Monday PM (in the US) BackTalk OT – A Boxful of Heads

If you're like me, in July of 2016, you felt some anxiety when Richard Thompson was trending. You experienced momentary relief when it turned out the former singer of  Fairport Convention was fine, and then sadness when it became clear it was the cartoonist behind Cul De Sac who had passed. Complications from Parkinson's. You could see his hand had gotten shaky, and several cartoonist friends took over the daily strip for lengthy periods. Still a shock when he died.

There were several bigger news stories in 2016, but this was when I knew for certain that '16 would be the suckiest that ever sucked, and I was right, the Cubs World Series win notwithstanding. 

Cul De Sac was the sweetest, weirdest, and funniest strip in the comics pages, filling a hole left by Watterson, Larsen, and Schulz's retirement. It's Alice Otterloop's story for the most part. She's great. ("Otterloop" is a reference to DC's Capital Beltway; the Inner and Outer Loop encircle the city. As a Virginian working for The Post, he spent a lot of time driving it, I imagine.)

A combo of wonder and mischief, snot and sincerity, like some other striped-shirt comic strip kid.

But her older brother Petey is the one you remember, and the one I nominate as Backtalk Village mascot*. He might be the first (only?) neurodivergent character in the dailies. His favorite book series is about a character named Little Neuro – a series in which nothing really happens and all ends predictably and well:

He's allergic to change and just wants to be left alone with his headful of quirks. Not so much inept as incapable of "normal" social interaction.

He's also a talented oboist who would have fit right in with free jazz legend/god/saint Cecil Taylor (died 4/5/2018, RIP):

one can only achieve Oboe God status with the proper embouchure

I was going to recommend picking up a copy of The Complete Cul De Sac, but it appears to be out of print, and the Amazon Marketplace side-hustlers have bumped it to $200+ a pop. Still available at Go Comics though. Start here if you can handle ads every five strips or so. Recapture that feeling of getting up at noon during summer break with no one but you in the house. Have some Fruity Pebbles or something.

*****

Bill Watterson and amazing caricaturist John Kascht met each other during Thompson's funeral or memorial IIRC, and agreed to collaborate on something together. This resulted, after years of disagreements and false starts, in The Mysteries. I think the work is good but wouldn't necessarily recommend it to you quick readers. You'll finish it in about two minutes unless you get absorbed by the artwork, like I did, and even then it only took fifteen. They describe the evolution and eventual process here:

You see Bill at work with his palette knife and John with several different mediums. And yes. At one point, Kascht sends Watterson a boxful of clay heads.

Wait. Did you say something then I said something?

*****

* or maybe just a mascot for SQRL. I would apologize about the length of the post but I'm not sorry at all. Does anyone even read these maunderings?