Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for September 23, 2012

Richard, you will be sorely missed.

It has been a pleasure reading your comic, Mr. Thompson. Parkinson’s or no Parkinson’s, enjoy your retirement. (We’ll always have the reruns like in “Calvin and Hobbes” and “Peanuts.”)

Thank you Mr Thompson, we will miss you.

Richard, thank you for Cul de Sac. You deserve a standing ovation. And roses thrown at your feet. And a key to the city. Bravo.

Richard, so many of us will miss your wonderful sense if humor and perfect capture of the Otterloops and Alice’s classmates. We hope for the best for you and fervently hope that a cure and a return will be in your future.

Thank you for sharing your wit with the world. There will be a hole in the comics without you. Best wishes. May you live with ease.

I hope for a miracle.

Bless you, Mr. Thompson. Thank you for sharing Alice, Petey, Petey Sr., Madeline, Dill, Ernesto, Viola, and even that ol’ buckethead Kevin with us for the past five years.

Mr. Thompson, I’ve loved reading your comic over the last few years. You will be missed.

Mr. Thompson for years I have been looking for a news paper comic like calvin and hobbesNow find one, and … well.. you know

We all wish you well, Richard. You will be missed by all your fans but we can read the archives. I’ve been through all of your archives and still find enjoyment in reading them again and again. That is the mark of a true genius. Thank you for all that you have given to the world of humour.

What a poignant strip on which to end the official run!

Fare well, good sir!

Thank you for the years of laughs and smiles Mr. Thompson. Your comic became a part of us. I wish you well.

Thank-you ❢❤❢ God bless.

God bless, Richard. Thank you for such a wonderful strip!

What a wonderful finale to a wonderful volume of work.

Thank you for all of these brilliant strips, Richard.

I do hope this is not the last we will see of the Otterloops.

Stay healthy and happy, sir.

ROLFE

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Very best of luck in the future.

I agree with all the sentiment here. I’d like to add with a quote from Spock from Star Trek. “Live long and prosper”, Richard.

continued: Best wishes to your future. Adios and Thanks for all the laughter.

Thank you.

It’s always sad when a great comic ends,and yours,Richard,is no exception. Thank you very much for the sweetness and laughs these last few years. While we’ll all miss our daily dose of Alice and Co.,we’ll be rooting for your recovery and hoping for your return. Until then,do take care of yourself,and kick Parkinson’s @ss!

What Stacy said. Your contribution to the comic strip art form confirms it as an art form. “Thank you” is an understatement.

I hope we can have a breakthrough against parkinson’s very soon…

Everybody check out today’s Lio.

What? He’s quitting? After I found a “new” cartoon that was so good? Tell me this is an early April Fools’ Joke …

Richard -

From the evidence here in these comments you have obviously affected the lives of a great number of people in an almost magical way. I, for one, will feel a long-lasting emptiness without Alice & Co.Be comforted knowing we all appreciate what you have given us, and that we wish we could somehow give you something in return. Though they seem inadequate, our expressions here are all we know to offer.Be as well as possible, and be strong.

Kærar þakkir fyrir ómetanlega ánægju. Far vel.

Good bye, Richard, and thanks for the fun!

Bravo, good sir. Please be well.

Be Happy, Richard. Hope they will find a way to make you and millions like you better.

@richardcthompson if you come to read this page some time – one more word:THANKS-for all the joy-for all the gentleness-for all the grace-for all the generousness

THANKS.

Sad day. I love Alice.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson.

Mr. Thompson — One of the great pleasures of my day has been my wife e-mailing me Cul de Sac — from another room or another country. I will miss your work and my lunches with Alice.

Best wishes for the future. As I’m sure you can tell, you will be sorely missed. I hope that some day Alice and her friends can once again embark on new adventures!

Thanks for everything, Richard. My one consolation is that I came to Cul de Sac quite late so I have all the books to buy and the early ones to read. Enjoy your retirement and take care of yourself.

Farewell Richard, and thank you.Good health and recovery.As with all your other fans, I will miss Cul de Sac tremendously.

Thank you!

Hang in there, dear sir! If best wishes can help in any way, then I know you have a million of them from all your fans!

After reading the first 44 comments, I don’t think I can add anything anyone else hasn’t already said. This is a sad day and you will be missed, Richard.

This is a very sad day and you will be missed, Sir Richard.And we will NEVER know if Ernesto was real or Petey’s imagination.Alice will forever be dancing on her manhole cover.Goodbye Sir! Thank You!

Broken-hearted. (sniff!)

