Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for August 04, 2016

Mark Tatulli already did the out-of-body experience in his Heart comic. I wonder if he got it from here. To think that is actually real!

No, she’s just ahead of her time. Like, three weeks.

Did you draw yourself drawing that comics, Loris? And then explaining your comics to others?

Same Loris.

R.I.P. Richard Thompson—-I’ve really enjoyed Cul de Sac. You will be missed, but, better, you will be remembered.

Talk about a fast draw.

Mr. Other Spinnerack (a.k.a. Emilio) will have a difficult time catering to the diverse wants and needs of his cartoon class. —Except for Loris Slothrop. She has already completed the course….

Wah! I wanna go to cartoon camp!

Loris is the one who’ll end up with the career.

I didn’t know Richard Thompson had died. After a stunned silence, I took out my collections of Cul de Sac and read through some choice strips. Richard’s afterword in book 2 was reassuring, as if he were reaching back from cartoonist’s heaven to reassure us that things weren’t going to be all that bad. But we have no more Pogo. No more Calvin & Hobbes. No more Cul de Sac. And Doonesbury is in semi-retirement. No more Opus and Bloom County. (well, that one is anyone’s guess) Zippy the Pinhead still delivers on occasion, and there are a few genuine cartoonists left, but we’re talking the cream of the cream here. There is a huge sucking vacuum in the newspaper comics medium right now, and it would be nice if someone would give birth to a fully grown comic genius who can start on Monday. Please.

In the meantime, my heart is filled with gratitude for the people like Richard, Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Garry Trudeau, Berkeley Breathed, Bill Griffith, Bill Watterson, and surely the many I’ve overlooked, for taking the road less traveled and sharing it with us, which has made all the difference. And especially a heartfelt thanks to Richard Thompson. A talent like yours will not be seen here again for a long, long time.

Now, it’s hard for a grown man to cry; the valves and levers just don’t work; maybe the tank is empty. But I’m going to go try to get the waterworks running again. RT deserves no less. Maybe the answers are in his comics.

@snarkmYeah. That’s the one I mean… oh wait, that was astral protection. Now I remember. Guess I got the two of them mixed up. And Petey experiences this often? I’m relatively new to this comic, though I’m glad I was able to reach it before the creator passed away. I wish I could have known about this sooner though.