Happy Birthday, Cul de Sac

Richard Thompson's daily comic strip, Cul de Sac. just celebrated its one-year birthday today. The strip, one of the freshest, best-drawn offerings in years, combines a child-centric sensibility reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes with accomplished penmanship evocative of Richard Searle. It's also falldown funny. Today's offering:

Thompson has done caricatures, political cartoons and a weekly social commentary strip for the Washington Post during several decades at the drawing board. To fully appreciate his skills, check out his blog to a look at his Sunday strips, beautifully rendered in watercolor washes. A book collection is due out this month. An interview with the cartoonist is available at Panels and Pixels.