Thank you for this human pie slice each day.You are in our prayers at God’s Way in Milford DE.

Thank you for the joy you’ve given to all of us. in return, we send to you our love, hopes, prayers, and wishes that you stay strong and get well.♥♥♥

I’m going to miss you too, Richard Thompson. It’s been a good long five years. I find this comic to be the successor toPeanuts , and now it joins Peanuts, Cleats , Big Top , Calvin & Hobbes , & Annie in rerun heaven. Like title of the final episode of the TV series M*A*S*H (1972-1983), “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”.

Godspeed.

I will miss my friends the Otterloops. :(

And so thanks to Parkinson’s disease by Mr. Thompson and lots of rerun weeks, we come to the final original Cul De Sac strip.

I just wish to add my thanks and best hopes for your future, and for a cure. You created a classic, and there really aren’t too many cartoonists who can truly say that.

We’ll really miss you. Good luck!

I have truly loved Alice and her family. I will miss them. Thank you for sharing them with us.

you’ve given us permission to see our inner Alices and Peteys. Thank you. Take care of yourself.

i hope you get better, Richard Thompson.

Thanks for all the laughs and being able to tell my husband to stop acting like Petey and the occasional outburst of “You can’t tie a banjo man down!”

Dear Richard, you’ve used your talents and gifts to bring smiles to peoples’ faces. This is a major blow to evil during this smile shortage crisis. I believe if you were to hear your Creator’s voice, He would say, “Well done, good & faithful servant.”

As someone with a close friend with PD I want to say how much I appreciate the efforts of Team Cul de Sac. Thank you Richard, for inspiring them, and for all the years of joy your strip has brought to us all.

Farewell and Good Luck.

Little Neuro & Friends have left the building.

Read all of the above again, and then quadruple it, and you will have a tiny fraction of the way I feel today. Best wishes to you, and I hope you feel the love from everyone who has ever met the Otterloops. Farewell.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson.

Goodbye is all I can say here. I’ll miss you.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the laughs.

richard, travel well.

I admire Mr. Thompson for the respect he has shown by going out on top, instead of letting his creation wither away or turning it over to lesser artists.

Thanks for the great comic! I will think of you every time I wear my ugly Christmas sweater!!

Well done sir, well done.

May you have joy. Goodbye, and thanks for all the Otterloops!

I can only add my great thanks for these wonderful years you have given us. I know I’ll always be thinking of the Otterloops in the future, and wondering how they’re faring, as if they’ve simply moved away from next door, like fond neighbors. Best wishes for the future to you and yours.

Thank you so much for such a wonderful strip Mr Thompson. While you & the Otterloops will be missed, we have the memories. Wishing the best for you, & praying for a cure.

Richard, thanks for the laughs! Your work will be missed….

Too bad that a lot of people don’t realize there’s a bit of Alice and a bit of Petey in all of us..(But I am not a Buckethead!)

Thanks for being such an inspiration on me and my comic strip. The funny pages will not be the same without you.

Mr. Thompson: My grandfather and father both suffered from PD. Medical advances helped my father stay active, far more than his father, and I hope the subsequent medical advances afford you further relief.

For any readers who are interested, I contribute annually to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, and I highly recommend contributing to them or one of the other groups dedicated to research and treatment of PD.

Hey Parkinson’s: @#$%& You!

As one door closes, many others open. We’ll meet on the other side of one of them.

Richard, I’ve been following your wonderful sense of humor since the early 90s…through Richard’s Poor Almanac to the early stages of Cul de Sac and it’s going national through syndication. It was always refreshing and funny and original and quirky and….well…so many other things, I can’t even put into words. Cul de Sac will be sorely missed, but rest assured, we are not just thinking of ourselves here….this strip just happens to be the only way in which we are all connected to you. Praying for a real cure for Parkinson’s and wishing you all the best. No one knows why such things happen to good people. It’s a mystery, but I do know one thing. God has a plan for you and I pray it becomes clear very soon. God’s blessings upon you, Richard.

EVERYONE has said everything. All hoping you will miraculously recover from this evil PD. We love you and all the Cul de Sac angels.

The cat in this box is very sad. Will miss you. I am regretful i didn’t discover this strip a long time ago.

I had no idea this was coming. then I saw all the comments. Thank you Mr. Tompson for your amazing work. I miss you already.

Let me add my thanks and best wishes to everybody else’s here. You’ve been a blast of fresh air on a stale comics page, and I only wish I’d tuned in sooner than I did. Most of all, I hope you get better.

