Richard Thompson, 1957 - 2016

I began reading Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac toward the end of its run. I had started seeing a lot about it after Thompson won the Reuben for best cartoonist in 2011 and decided to check it out. Like everyone else, I fell in love with it and was saddened to see it come to an end in 2012 due to Thompson's battle with Parkinson's disease. Sadly, Thompson passed away yesterday at the age of 58. He had spent his retirement from cartooning advocating for a cure to Parkinson's. He worked with other cartoonists to get donations and funding and was even able to get reclusive Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson to not only re-enter the public spotlight but paint a portrait of Thompson's character Petey Otterloop.

Thompson had the rare distinction of being placed with Charles Schulz and Watterson as one of the most inspirational cartoonists of our time. Cul de Sac was as highly regarded as Peanuts and the art as unique as Calvin and Hobbes. It is sad that we won't be able to see Thompson triumphantly come out of retirement but we are glad that he is out of pain and that he may rest in peace.

The first Cul de Sac strip. September 10, 2007.

The last Cul de Sac strip. September 23, 2012.

The Lockhorns

Leroy and Loretta sure do like to smash things. Yesterday, it was the car. Today, the washing machine. I can only assume that Leroy is carrying the dryer someplace to throw it off a cliff.

Beetle Bailey

Why is it taking Beetle so long to realize that his watch isn't under there? His bed is the only thing in a twenty foot radius. You can literally stand five feet away and see everything under and around that bed.

Mark Trail

Pfft. I'm from Kansas and we have people greeting us by blowing conch shells as you drive up to our hotels too.

New Adventures of Queen Victoria

Rio Grande River Is Redundant--You Should Know That

Lio

The New Adventure of Queen Victoria

I was confused about this strip but thankfully, someone in the comments pointed out that this is reference to a GoFundMe that Pab Sungenis has started to help pay his medical bills. If you would like to contribute, you can go here.

Mark Trail

For some reason, I've been following this stupid Mark-Trail-trapped-in-a-cave storyline and it seems we may be almost done. Now, I've let a lot slide in this story from Mark being able to hold his breath for several minutes underwater and his companions being able to show up exactly where Mark is quicker than Mark did but I refuse to believe that they are in a river that is, at most, only 4 miles across.

And how are they supposed to know which way is north? Does Mark have a compass? I'd say they could just use the flow but that river looks pretty still. Honestly, this comic strip is sometimes so irresponsible.

panel from Ripley's Believe It Or Not

Not even Ripley's Believe It Or Not can leave poor Pluto and his slow punk-ass alone.

Beetle Bailey

We've seen the Halftracks really go at it in this comic strip but this is the most disturbing. I can picture Martha actively making sure not to get pregnant by her husband by any means necessary. Lying about birth control, sneaking out for morning-after pills, and, worst of all, taking "vacations" to have dangerous back-alley abortions so as not to leave a paper trail. Meanwhile, Amos sits next to her, depressed that he is has no offspring and has, in his mind, failed his wife as a man for not giving her any children for her to dote on. Ha! Marriage!

Bruce Tinsley's Self Portrait

Crock

I just wanted to point out the disembodied hand of the reporter holding the microphone in the last panel. The angle on that last panel is just hard to fathom. The TV camera isn't even anywhere near Poulet in the first panel but right in front of him in the last. But what do I know? I don't have a nationally syndicated comic strip.

Mallard Fillmore

It's perfectly clear that this guy isn't a teenage girl, right? Also, being transgender doesn't change your age nor is there such a thing as a teenage girls' bathroom. And why does no one ever mention the stalls in a women's restroom? No one also ever mentions that there were no bathroom laws prior to this--whether it was just based on the honor system or we didn't care, I don't know but all this bathroom stuff is new. People also don't seem to realize that banning transgender people from the bathroom they are comfortable with does not keep out the people who don't belong. And just to give you an idea of why we should let trans teens and adults choose the bathroom they are comfortable with:

Charlie, 13, male-to-female.

D.W. Trantham, male-to-female.

Chase Culpepper, male-to-female

Jordan Morgan, female-to-male

Britt Couturier, female-to-male

The transgender community are not transgender because it's part of some liberal agenda, they are not transgender because they are perverts, they are not transgender to play a prank or confuse you. They are transgender because it's who they are and it makes them happy. We all have the right to be happy and they are no different and shame on you if you want to get in the way of that happiness.

And now to end on something upbeat...

The New Adventures of Queen Victoria

$10 To Stop Unwanted Telemarketing Calls

So most of you think Veeblefester is either a bank president or lobbyist for the tobacco industry. I'd go with either lobbyist or communications company president because cable companies rob people blind.

Also, this is my last entry for a while. I'll still be around doing the Daily Comics Review every Saturday and the 20th will be here before you know it. But on to the comics.


Fade to black. Close curtain. The end.

No matter how much you hate Obama or how much you hate McCain, we are in for an amazing race.

Oh, Cathy. Always "Ack"ing your way through life. Why is life so difficult for you? It doesn't have to be. A bowl of Healthy Choice, a little bit of sugar, milk, eat. It's not that hard, Cathy. It's not that hard.

Old person bodily functions are funny.

So many puns. Blacking out...Head imploding...Skin--spontaneously combusting.......

Ah, telemarketing. I worked for a company for about two days before I was fired that was technically a telemarketing type of job. It was horrible. Someday I'll tell you about it.

See you on the 20th.