Cul De Sac: This Exit Kindle & comiXology

"Cul De Sac - This Exit"by Richard Thompson(Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008)-------------------------------------------------------------This is the first collected volume of the "Cul De Sac" newspaper strip, a new series that has completely won me over. The strip is sort of like "Calvin And Hobbes" with an ensemble cast; there's a shared celebration of the twisted, mordant sense of humor that kids can have (and that adults often find so surprising) and a familiar imaginative twisting of reality. The main characters are the preschool-age, not-too-naughty Alice and her older brother Petey, an agoraphobic, grumpy fraidy-cat who nonetheless has a pretty good sense of humor. Their parents are likable: Mom always tries to put a positive spin on things, while Dad (much like Calvin's dad) is more laconic and low-energy -- a hard day at work makes him just a little bit too grumpy to follow all of Alice's flights of fancy.Much of the action takes place at Alice's nursery school, where a handful of oddball kids cluster together and try and figure out the world, all under the guidance of their too-perky teacher, Miss Bliss; there's also a lot of talking at the family dinner table and Alice coming into Petey's room to try and pry him away from his ever-present comic books. The humor is idiosyncratic and hard to describe; but parents who like to laugh at their own foibles as well as those of their kids, along with devoted fans of "Calvin And Hobbes", will find a lot to laugh about here. Definitely recommended -- the second volume, "Children At Play," is even better! (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain kid's lit reviews)

The late and much-lamented Richard Thompson is in my top ten list of all-time newspaper cartoonists. The drawings are as funny as the dialogue.

I only recently discovered Cul De Sac and have grown to like it more and more. The family, the story lines, and the drawing lines are all wonderful! One time, another cartoonist had his characters discuss this strip. The characters said the strip would be easy to draw because it is sort of "sketchy." The characters' attempts were funny and actually illustrated (pun just happened, honest) how amazing Richard Thompson's drawings are. I'm a new fan but a forever one!

"Cul de Sac: This Exit" offers Richard Thompson's unique style of art that perfectly captures the wonders of being a child with fluid lines and sometime practically unfinished style of sketching that catches the spirit of a preschooler's view of the world. The stories are great for my young kids without dumbing down the absurdities of life in Cul de Sac.

Good

There are no other works to compare any of Richard Thompson's to: he stands alone and many of his colleagues concur. There are no words to describe the joy his craft brings to me. I pray for a miracle to eradicate Parkinson's Disease. Cul deSac:This Exit is so hilarious it made my ribs hurt. There are only a few of Thompson's books left that I don't have, so after I've bought them all, I will just keep reading them over and over. Glory!

Recently I decided to start collecting collections of my favorite comic strips. One of them is Cul De Sac. I love the strip mainly because of the characters and how we can sometimes relate to them. I had the pleasure of meeting its creator Richard Thompson at a comic convention.The book collects the first strips in the series.Also the some strips seem repeated, with the same scenario but with either different moments or more panels. Also seem out of order (They meet the guinee pig...twice and thats after they interacted with him many times)This book sadly doesnt have that many extras, no side notes, no sketches. Just a 1 page forward. Just mainly the comic strips.Overall its a great book for fans of the stripPros:-Collects the first stripsCons:-Only extra is a one page forward-Some of the strips seem repeated and out out of order.

Reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes. Worth a look.

I've raved elsewhere about the delights of Richard Thompson's "Cul de Sac" ( Children at Play: A Cul de Sac Collection ). This is the first collection of cartoons from the Cul de Sac strip, and show some of the evolution of the strip from Thompson's earlier contributions to the New Yorker (half-page spreads) to the regular daily strips where the characters are developed of Alice and Petey Otterloop, their parents, and various oddball friends and acquaintances (Alice and Petey's grandmother and her dog Big Shirley, the children of Blisshaven preschool, Miss Bliss the preschool teacher, Timmy Fretwork her banjo-playing boyfriend, and Oswaldo Twee the novelist among others). The drawings have a wonderful, scribbly feel to them while still economically conveying character with deft strokes of line, and the confusing and sometimes threatening world that surrounds Alice and her friends is beautifully conveyed.If I have a couple of minor criticisms - one of the New Yorker cartoons seems to be completely out of sequence (where Mr Danders the preschool guinea pig decides to go on an expedition to rediscover the shop where he was originally sold, and to find his lost love Cavatina, only to discover it's been swamped by an Ur-Market); and when I first discovered this comic strip, it was because Amazon had wrongly identified Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) as the author, whereas he only wrote the foreword (something they are guilty of doing with the next collection as well, where the author is identified as Mo Willems). Still, I'm glad they did, since I might not have discovered Cul de Sac otherwise.Sadly, Richard Thompson is suffering from the onset of Parkinson's disease, and has recently had to take month off from drawing the cartoon - to show the respect other cartoonists hold him in, a number of them have each volunteered to take over and draw the strip for a week (with rather mixed results, which I think shows just what a brilliant artist Thompson is by comparison). One can only wish him well and, selfishly, hope that he continues to draw this strip for years to come. Children at Play: A Cul de Sac Collection

I realize this could seem like a child's book, however, I loved it. At first I thought some of the humour might be too American to really hit home, but the book is funny in its own right. If you've been a child you'll warm to the humour as it relates to childhood regardless of nationality.Maybe it wasn't quite as good as Bill Watterson's hunour but it's quirky approach isn't far off.

More worn than anticipated, but kids don’t care. Read all the Calvin and Hobbes many times over and these stories are similarly smart and funny and adult, though kids don’t know it yet...

Great comic. When you like calvin and Hobbes, you may also like this comic. I think it is great... .

Richard Thompson's Alice has me hooked. I had never seen this comic strip until now, but from the first page I knew I was reading one of the great cartoonists of the US.