I hope to see you again very soon Richard. You need to get better and pull a “Brett Favre” and UN-retire!

Bye Cul De Sac.You will forever be missed. You’re going to stay in my heart. :) I wish you a better life, and hope to continue one day

i want to cry.again, good luck dude.

Yes, I have tears too.

Thank you so much Richard; and best wishes to you always.

Thank you for this wonderful, funny, sweet strip. I have looked forward to reading it every day. You will be missed, and the Otterloops and all the other characters you introduced us to will remain in our hearts.

Thank you for all the smiles. Fare thee well, Mr. Thompson!

Peace, find it on your path.

Good bye Alice and the Otterloops. Even with the repeats, it is hard to accept that you’re leaving us.

Thank you Mr. Thompson for these wonderful strips.

Richard, “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.And until we meet again, (you will be back one day, believe that, sir!) May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”

Only the best wishes for you and yours which I have said before and will continue to keep in my thoughts.

An appropriate strip for the final one. So sorry to lose “Cul De Sac” and Richard Thompson’s artistry and wit. Thanks, Richard, for making the effort to autograph the copy of “Richard’s Poor Almanac” that I purchased from OneMorePage Books, I could tell from looking at your signature how difficult it was for you.

This is how it ends? With a strip Ive seen before (its on the back of th first Cul De Sac book) but this stripmwill truely be missed.

Your artistic and linguistic musings were a highlight of my morning routine. I’m so sad to see this strip leave, and sadder still for the reason behind it. If comic bliss offered any karmic benefits whatsoever, you would live, hearty and hale, for another hundred years. My warmest and best wishes to you, sir.

I am going to miss this strip, the wonderful characters, the humorous writing and the unique art. Be well, Richard, and good luck!

Thank you, Mr. Thompson, for being a part of my life. You and Alice will be missed…

Thank you so very, very much for this comic, Mr. Thompson. Wishing you all the best.

This is a very sad day, but also a happy one looking back at all the joy Alice has brought to me and many others over the years. I wish you all the best Mr. Thompson. Like with so many devastating conditions humans can get, I am hoping too that a cure will be found soon.-I am also secretly wishing and hoping that this announcement of yours from a month ago will still come true: “Don’t wander off yet! There’ll be a joke after the credits.”

Good-bye Mr. Thompson. Genius is so overused, but for you and this comic it’s the perfect word. Only thinking about the archives is keeping me from crying this morning.

Fare thee well. How can we still have Fred Freakin’ Basset in the daily paper and be losing you? Great and wondrous success in whatever you do from here out

Thank you for your wonderful work and fun characters.

Richard, from your fellow Arlingtonian, you will be sorely missed.

May the road rise up to meet you on your travels through this life.

I agree with everything said today – especially reading this with tears in my eyes. With great artists like you, Mr. Thompson, comic strips will never be a dying art. You brought out the best and I will enjoy reading it over and over. Thank you so much.

This tribute today is great and something most of us will never see. How nice to know how loved you are by so many.Best Wishes in the future, Mr. Thompson.

Thank you very much, Mr. Thompson. Be well.

Take a big bow. You can hear the applause all over this land and around the world. Sigh…

Thanks, Richard! I’ve enjoyed it, and I’ll enjoy it again. Best wishes to you.

And so it ends. Good bye Cul de Sac and Mr. Thompson. It was great knowing you guys.

i will miss your comic strip mr. thompson….our paper (review journal, las vegas, nv) says you have Parkinsons…our family friend has it too. (hes still working, although i dont know how)so we know something about the suffering it causes. sending heartfelt good wishes your way…..

bravo — you showed us every day that comics don’t have to be a dying art form.

Comic strips are NOT a dying art form. Unfortunately, they ARE a shrinking art form. Especially on Sundays… :(

Thank You !You will be missed.

Only two years ago I discovered this strip and thought, "Wow, this strip is in a rare class. A ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ or ‘Far Side’ kind of class.

Bless you and best wishes, Mr. Thompson. I’ll at least have the privilege of reading all the strips that I missed the first time around.

And a tip of the hat to Lio today. http://www.gocomics.com/comic/explore/1463384/5

Here’s hoping for successful treatment of your Parkinsons, and thank you for your efforts to continue your wonderful strip during your illness.

if i can wish the disease into submission will you promise to start composing again?

i wish it to be even if you don’t promise that!

Thank you Richard Thompson for the gift you have given us.May all the love you have given return to you ten fold and may you find peace and health in the years to come.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I second all of the above. Thank you, good luck and best wishes Richard.

