Cul de Sac Coloring Contest!

Today at the Comic Riffs Blog Michael Cavna announces an exciting contest that will test the very fiber of your creativity, if your creativity is in fact fibrous. Details can be found here.

Fan Art Saturday Falls On A Saturday This Week Again!

This week we have two Very Special Friends of Cul de Sac - but aren't you all? (said in a Dame Edna Everage voice, please).

First, Ms. Jennifer Hart of Arlington, who writes and hand delivers to us a perceptive and funny weekly newsletter and who also bakes us excellent cookies, somehow found the time to draw these two excellent images, both of which I wish I'd've thought of.

This one, casting Petey as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and Alice as the Ghost of Christmas Past, really cracks me up. Who would play Scrooge? Mr. Danders, of course.
Here Mrs. Otterloop has some problems with her annual Winter Sweater, a theme I've visited a few times. And probably will again soon enough, but Jennifer got to this variation first, darnit.

Mr. Diego Ceresa, the renaissance man, artist and translator whose work we've lauded on this blog before, sent in this vivid image of Alice If She Had Pupils. It's haunting in the same way an Andy Warhol painting would be, if Andy Warhol had ever had the foresight to paint Alice Otterloop.

Mille grazie to Diego and Jennifer! I'm inspired, which I sure do need because I got a pile o' work to do.

Tall Tales Radio

That nice man Tom Racine- cartoonist, podcaster, voice extraordinaire- called me the other day and we had a nice long chat. Et voila, it's available as a podcast over at the excellent Tall Tales Radio! Tom's the one who sounds like Superman, I sound like a helium addict who plays the kazoo, and not well, either.

While you're over at TTR, please take the time to vote for Tom's mighty work at PodcastAwards.com. Did you know he's done 60 high-quality & informative podcasts? The man's indefatigable! And he looks good in a derby.

Golden Treasury Keepsake Garland of Classics

This is the first public glimpse of the cover rough for the Cul de Sac Golden Treasury Keepsake Garland of Classics, due to hit the shelves Spring of 2010. The Cul de Sac Golden Treasury Keepsake Garland of Classics will gather the complete contents of both previous Cul de Sac books, plus author commentary, drawing how-tos, grammar tips, suggestions for improved posture, recommendations for further reading and a favorite recipe for spoonbread, whatever the hell that is.

Fan Art Saturday Falls On A Saturday This Week Again!

Here we have two masterful examples of fan art. So masterful, in fact, that I'm considering passing the strip along to one of you people; I can't do this forever, you know. And then Cul de Sac would qualify as a "legacy" strip, making its position on the comic pages inviolable. I'd just keep 95% of the take, plus all rights into perpetuity. Deal?


From our old friend the cartoonist & animator Marc Crisafulli comes this heart-warming scene of an unexpected romance between Nara and Beni, As Nara is the most mature and accomplished student at Blisshaven (being 4 1/2) and Beni is more competent than most, especially Dill, I shouldn't be surprised. Please note the liveliness of the line and the subtle yet fanciful color. Marc, take a bow!


Here Mr. Evan "Doc" Shaner proposes a very likely explanation for the name Blammos. And he includes the redoubtable Mr. Danders, who I've sadly neglected for the last year. When I look at a piece like this it makes me wish I knew how to draw. Thank you, Doc, please take a bow! And thanks for the kind email (and my regards to your wife).

Alice at Two

Here's a bit of today's strip; Alice at two, or The Feral Child.

Fan Art Saturday Falls On A Saturday This Week

Here are two more excellent additions to our burgeoning collection of Fan Art.

First, from the multi-talented triple-threat omni-directional Chris Eliopolous, this terrifying preview of what could happen if Petey should somehow stumble into the presence of the awful Uh-Oh Baby. Thanks, Chris! It's bone-chilling!

Next, cartoonist, blogger, founder of Falling Rock State Park and longtime long distance friend of CdS Josh Shalek limns Petey and his own Uh-Oh Baby, the dread Ernesto. Truly horrifying, especially as Ernesto is based on a real person, or possibly two. Thanks, Josh!  

More TK, as we say in journalism.

Something Halloweeny Part II

With much help from the mighty Diego Ceresa, renaissance man. Below is the original in English. It seems less satisfying somehow.

Something Halloweeny

From 2006. The flying candy was fun to draw. Below, the great Diego Ceresa's masterful recasting in Italian.