Here's to Cul de Sac

Remember how, on the first day I created this blog, I said that I'd put some of my favorite Cul de Sac animations? Well, here we are.







You can see other Cul de Sac animations at this address.

If you haven't checked it out already, Cul de Sac is a comic strip revolving around Alice Otterloop and her preschool friends.

I've been able to meet its creator, Richard Thompson, once, and he was kind enough to sign my Cul de Sac book.

Also, he commented here once - it's the post where I told everyone I had won the contest. He has his own blog here.

You can expect another comic of mine soon!

Strip Eight

Here we are, at the eighth comic in the first batch of strips.

I don't think I've mentioned "Carnage Man" yet.

"Carnage Man" is the superhero the kids worship as their idol. Carnage Man has his own gory TV show, several R rated movies, and a few M20+ rated games that they all play. And I came up with him myself. Maybe I can do a series of strips where I reveal the complete elaborate backstory of Carnage Man and a list of all the media he appears in. If I'm feeling really confident that I won't screw up one day, I might even draw Carnage Man.

Also, if you look closely, you'll see that the box Alex is holding says "PIRATED" over it. Looking back on this, I think it might have been a better idea to have Mike give out pirated video game add-ons, since he's an expert computer hacker and such. But I guess, to an extent, it works for Alex to give out torrents of video games - anyone can illegally download something, especially a smart guy like Alex. You'll learn about Mike and his ability regarding computers (and lethal weapons) in a later strip.

I also kinda wish I had drawn at least one "Learning is Cool" poster behind Alex, because it looks like he's in a bland setting (schools are covered with posters expressing motivation and learning). If I ever change my old strips at all, that's a change I'll make.

But you won't see a bookshelf behind him, though. I'm through with those.

Washington Post Comics

Here's a link to my comic in the Washington Post, along with the four other winners.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/WashingtonPost/Content/Epaper/2011-03-20/Yx1.pdf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/WashingtonPost/Content/Epaper/2011-03-20/Yx3.pdf

They're in .pdf form. You can open them with Adobe Reader if you don't have the program already.

Guess What I Saw Today?

You guessed it - my strip in the Washington Post inserts! They picked one that originally appeared in my school paper (the December 2009 issue). It probably doesn't make sense to other people to see a Christmas strip in March, though. Here it is: 

The Washington Post also sent me a nice letter, below.



You can click on the image to make the letter bigger. That t-shirt was about three sizes too big for me. I shall wear it proudly in five years when it fits me.

You can see the article in appeared in tomorrow - I get my Sunday inserts Saturday. I'll link to it when I see it tomorrow.

Strip Seven

I have a good joke too!

Why did the shark ride the tricycle?
Because he lost a tooth!

That was my best joke, even though it makes no sense.

The hardest part about this strip was the panel lines. I had to make FIVE panel boxes. There were also a lot of words. Those two things are hardest to do.

On a separate note, in case you were wonering, I do not watch American Idol. But I have seen snippets of people who think they can sing on that show. They can't.

Something I Can Tell my Kids

When I'm an adult, I can tell my kids something cool.
And when I'm older I can tell my grandkids the same cool thing.

Do YOU want to know the cool thing?

A couple weeks ago, there was a contest in the KidsPost asking for submissions for a comic strip. So, I entered.

Today a phone call came from KidsPost, telling me that out of the hundred entries that arrived, my comic was one out of five chosen.

Isn't that something cool you'd tell your kids? Or grandkids?

My comic will be in the March 20 KidsPost. I'll post a link to the article when it pops up on the Washington Post website.

Cool, huh?

That's why I'm going to tell this to my kids and grandkids when I have kids and grandkids.

Strips Five AND Six

That's right, there are TWO strips today!

Okay, there were booksheleves in both of the strips, but I had to draw only about five books. Wotta time-saver!

What a beautiful beginning for a friendship! Though I'm with Demon - I don't ever want to hear that again.

Today we only have one plot hole: Demon's shirt isn't colored black in the first panel of the sixth strip. Nevertheless, this is a serious dilemma and I must be very careful. I am going to be a terrible human being if I let this continue to happen.

I'm very proud to say, though, that there are no plot holes in strip five. Maybe I won't be such a bad human being after all!

Next we get a full size strip - one strip that covers the entire page! That's cuz I've already posted six strips - the "daily" strips - and now it's time for the seventh strip, a "Sunday" strip.

Yay, Sundays! Sunday strips used to be big and n ice. Now they're all squished and small.
So, expect a BIGGER Sunday strip than you would find in the paper. I just might color it.

So, until next time, seeyas!

Strip Four

Here we are, at strip four. I'm sure all those questions in the last post left you hanging, pondering, wondering what their answers were. Well, here they are! There are a few plot holes in this strip. They are all below this strip. See if you can catch 'em all, then check your answers.

It was hard drawing that bookcase TWICE. You will probably never see a bookcase from me ever again.

Plot hole revealing time!

That thing behind Miss Liz is a chalkboard that she wrote her name on, in case you didn't notice. PLOT HOLE #1: There's no chalk or an eraser.

PLOT HOLE #2: In the second panel,Demon has two arms, not four. He's just waving them around a lot, so it LOOKS like he has four. I forgot to add motion lines.

And in the THIRD panel, it looks like there are less books on that shelf then there were before. But, after closely examinging it for some time, I have come to the conclusion that Demon, in the second panel, is blocking most of the bookshelf, and therefore I took advantage of that and drew zero books in the space he had taken up in the third panel. Woo-hoo! Less work!

PLOT HOLE #3: Something else odd about this strip is that all the books look really big for a kindergarten classroom. One looks like the complete Lord of the Rings, and another the complete Harry Potter and another the complete Bone.

PLOT HOLE #4: And none of the books have titles on the spines, either. What's up with that?

There are minor plot holes in each panel. That's very disturbing. I must take great caution and make sure such villainy never happens again.

Tune in again next time to a hopefully more realistic Bad Boys comic.

Strip Three

Here's the third strip.

Next, we learn:

WHO goes first?

WHO is laughed at?

WHO will do the laughing?

WHO compares her classmates to barbarians?

The answers will SHOCK YOU.

Actually, I would have put up strip four now, but there were a lot of books in the strip. They appeared twice. I didn't really want to ink those books twice, let alone once.

That's my excuse.