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Seriously, Richard is a cartoonist’s cartoonist. Pat Oliphant and Bill Watterson have written introductions to his books. Art Spiegelman speaks well of his work. The New Yorker runs his caricatures, as did US News & World Report before them. And for years, Richard was our local “go-to guy” when the Post needed a cartoonist. He illustrated Joel Achenbach and Gene Weingarten‘s columns in the Post Magazine, did his panel comic Richard’s Poor Almanack for the Style section, illustrated a column in the Health section, and then started a little Sunday-only strip called Cul de Sac for the magazine. We can pick up his interview there…
Washington City Paper: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?
Richard Thompson: I draw a daily comic strip called Cul de Sac that started in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine in 2004 and is now syndicated country- and even world-wide by Universal Press. And I still do some freelancing when I can.
WCP: When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?
RT: I was born in 1957 in Baltimore, Md.
WCP: Why are you in Washington now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?
RT: We moved down here when I was four or five. I’ve since lived in various parts of D.C., Annandale, Gaithersburg and now Arlington. I lived in Gaithersburg for so long that Arlington still seems strange. Even after 18 years here I still think of D.C. as being to my south.
WCP: What is your training and/or education in cartooning?
RT: I always drew, especially when I should’ve been doing other things. But “formally,” there’s high school art classes and some very fun classes at Montgomery College in Rockville, from which I failed to graduate.
WCP: Who are your influences?
RT: Sometimes I think it’s everyone I everyone whose work I ever saw, every author whose book I read, or every TV show or movie I saw or anything I personally experienced; other times I think it’s just Ronald Searle. So let’s say: Walt Kelly.
WCP: If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?
RT: I’d do it all again, but 20 years earlier.
WCP: What work are you best-known for?
RT: Probably Cul de Sac, as it’s gotten the widest exposure.
WCP: What work are you most proud of?
RT: I can point to some individual works with pride: a caricature of Beethoven, another of Berlioz, a few of the old Richard’s Poor Almanac cartoons I did for the Post and a couple illustrations for the New Yorker. But overall, I’m happiest with Cul de Sac.
WCP: What would you like to do or work on in the future?
RT: One thing that’s been in the back of my head for years is doing some kind of illustrated version of Candide. That would be fun, and different.
WCP: What do you do when you’re in a rut or have writer’s block?
RT: Wash dishes, putter around, reread old strips I’ve done to find the rhythm. Grind my teeth and go back to work.
WCP: What do you think will be the future of your field?
RT: I think we’ll be operating in some kind of street-corner/door-to-door business model, maybe in those two empty parking spaces by the dumpster, or more ideally, in a van off Route 50 next to the guys who sell fresh flowers and hubcaps.
WCP: What’s your favorite thing about D.C.?
RT: It’s where all my stuff is!
WCP: Least favorite?
RT: My stuff is so poorly organized.
WCP: What monument or museum do you take most out-of-town guests to?
RT: All the usual corny great museums and galleries; I love all of the Smithsonian to bits. My favorite these days is the National Portrait Gallery.
WCP: Do you have a website or blog?
RT: Yup: richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com and culdesacart.com
Richard Thompson will be signing his new book Shapes & Colors on Tuesday, Dec. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Big Planet Comics, 4908 Fairmont Ave, Bethesda, and at One More Page bookstore 2200 N. Westmoreland Street, No. 101, Arlington, on Monday, Dec. 20 from 7 to 9 p.m.