Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon has posted a transcript of the panel he moderated at Heroes Con last June with Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson. Definitely a must read if you’re a fan of Richard’s work – and should read anyway if you’re not.
SPURGEON: How do you like to read strips? Are you a book guy? Do you prefer to read them in the newspaper?
THOMPSON: I like everything. I like the newspaper. I’ll do on-line — but only for a few of them.
Dave Coverly, who draws Speed Bump, told me he doesn’t read strips anymore. If it’s bad then he feels bad for the guy who drew it, and if it’s good he feels bad for himself. [laughter] I know the feeling. You can get so distracted by other people’s strips. You’re kind of sick of reading your own. So I usually have to go back in clumps and read these things. I don’t read as many in a daily format as I would have. Twenty years ago I read every strip in the paper, every strip over three pages in the Washington Post in a very definite order, ending with Calvin and Hobbes. I saved it. I started with ones I didn’t like, which I won’t mention. Not so much anymore, I guess.
EXCELLENT interview by Tom. And I agree with him about Heroes Con (where he talked to Richard) being the great convention it is. It’s funny; that’s the same place I interviewed Richard two years ago (for Stay Tooned! Magazine)…immediately following his panel with Tom.