“thank you” from the bottom of my heart, Richard Thompson… everything else has been said, long before today.

In honor of CdS, I have gone out on this beautiful autumn day, channeled my “inner Alice Otterloop” and danced on a manhole cover. Blessings to you & yours, always <3

To our dearest Richard, I will not say goodby for they are too permanent. Instead I will say farewell because farewell is not forever. I came to this strip in the last year and feel fortunate to have experienced your humor and imagination. I will be here Monday to experience Cul-de-sac from the beginning. I do hope that you can drop by from time to time and chat. I wish you all the best the world can offer. Until next time good sir, farewell.

Thank you, Richard. I refuse to say goodbye, so I’ll just say “so long for now.” Today, I will make another donation to the Michael J. Fox foundation via Team Cul de Sac and will monitor your blog for new contributions and updates. Take care my friend.

Thank you so very much Mr. Thompson for this wonderful comic. I wish you well and pray for a cure.

Your comic will be sorely missed. I hope a cure will come soon.

Dear Richard, Having been forced to leave a job I loved for health reasons, I know you are having a hard time with this. I also know that it wil turn into a relief as you find time you did not have before for other things which will give you peace. Spend more time with your family. Go outside and enjoy the sunshine. Meanwhile, I will still be praying for miracles for both of us .

Thank you for the wonderful strip. My kids and I have always loved it, and read it first. We live in the suburbs and could really relate to the characters in the strip. All the best wishes to you.

A very appropriate final strip! What a note to go out on!

Kudos and a golden (Zip) brick to that Kat eating the pie!

Congratulations on the Ignatz Award for Life Achievement!Truly well deserfed!

http://richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/

This has been one of my absolute favorites for a long time, and will be remembered as one of the best strips ever. I’m truly sorry to see it go. Be happy and healthy!

polite golf applause

What an apt ending. Thank you again, Mr. Thompson, for your work. You’ll be sorely missed.

tip of the hatHopefully, you’ll find a place for Mr. Danders.

Goodbye, Cul de Sac!

Thank you Mr. Thompson. Your creation ranks up there with Peanuts & C&H. I’ll be back tomorrow to start all over again!

Thanks for all the great stories. I will be reading on in Classic mode and hoping for a return someday.

Thank you for everything.

Richard: Time for all of us to start reading again from the beginning of Cul de Sac and hope that before we get to the end again there will be a cure for Parkinson’s.

I told myself that I wouldnt read the comments today because it would only make me cry. Then I changed my mind. Instead, I was going to be so stoic that nothing would faze me. Heck, before I even got to the 3rd panel, I was bawling.God Bless You and Ease Your Life Mr. Thompson. Thank you for Cul De Sac and its participants. I wish you joy.

Based on the number of comments both here and on other strips, the comics are definitely not a dying art form, and still have the ability to deeply affect our lives.

Mr. Thompson—Thank you for inviting us into your world and giving us the gift of connecting us with a complex cast of characters. You will be missed. I am hoping that there will be some incarnation of the Otterloops in another incarnation (sitcom?). Best wishes to you.

Like I said to Jennifer once I got home from Heroescon in 2008. “This guy is one of the greatest cartoonists EVER” This might have been the first time I was ever right! We love you R.T. Perfect as always. Until…

All good things must come to an end.

Good things like this strip always end too fast. I just discovered “Cul de Sac” and now it’s gone.

Please add my thanks and best wishes to these.I am a latecomer to Cul De Sac but have enjoyed it immensley.All the best with your treatment

Hats off to you, Mr Thompson.

Breathed. Watterson. Thompson. Well at least we still got garfield.

Thanks for your funny strips, Richard. You will be missed.

Mr. Thompson, for a short time, I really enjoyed this strip. Everything from Alice’s Tantrums to Dil giving junk mail to Alice’s Mom. I just wish it can come back again someday with you drawing it. Thank you for laughs that I liked in this strip. If you are up for the National Cartoonists Society, “Cartoonist of year” award, you’ll be a “shoo-in!”

Goodbye, Mr. Thompson, and thanks for all of the great work. in a sense, I’m glad that I discovered your strip late in it’s run; this way, the earlier strips will not be reruns for me as they will be for many of your devoted fans. Thanks again, and God bless you.

Richard….Thank You!

Sigh. My one consolation is that I only discovered this strip a couple of years ago, so much of the archival collection remains new to me. That’s a very small consolation, though – Cul de Sac will be sorely missed. Reading the strip has often offered the most delightful part of my day. Good-bye, Alice & Co., and best of luck, Mr. Thompson.

