Cul de Sac tribute week

I've been a fan of Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac since even before it was first syndicated. I found his blog and, with it, early versions of the characters we all came to know as the Otterloops. His sense of humor was loopy and filled with kid logic, and his art was at once messy and incredibly precise. There has been no cartoonist like him before or since. If there is a comic strip royalty lineage, it could easily be argued that it goes Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson, Richard Thompson.With Richard's death in 2016 Cul de Sac's (way, way too premature) end was certain. Comics had lost a truly great artist and a really good guy, too.Ernesto Lacuna is one of my favorite characters from the strip. I have been curious for a long time what it might be like to write a story about Richard's Ernesto meeting my Ernesto. And so, this being Inktober, I decided to finally scratch that itch. I wrote a weeklong (6 strips) story about Ernesto L.'s journey to Falling Rock. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed making it. Below is part one.