HATTER MADNESS IS COMIN' AT YA!!!

Huh?  A reader?  Oh wow!  How cool is that?  I have a post that needs to be seen and here you are giving it a look!  That's so kind of you!  Well, since you're taking the time to be here, I'll get right to the art!  Enjoy...

Uh oh.  If you thought he was mad before, then you REALLY ain't seen nothing yet!  The Mad Hatter takes nothing seriously, usually.  He does, however, have one rule that he lives and dies by:  Tea parties are for TEA!!!  The poor soul who drove thru Starbucks on the way over better pray he calms down.  There's no telling how much madder he'll get!  Another fun entry for Animal Alphabets, the Mad Hatter was the theme for M, despite not being a creature.  Animal or not, I had a blast drawing this one.  There's just something about off kilter characters that are so much fun to draw, especially their expressions.  Lots of room to play with.

Well, only one week left to go in March, but fear not!  I got something fun in store so that we'll end the month on a high note!  So be sure to come back and check it out!  Until then, stay safe, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

ADVENTURES WITH ALICE!!!

 Welcome to September CRAZIES!!!  Well, things are still in a secluded state, but we're soldiering on here as best we can.  I don't know what the future holds, but I'll be doing my best to carry on and give you folks something to look forward to every week, and this week is no exception.  So let's get on with the show and take a look at today's art.  Enjoy...

Careful Alice.  Those wonderland mushrooms have been known to have some pretty weird side effects!  Today's art comes from Animal Alphabets who, for their fourth theme, decided to go with creatures of the fairy tale realm.  Exactly how Alice, a human, fit the creature description is a little above my comprehension, but she was fun to draw and honestly, I'm always looking for reasons to draw giant mushrooms, so it all works out fine!

Well, that's all for today.  We'll be back next time with a fairy tale icon so big, you'll be huffing and puffing just to keep up with him!  Until then, Atay safe, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

THANK YOU RICHARD...

 Richard Thompson was a truly amazing cartoonist.  So few of us are able to capture the wonder of childhood, the drudgery of adulthood and the absurdity of life in general in a single strip as well as he did.  His strip, Cul De Sac, was by far one of the greatest comics to ever grace the funny pages.  It was a crushing blow in 2012 when Parkinson's Disease forced Mr. Thompson into retirement so he could undergo treatment.  We hoped he'd get well again someday and return to the funnies to give us all our badly needed dose of Alice dancing on her manhole cover.  Sadly, it never happened.  On July 27, 2016, just days after the world gathered in my hometown to celebrate comics, Mr. Thompson passed away.

I never met Richard Thompson in person, although I did have a few chance interactions with him on Twitter.  Early on when I started on that site, I had mentioned one day how I wished my local paper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, carried Cul De Sac.  About an hour later, he tweeted me back, thanking me and jokingly asked if he could crash on my couch during Comic Con!  He wound up not making it that year (because of his illness), but he would've been more than welcome to the sofa in my home.  At that moment, I didn't even know he was ill.  I just knew he did a comic that I absolutely adored and couldn't get enough of.

The art in today's post was made in honor of Richard Thompson and his wonderful characters.  The piece at the top of the page was for the Team Cul De Sac art auction that Chris Sparks hosts every June at HeroesCon in Charlotte.  I drew this piece back in May and included my three favorite characters: Mr. Danders, the wily guinea pig always looking to make a quick get away; Petey, Alice's neurotic older brother always trying mightily to get a grip on his oboe; and, of course, Alice, a wonderfully imaginative, pangolin-obsessed little girl who looks at every manhole cover as her own personal stage.  I don't know if this piece sold to be honest, but it is one of the things I'm most proud of.  Coloring the grass on this piece wasn't easy, but it was worth the effort.

After word of Mr. Thompson's passing reached, I did another bit of art...

Most of Cul De Sac was in black and white, one of the qualities that added so much to the comic's charm.  That's why I opted to forgo colors on this one.  I liked the simplicity of it.  That's why I liked Cul De Sac so much.  It wasn't full of political satire, wacky antics, grotesque violence or disgusting bathroom humor.  It was just simple fun.  In a very complicated world like today, simple is always a welcome change.

I never knew Mr. Thompson, but I knew his work and knew it was very good.  I know he is in a better place now and I know he made this world better for having been here.  I urge any who want to help fight Parkinson's Disease to check out the Team Cul De Sac site to learn more.  But more than that, I want to thank Richard Thompson for being such an amazing artist and for bringing so many smiles during his time here.  And thank you Richard for giving us Alice, whom I will always see dancing whenever I pass a manhole cover.

-Jon Esparza