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Comic Riffs is a blog devoted to the comics fan. Come in, sit down and put your feet up as we celebrate, contemplate, eviscerate and pontificate on cartoons.
Maybe it's seeing those fluidly loose lines in motion. Perhaps it's the thrill of watching Dill rock back and forth, back and forth, just so. Or it could be, simply, the just-right sound of Alice Otterloop's voice.
Whatever the foremost reason, I am particularly charmed by a coupla recent "Cul de Sac" quickie animations (both posted here). Enough so that I'm convinced:
It's high time to have an animated "Cul de Sac" TV special.
Next month, "Cul de Sac" creator Richard Thompson will be in the running for the National Cartoonists Society's big Reuben Award And he's already had two book collections (one with the notable endorsement of a foreword from Bill Watterson). Yet the
development (deal) I would most eagerly, as a fan of the strip, is to see "Cul de Sac" receive a "Peanuts"-style holiday "presentation" on TV.
So many strips, of course, don't make the transition to screen successfully. I enjoyed "Baby Blues" and "Dilbert" on the small screen -- to cite two -- but neither was able to find the same kind of popularity as a TV series.
With "Cul de Sac," though, we're not talkin' a full series. At least yet. But when watching the two animations below, I can't help but see a thoughtful, warmly observed holiday special. The writing, even in this brief shorts, is ripe with possibilities -- for true creative expansion.
Sure, perhaps it's easier to sell an edgier animated series such as "Drawn Together" or "The Boondocks" or "Ugly Americans" or "The Life & Times of Tim" to some networks. (To say nothing of converting Marmaduke to a largely live-action screen.) But there has to be a home somewhere in the cable universe for a "Cul de Sac" special as appealing as these two animations.
TV isn't the end-all be-all for every strip, and some print-to-television projects are ill-advised. But sign up the voice actors from these "CdS" shorts now. In case some comics-loving TV executive has as much taste and class and smarts as the strip itself.
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