Cul de Sac (comic strip)

This article is about the comic strip named "Cul de Sac". For other uses, see Cul-de-sac (disambiguation).

Cul de Sac
Cul de Sac strip from 2008-02-05.
Author(s)	Richard Thompson
Website	http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/
Launch date	February 2004
Syndicate(s)	Universal Press Syndicate
Publisher(s)	Andrew McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)	Humor, family life, children

Cul de Sac is a comic strip created by Richard Thompson and distlributed by Universal Press Syndicate to 120 American newspapers.

The central character is four-year-old Alice Otterloop, and the strip depicts her daily life at pre-school and at home. Thompson, also known for his weekly Richard's Poor Almanac strip in the Washington Post, began Cul de Sac as a limited strip in the Washington Post in February 2004. In September 2007, Cul de Sac entered daily syndication with the Universal Press Syndicate. Digital distribution is by Uclick GoComics.

Characters and story

Universal Press Syndicate describes Cul de Sac as "a light-hearted comic strip centered around a four-year-old girl and her suburban life experiences on a cul-de-sac with her friends Beni and Dill, older brother Petey and her classmates at Blisshaven Academy pre-school. Alice describes her father's car as a "Honda-Tonka Cuisinart" and talks to the class guinea pig, Mr. Danders. She has the typical older brother who plays jokes on her, and she contemplates ways to keep the scary clown from jumping out of the jack-in-the-box with friends."

Alice Otterloop

The strip's main character. An often naive and inexperienced four-year old girl living in suburbia. The strip typically focuses on her exposure to new things and her commentary on these experiences. She enjoys dancing on manhole covers.

Petey Otterloop

Alice's older brother Petey is quiet, bookish, more experienced and is Alice's primary source of information on new phenomena. The eight-year old has been called "King of the Picky Eaters" by his mother, however according to the internet rankings he still not the world's pickiest eater. Petey often describes mundane school and suburban experiences in a mythic style as though the information was being passed down from generation to generation of school children.

Madeline Otterloop

Alice and Petey's mother is a stay-at-home mom taking care of the day to day running of the household. Her first name, Madeline, was not revealed in the strip but rather on Thompson's blog. She is often seen driving the children around in a van "so neutral that it does not occur in nature". Mrs. Otterloop's maiden name is Urquhart.

Peter Otterloop

As with Petey and Alice's mother, their father's name, Peter, was not revealed in the strip, only on Thompson's blog. He is seen less frequently and works a daily office job at an unnamed location. Before the strip was rebooted for syndication, his employer was described as the Federal "Department of Consumption". However, a number of Washington, D.C.-specific features have disappeared since the reboot and his employer has not been mentioned since. According to the official website, he currently works as the "Assistant Director of Pamphlets at the U.S. Department of Consumption, Office of Consumer Complaints". He commutes to work in a car that Alice describes as a 'Honda-Tonka Cuisinart'.

Dill Wedekind and Beni

Alice's classmates and next-door neighbors, as well best friends. Dill is possibly the most eccentric character in the strip, frequently making strange or unrelated statements. A running joke is his reference to his disreputable older brothers. Beni appears to be technically minded and is skilled with tools. Alice is usually seen with the two of them at school or around the neighborhood.

Ernesto

Ernesto was a crossing guard that Petey met and initially thought existed only in his imagination. He wears glasses and is always well-groomed in a tie and vest. When he was fired from his crossing guard position, he blamed Petey. He declared his affection for Viola and claimed a super-power (putting people's feet to sleep). Petey just wishes he would go away.

Viola D'More

Viola, a girl in Petey's school band, plays the marimba. She wears glasses and has curly hair. She calls Petey "Petey Potterpoop" and seems to enjoy embarrassing him, although she is always friendly and has never been deliberately cruel. Their relationship remains ambiguous, Petey sometimes seems to like her and at other times is almost indifferent. Alice calls her Petey's "almost girlfriend". Viola has an over-sized backpack with many adornments, one of which (a purple unicorn) she gave Petey as a charm against Ernesto. It apparently worked since Petey did not see Ernesto for several days after. For a long time, her last name was uncertain: Ernesto called her 'Viola D'More' when he was claiming her as 'his love' (see Viola d'amore). The D'More surname was confirmed in a June 2010 strip.

Marcus

A classmate of Alice. Bespectaculed and nervy, Marcus is scared of his mother who is always documenting him for scrapbooks.

Ms. Bliss

The only teacher at Blisshaven Academy, a pre-school attended by Alice, Beni, Dill, and Marcus. She loves education and is usually cheerful. She often becomes irritated with the children's constant antics. She has been engaged multiple times to Timmy Fretwork, the Banjo Man, although they have yet to wed.

Mr. Danders

Blisshaven's pet guinea pig. Mr. Danders claims to be well read and has many literary opinions. He often speaks using eloquent, long words.

Recurring themes

Mr. Otterloop's car

The car is tiny, and a recurring visual and verbal gag is how impossibly small the car is. Alice says it is "half cuisinart".

Manhole cover

Alice and her friends use a manhole cover in a nearby vacant lot as a soapbox for performance art or to declare opinions.

Shoebox dioramas

Petey is slowly documenting the history of man through the medium of shoebox dioramas which he keeps beneath his bed.

Big Shirley

Big Shirley is a large, friendly dog that belongs to Alice's grandmother. Alice is completely terrified of Big Shirley, once even abandoning her precious toy bunny Polyfil to save herself from the dog's slobbering clutches.

Little Neuro

A strip-within-the-strip, a parody of Little Nemo. Petey's favorite reading, a strip about a little boy who hardly ever stirs from his bed.

Books

The first book of collected Cul de Sac strips was released September 1, 2008 by Andrews McMeel Publishing. It includes the pre-syndication Washington Post strips in color, as well as a foreword by Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), who praised Thompson's work:

I thought the best newspaper comic strips were long gone, and I've never been happier to be wrong. Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac has it all—intelligence, gentle humor, a delightful way with words, and, most surprising of all, wonderful, wonderful drawings. Cul de Sac's whimsical take on the world and playful sense of language somehow gets funnier the more times you read it. Four-year-old Alice and her Blisshaven Preschool classmates will ring true to any parent. Doing projects in a cloud of glue and glitter, the little kids manage to reinterpret an otherwise incomprehensible world via their meandering, nonstop chatter. But I think my favorite character is Alice's older brother, Petey. A haunted, controlling milquetoast, he's surely one of the most neurotic kids to appear in comics. These children and their struggles are presented affectionately, and one of the things I like best about Cul de Sac is its natural warmth. Cul de Sac avoids both mawkishness and cynicism and instead finds genuine charm in its loopy appreciation of small events. Very few strips can hit this subtle note.

A second book of strip reprints, Children at Play: A Cul de Sac Collection, was published in 2009 by Andrews McMeel. It features a foreword by writer-artist Mo Willems.

Cul de Sac Animated

A series of Cul de Sac animated shorts has been produced by RingTales and are being hosted by Babelgum. These shorts are thirty second to minute-long animated versions of one of the comic strips. Thompson's wife provides the voice of Madeline Otterloop, Alice and Petey's mother. Furthermore, Thompson has hinted that an adult does the voice of Dill.

External links

• Cul de Sac official site
• Cul de Sac daily
• Cul de Sac Animated Shorts