Richard Thompson

Recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's Magazine's: Book Illustration Award and its Newspaper Illustration Award, Cul de Sac's author, Richard Thompson, is what many would call a sensation among his fans. Along with having won a Gold and a Silver Funny Bone Award from the Society of Illustrators for humorous illustration; "Cul de Sac" has been one of the more popular features in the Washington Post since its origination three years ago. In fact, the Comics Reporter named "Cul de Sac" as "One of the five best features in any newspaper, period."

Cul de Sac is based on Alice Otterloop's experiences 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 is another result of Thompson's "sharp eye, fun sense of language and charmingly odd take on the world. Best of all, his drawings are wonderful—something one doesn’t often see in cartoons anymore."