Washington Post Profiles Richard Thompson

UPDATE:

In the May 22 issue of The Washington Post Magazine, writer/artist Michael Cavna profiles

"Cul de Sac" creator RICHARD THOMPSON, as the cartoonist discusses his professional and personal journey, the state of the comics industry, life with Parkinson's disease -- and the birth and growth of Team Cul de Sac.

Thats all I know folks. Sounds like some good reading!

Daniel Boris and Hoxwinder Hall beams into the Team CDS

Daniel Boris is just a great cartoonist who has a bright future in front of him. His strip was

a Runner-Up winner in theCartoonistStudio.com on-line contest. He was

awarded the incredible prize of a 1-month mentorship with Rick Kirkman, co-creator of the very popular “Baby Blues” comic strip!

Good luck Daniel it is only a matter of time till we see you syndicated!

Daniel is a big fan of Richards and had this to say:

“Richard Thompson was one of the judges in the Washington Post’s “Americas Next Great Cartoonist” contest. I was a finalist in the contest, and Richard wrote some encouraging feedback to me. It was because of encouragement like his that I decided to keep going with my strip. A few months later, I got the opportunity to meet Richard at the Baltimore Comic Con. Richard spoke with me for what seemed like an hour, and endured all of my endless questions with a smile. Richard Thompson is one of the Good Guys, and his Cul de Sac a bright spot in the comics pages. Thank you, Richard!

I am currently working hard to get Hoxwinder Hall syndicated in newspapers everywhere.”

Deadline extention starts with Stephanie Piro

So today was the official unofficial deadline for art. As noted in an earlier post, we will be extending it until Fathers Day Weekend. Why? Well, first I am going to the Reubens to find more contributers and meet the the find folks of Andrews McMeel Publishing. Oh yeah, I am also going to be sending Mr. Thompson good vibes that weekend. Richard is up for cartoonist of the year! Cul de Sac is up for the division award for newspaper strip of the year!

The following weekend Mr. Thompson will be making debut at Heroescon in Charlotte NC. OK, it will be his third time but who is counting! The Team Cul de Sac Fanzine will be making its debut at the show! A true collectors item and folks it will a grand ol time. More details on the Heroescon soon!

I can never thank Mike and Craig for all the help they do for Team Cul de Sac.

So now to catch up. Ms. Piro is the Queen and KingFeatures and we are lucky to have her on our team. Here is a little about her. Ms. Piro submitted her art a few weeks ago.. I am behind on my deadlines!

Stephanie Piro is a cartoonist, illustrator and designer. She

is one of King Features’ team of women cartoonists, “Six

Chix”. (she is the Saturday chick). She also does the cartoon

panel “Fair Game”. Her work appears all over the place from

books to greeting cards plus she creates lots of other stuff for

her business the Strip T’s Design Company. Visit her website:

www.stephaniepiro.com

and her blog: http://stephanie-piro.blogspot.com/

Contact her at: stephaniepiro@gmail.com

Jason Dodge Says

Jason had so much fun.. he sent us another cool submission.

Jason Dodge is a very talented illustrator who is nice enough to help Team Cul de Sac out! I hope everyone enjoys this contribution! Here is a few words from Jason:

I have worked for some small local publications in the past. I'm a part-time freelance illustrator and cartoonist from Burlington, Vermont. I currently publish two web cartoons. Both of which are single panel gag cartoons. One for the Life With Dogs website (Fudge & Friends). This website is one of the top three dog related websites in the world. It gets tens of thousands of unique views each week and has several hundred thousand regular followers. This is why I chose my Fudge & Friends cartoon for your project (exposure for your auction and book).

The other cartoon I publish is called "To Err Is Bovine". It was named as one of the finalists in the recent Cartoonist Studios contest. I actually have a pretty funny idea for Team Cul De Sac using this one as well. It's a pretty new cartoon and does not get nearly as many views, but you can find it here: http://jasonsdrawingboard.blogspot.com/

Sneak at Stephan Pastis drawing Alice.

Stephan is the first person that I asked to do art for Team Cul de Sac. He said YES and he would help in anyway he could. So, Stephan will be running this Pearls Before Swine strip sometime this summer in support of Team Cul de Sac! I am sure this will be a Gem in the auction. I hear that originals strips are almost impossible to come by. Bid often and bid a lot of gold on this one!

John Rose has Snuffy and Alice having a bodacious time

Growing up,I loved Snuffy Smith. Snuffy was like most of my relatives in the mountains of Western North Carolina! So it was such a thrill when John rose wanted to donate art to Team cul de Sac. I am hoping Richard can incorporate the hat in future Cul de Sac Strips.

Here is a lil bio on John Rose:

Being the cartoonist for King Features' Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic

strip has been the greatest joy of John Rose's professional career.

The Virginia-born Rose graduated from James Madison University in 1986 with

a bachelor of fine arts degree, double-majoring in art and art history. He

joined Byrd Newspapers of Virginia in 1988, starting at the Warren Sentinel

in Front Royal and then moving to the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record. His

cartoons have won awards from the National Newspaper Association and the

Virginia Press Association. Besides appearing in the Byrd Newspaper chain,

his editorial cartoons are distributed by the Scripps Howard News Service.

He has had two editorial cartoon collections of his work published, the most recent being titled

Now This Is Where I Draw The Line! His cartoons have also been featured in the Best Editorial

Cartoons of the Year collections (Pelican Publishing) each year since 1994.

