Review: Alice/Cul de Sac

The fourth of December, and my fourth review. This time a comic strip collection available in both Swedish and English.

Title: Alice
Original title: Cul De Sac
By: Richard Thompson
Language: Swedish (English)
124 pages, colour/b&w
ISBN: 978-91-86219-34-5

Whenever I read somewhere that someone (usually a sales or PR representative...) is pronouncing a strip to be "the next Calvin and Hobbes" I shudder and look away. It's just never true, as the magic of Watterson's strip can't be copied.

I got this book a while ago and had a quick look inside, thinking that the images were kind of neat in all their "untidiness" but left it at that, thinking it yet another first attempt by an interesting but probably mediocre strip artist. But the bit about the foreword by said Bill Watterson did intrigue me and after a while I actually started reading the thing. Well, lucky me! Alice, or Cul de Sac - the original English title, is a gem of a strip. Thompson manages to tell a story about kids without falling into the usual traps of cute overload, cynical, wise cracking kids and family strife and/or bliss.

This is actually a new comic strip that I eagerly await, and I didn't think I would write that in a while. A perfect book as a gift for christmas! You can also visit the official site for new and updated strips.