If I may expand upon Saucy’s idea, (I hope you don’t mind) and if I could contribute this on the part of all of us gathered here, From us to you sir!

You have finished the race, and you have finished it well. God bless you and thanks for the great work.

It was an honor and a pleasure to wake up every morning to read your comics with my morning coffee. And I will forever be thankful to be such a small part of Team Cul De Sac.

Thanks for the wonderful strip. I enjoyed your thoughts very much.

the world is a better place for your cul-de-sac. we need a good dose of wackiness, weirdness, woosiness and you certainly gave it to us, in laughing spades. Thank you.

Thank you Richard. I am so happy that I discovered your strip and will continue to enjoy it as I read them over again. I wish you the very best in your your battle against Parkinson’s.

A lot of people have drawn popular and successful comic strips. But Richard Thompson did something that McKay, Capp, Schulz, Larson, Watterson, and so many others didn’t.

He did it all in the 21st Century. There’s no talent contest between these luminaries, and misguided attempts to pick the “best” would destroy us all, but let’s acknowledge that Richard did essentially what they did under the most dire circumstances for print media.

So sorry to see you go. Take care of yourself and enjoy every day. You will long be remembered!

I had just started reading the strip last year. Very sorry to hear this news… my best to the artist.

Thank you. Just thank you. It’s been wonderful and you will be missed.

Thank you!! Good luck on your retirement. God Bless.

I want to be just like Alice when I grow up. Thanks for the role model, Mr. Thompson!

Thank you!

Richard, it has been a great joy reading your comic over the years. Thanks for the laughs and the funny musings! I will miss your strip! I wish you nothing but the best!

Richard, all good wishes, many blessings, and, yeah, what they (all above) said!

We all just wish that Richard was not a “dying art form!!”

As a latecomer to this strip who has “starred” so many of these as favorites, I look forward to the reruns. I will miss the Otterloops and all your wonderful characters on the Cul de Sac. Thank you, and best wishes.

I just love this comic strip. I hate to see it end. Alice & Miss. Bliss are my favs………..You will be missed Richard!

All best wishes for your health and happiness, and thank you.

Wishing you all the best, Richard. THANK YOU for sharing the gift of your work with us. We’re all really going to miss you.

Richard, Thank you for the amazing comics. They are overwhelmingly my most-frequently-starred choices. Wishing you happiness and good health.

Thanks Richard, looking forward to the early years and hoping for a cure.

You have so much love from so many people. I wish we had a miracle for you.

Thank you for the best comic strip I have ever read, Richard. Praying for all the best blessings to you.

You created a unique and brilliant strip. Although it didn’t last anywhere near as long as we would have wished, “Cul de Sac” has earned a special place in the world of cartooning. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your talent with us. It will be sorely missed.

I’ll miss your work. I’ll keep up with what’s happening with you on your blog. take care, and thanks for introducing me to all of your great characters. Gone too soon

Thank you Richard. Cul De Sac took me back to my childhood worldview like no other strip, ever.

Take care.

i didn’t know you were ending the strip until i saw it was no loger in my local paper. come back! please!

I KNOW THESE KIDS….I WAS ONE OF THEM. THERE WILL BE A MAJOR HOLE IN MY COMIC PAGE. I ALSO WISH YOU WELL.

Am so sorry to hear the news of Mr. Thompson. I really love this comic strip!

And my two penn’orth: fair winds and smooth sailing; thanks for all the joy and laughs!

Thank you for being Mr. Thompson… you’ve done a pleasure to the world of comics and the people who read them…

Guys……HE"S STILL ALIVE! YYAAYY!

No politics, just nostalgia and humour. Still missed after all these years…

It’s been over nine years and I still feel this strip’s loss as keenly as when it first happened. There’s so many stories that had to go untold. We only saw Dill’s dad a couple of times. We never got to see Kevin’s dad except in Petey’s drawing. Alice never remembered Susie’s name. We never got to find out much about Loris. Miss Bliss and Timmy Fretwork never got married. We never got to go to Geek’s Neck more than once, really.

The tube slide stopped growing. Mr Danders never got his degree. Petey never really learned anything definite about Ernesto. Viola didn’t get to appear at all in like the last year and a half. Was Susie Andre’s sister? Did Petey’s first comic camp teacher ever come back?

Lots of comic strips stick around decades after they should have ended, but there are fewer things sadder than a comic strip forced to end early. Good-bye Richard Thompson. We miss you terribly.