Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for July 14, 2016

I guess Petey’s also not into Cheerios and candy necklaces. Not to mention pretzels.

Assuming that Ernesto is imaginary, if Petey gives him $10 for a ticket, what would an observer see happening?

Curiously, what is the opinion of the readers. Is Ernesto imaginary or is he not?

Don’t waste your money, Petey.

Actually, the entire strip is a dream in the head of Mr. Danders. This is Mr. Danders imagining Petey imagining Ernesto.

I don’t eat food with a wet sticky crust that gets all over me… Like glazed doughnuts. Petey and I are safe from Ernesto’s raffle.

I always assumed he was real, since Petey is not the only one aware of him.

“What’s the second prize?” “Two glazed donuts!”

I believe that Ernesto started as a real character but has definitely changed into an imaginary character. This of course happened in the mind of Richard as his character developed, Ernesto developed into a figment of Petey’s imagination, he was simply just larger than life. I can’t link to them, but there were early indications in the strip that he was real, other people interacted with him. But not the later Ernesto.

Ernesto is real, but Petey says he is imaginary the better to ignore him. Among the children he is notably eccentric, but adults don’t see it— who notices the strange worlds children live in (besides RT)?

I think all these conversations are imaginary.

Mrs. Otterloop and Viola have both interacted with Ernesto… But I seem to recall Viola agreeing that Ernesto is imaginary.

i can remember Alice and Dill interacting with Ernesto. but maybe his character devolved

Mom has seen an origami jumping frog that Ernesto made in the library – does that prove he’s real?

There are lots of dead cats in the world, and lots of live ones, but only one Schrodinger’s Cat.

There are lots of imaginary friends in the comics, and lots of real ones, but only one Ernesto.