Fan Art Sunday

This blog has a long and noble tradition of posting art by fans of Cul de Sac, most of whom draw a whole lot better than the regular guy. One such is Austin Milne, who sent in this deft portrayal of Alice, Petey and Dad. He says he's drawn them all, "from Alice's imagination," which I like because it shows he's figured out the whole point if the strip. And when he's got a moment, I hope he'll explain it to me.

I'm kidding. Thank you very much, Austin! Continue to draw every day, splash around with watercolor and doodle in the margins. The last is probably the most important.

Team Cul de Sac Has A Cover

Just a few tweaks and some color and there 'tis.

Today's Cul de Sac from Two Days Ago, January 22 2012

My original plan was to have a week of Mom reading Lewis Carroll to Alice, with Alice responding in various annoying ways. Like here, where she's fixating on some pointless digression because that's what four-year-olds often do.

I don't remember why but the week got boiled down to a Sunday. It's an excuse to try drawing like the formidable John Tenniel, whose definitive Alice illustrations show Wonderland in careful, other-worldly detail and solidity. Which was a stupid thing to do, as I discovered after fussing with the counterfeit Tenniels and using up half a bottle of ProWhite on Alice alone. I meant to save the roughs for this and post them. They were nice and loose and got a semi-Tennielly effect in a few quick lines without any worrying but I must have chucked them.

Millions of illustrators have taken a shot at illustrating Carrol's Alice. His characters and situations exert a powerful visual fascination; you want to draw a croquet game with flamingo mallets just to see what it'd look like. For me, of all the other artists who've tried, only a two have brought something worthwhile to putting Wonderland on paper- Ralph Steadman and Deloss McGraw. But neither is likely to unseat Tenniel as Court Painter to the White Queen.

Happy 203rd Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

Oh good, more repeats.

Thanks

For all the supportive comments and emails. I was glad to hear from so many that you don't mind repeats* and that you'll still be here when I get back. Till then please don't touch any of my stuff.

*Paul Karasik, I'm looking at you.

Today's Cul de Sac, January 15 2012

...is, as you might've noticed, a repeat of the strip from January 18, 2009. If you hadn't noticed then please go ahead and enjoy it (exploding socks!). But I'm guessing you noticed and you probably noticed that recently there've been a whole lot of Cul de Sac repeats and you're too nice to say anything (though you're likely thinking, Whoa, somebody sure takes a lot of vacations). I mean, c'mon, what's going on here?

Well, I'm taking some time off. Some more time off, three or four weeks. I'm about to start a program of physical therapy sessions designed for people with Parkinson's. I've only been in for an evaluation, but the therapy largely consists of big, exaggerated movements and sweeping silly walks that will so embarrass your body that it'll start behaving itself, I hope. Also I'll learn ten ways to defeat a mugger by falling on him.

Garry Trudeau likened daily newspaper comics to a public utility that delivers its service so regularly that any interruption is seen as some kind of major systems failure. .Though well aware of this, the kind folks at Universal Press have been greatly supportive and urged me to do whatever I needed to do. So I'm'a gonna.

Team Cul de Sac Book Available for Pre-Order at Sparking Design

  Sparking Design, the web & print firm run by the indefatigable Chris Sparks and the irresistible Jamie King, has got the goods! Here's the product information-
Hardcover: 144 pagesPublisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (June 5, 2012)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 1449419666ISBN-13: 978-1449419660 Drawings of Alice et al by better cartoonists than me. Why, it's worth it for that sweet ISBN alone! Not to mention you'll be helping the Michael J. Fox Foundation in its good work opening a big can of whupass on Parkinson's Disease!
Here's that link one more time!

Triskedecaphobia

Here's something from the Post Weekend section from 1996 for Friday the Thirteenth. I also ran it last year, but almost too late for Friday 13th, so here it is early, so you'll have time to prepare. The cover was watercolor, one of the first large one I tried. The inside drawings were pen & ink with colored pencil and pastel blotted with Liquin (a weird mix but it reproduces well enough on newsprint). I wish I'd spent more time on the demons unrolling a calendar on the first page. See also here.

We're Number One!

 
The Cul de Sac Golden Trasury; A Keepsake Garland of Classics is now #1 in Amazon's Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Comics & Graphic Novels > Comic Strips & Cartoons! I have no clear idea what this means, and it looks like it's practically free, but number one is number one.
By the time you read this it will have sunk into the low 6 digits, but I'm momentarily elated.