Check out early Cul de Sac strips

Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson notes that the strip is five years old and he’s posted early – pre-syndication, pre-Washington Post versions of the strip while he was still working with the concept.

He writes:

Here are the first two strips I tried with the Otterloop family, and you can see just how badly things could have gone. There’s something that looks like it should be Alice, but it sure ain’t Alice; she’s too prissy by half, and that hair…. I think I drew these in 2003. By then I’d shown Wash Post Mag editor Tom Shroder some rough ideas for the proposed new comic strip, including a few featuring a family in the DC suburbs. Gene Weingarten had written a column about parents naming their daughters “Madison”, denouncing the name as laughable and pretentious. Reader reaction had been intense and humorless, as you’d expect from people who’d stick their daughters with “Madison.” So when Tom made one of his periodic phone calls checking on the progress of the strip, I blurted out something about some kids? maybe a family? who live in the suburbs? and one of them’s a girl? Tom asked what the girl’s name was. I said “Madison.” But only to make him laugh; actually I had no idea who she was.