Congratulations are in order to Gaithersburg High School Graduate Richard Thompson, whose comic strip, “Cul de Sac” enters syndication today. Quoting his editor, Tom Shroder,
Getting a strip syndicated is a big deal, and this one might be a bigger deal than most. The re-launch of “Cul de Sac” has drawn an unsolicited endorsement from none other than Bill Watterson, the creator of the now-retired mega-strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” a man so famously reclusive that he’s listed by name in the Wikipedia entry on “recluses.” Watterson never comments on anything. But about “Cul de Sac” he wrote: “I have high hopes that Thompson will bring a much-needed jolt of energy to the daily newspaper. We have a real talent here.”
And quoting Alan Gardner in the Daily Cartoonist,
Richard Thompson’s new feature Cul De Sac just might be the break away comic strip release this year and not because it has some big name endorsements from Bill Watterson and Pat Oliphant, but because it is a really polished feature that has some depth to it that is rare for a new comic release. Perhaps having run in the Washington Post Magazine for the last three years has given it a chance to mature and find its center.
Reading this strip over the past few years, and Mr. Thompson’s “Richard’s Poor Almanac” for years before that, has been a real pleasure, and I wish him the best of luck and continued success in the future. I do wonder though: Is the Washington Post not going to run the dailies?
