I hope you read Cul de Sac. The cartoonist, Richard Thompson, must have kids. Real kids with strange little imaginations and weird and wonderful ways to look at the world. Not like a lot of cartoonists who (A) never have had kids; (B) have had kids a gazillion years ago; or (C) “write” kids the way grammas and aunties want to see them, as adorable and passive, something vaguely plastic.
The Comics Curmudgeon‘s bourbon babe, unbuckled recently commented that certain cartoonists (she was looking rather pointedly at Jeff Keane) really ought to take a tip from Richard Thompson, who knows how to work with the child characters in his strip — this is a good thing as Cul de Sac is a family-based strip.
I thought that was a little harsh. I think way down deep, li’l Jeffy Keane is in those circular panels, crying to get out and express himself. Maybe there’s just a big, fat man in front of him.