Since 1991, Rose has been creating Kids' Home Newspaper, a weekly children's

cartoon/activity page that is syndicated with Creators Syndicate. This

feature has spawned three activity books: Fun With Pup!, More Fun With Pup!

and Christmas Fun With Pup! (Pelican Publishing Company). He is also a contributing

writer and inker for Archie Comic Publications.

Since mid-1998 John Rose has been working on the Barney Google and Snuffy

Smith comic strip. First, as an inking assistant to cartooning legend, Fred

Lasswell and then as the strip's cartoonist after Lasswell's death in March

of 2001.

Rose enjoys meeting Snuffy Smith readers and frequently does Snuffy Smith

Cartooning Chalk Talks for civic organizations, corporate groups, schools

and festivals. Rose is a member of both the National Cartoonists Society and

the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. He lives with his wife,

Karen and daughters, Meredith and Sarah in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Norm Feuti “Alice’s Song”

Norm sent us “Alice’s Song” to blow everyone away. Norm this is just so creative and beautiful. Thank you so much! Look at the border folks!

Norm said:

"I wanted to create an homage to Richard’s characters out of the very media he enriches every day with his brilliant comic strip. The piece is entitled “Alice’s Song” and was inspired by the final panel of a strip from the first Cul De Sac book."

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Norm Feuti is a syndicated cartoonist, author, and freelance artist living in Plainville, Massachusetts.

Norm’s syndicated comic strip, Retail, presents a humorous look at the retail industry by chronicling the daily events at the fictitious Grumbel’s department store. Drawing from his 15 years of experience working in retail management, the humor of Retail plays out through the day-to-day trials and triumphs of four main Grumbel’s department store employees (Marla, Cooper, Val, and Stuart) and the customers they encounter. Retail is distributed worldwide by King Features. Retail can also be read daily on www.retailcomic.com.

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My professional website is www.normfeuticartoons.com

Phil Juliano from my hometown of Asheville

Phil ,Bill LaRocque and I all live in Asheville North Carolina. I met both guys at the monthly cartooning meeting last year. Bill has been friends with Richards for a billion years. Phil is an admirer of Richards and wanted to contribute to Team Cul de Sac. I just stalk Richard.

Phil will be attending the Reubens in a few weeks and will be my roommate. I am very lucky to have met Phil and I think he is going to be a big star one day. Years from now I can tell everyone I spent the night with Phil... back in the day.

Please check out his work http://bestinshowcomic.com/wordpress/.

Thanks buddy! See you in a few weeks! Now a few words about Phil.

Phil Juliano is a cartoonist and member of the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonist Society. He draws cartoons for twelve independent newspapers, magazines and web sites around the east coast and mid west. His comic strip, Best In Show, reflects his place in modern society...beer snob, coffee addict, baseball fan, victim of technology...He lives in Asheville, NC where he indulges in the city's greatest commodity...BEER.

Robert Steibel contributes!

Growing up in the DC area, there were always copies of the Washington Post piled around the house, so I've been a big fan of Richard Thompson's brilliant illustrations for many years. I recently heard Richard and some of his friends are starting a project called Team Cul de Sac where they're collecting original comics art to be auctioned off for the benefit of Parkinson's disease research. I just started doing my first official comic strip last week, so I feel pretty silly submitting a piece of my own work, but at least I have an excuse to send Richard this cartoon as a simple way of saying thanks for all of his great work over the years. Best wishes to Richard, his family, and everyone involved with Team Cul de Sac.

Bio:

Robert Steibel writes and draws the daily comic Apple Creek at <http://www.gocomics.com/apple-creek> You can see his other new comics projects like Wild Life at <http://www.robertsteibel.com/> Steibel also writes the daily Kirby Dynamics weblog for the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center at <http://kirbymuseum.net/blogs/dynamics/>

Team Cul de Sac deadline has been extended!

We have extended the deadline until June 17th! we did this for a couple of reasons. Lee Salem, Caty Neis, Richard Thompson and Chris Sparks ( thats me folks) will all be at the Reuben awards in less than three weeks. I will personally be asking cartoonist to contribute to Team Cul de Sac. Richard will be juggling, Caty might be Singing. It's going to be a great circus show for all ages..

I can't wait to meet everyone who has contributed so far!

The following weekend please visit heroescon in Charlotte NC. Team Cul de Sac will be releasing The Fanzine for the ages! Craig Fischer is putting all of this together for us. This is just an amazing con. I have been going since 1994 and hope to continue till 2194. Shelton Drum is not only the best at putting on a great show but also always helping whenever he can. Thanks Shelton!

The contributors are an all-star line-up: Derik Badman, Noah Berlatsky, Alex Boney, David Bordwell, Matthew J. Brady, Scott Bukatman, Johanna Draper Carlson, Isaac Cates, Rob Clough, Corey Creekmur, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Dustin Harbin, Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Abhay Khosla, Susan Kirtley, Sean Kleefeld, Costa Koutsoutis, Andrew Mansell, Robert Stanley Martin, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Ana Merino, Chris Pitzer, Mike Rhode, Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro, Chris Schweizer, Caroline Small, Tom Spurgeon, Ben Towle and Matthias Wivel.

The Zine will be a word-packed 40 pages, topped off by a cover by some fledgling artist named Richard Thompson.

We should have a table close to The one and only Richard Thompson. Please come buy and say hi to Craig, Mike Rhode , Richard and myself.

Buy our fanzine, donate money to Team Cul de Sac, or heck buy us food a drinks!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who is helping us. If you haven't yet....get busy!

Thanks,

Chris