I love comics.

I grew up reading the comics in the paper every morning, and then getting to talk about them with my friends at school that afternoon at lunch. In fact, when Opus and Bill the Cat ran for office, my friends and I printed up “Vote For Opus and Bill” flyers and handed them out as we went trick our treating for halloween.

So, yeah, I love comics. And, there’s nothing better in the world than getting to do what you’ve wanted to do your entire life, every day.

I’ve always had a fondness for when comics would cross over, or a comic strip would make some kind of reference to another comic. It’s always been one of the great things about comics as a medium, that the comic creators can fee free to invade, at least for a panel, another comics world. The boundries of the comics are only a thin black line and the white gutter that separates one comic strips universe from another. And to me, there is something just so funny when Bill Keane’s world of the Family Circus is invaded by Bill Griffith’s Zippy and vice a versa. It’s taking something that is so familiar, and comfortable to you, and suddenly it’s twisted, just a bit by another cartoonists particular distorted view of the world.

Today’s comic is a response to Richard Thompson’s, Team Cul De Sac. Team Cul De Sac is a part of Team Fox, or as you may better know as the Michael J. Fox’s foundation for Parkinson’s Disease research. Chris Sparks convinced Richard to let him organize a team of cartoonists to help raise money and awareness for Team Fox and Parkinson’s Disease. Being the nice guy that Richard is, he said, yes, allowing Chris to use his good name and likeness to create and spearhead Team Cul De Sac. Immediately, Chris sent out a call to cartoonists around the world to join Team Cul De Sac and do whatever they want with Richard’s beloved characters. Draw them in your style, add them to your strip, do a post-modern expressionistic piece that emotes how you feel when reading a Cul De Sac comic strip, and so on. Later on, all of the original art work will be auctioned off with all the proceeds to benefit Team Cul De Sac, and a special book is being put together by Andrews McMeel Publishing, which will also be publishing a special collection of all of the Team Cul De Sac comics and artwork. I am honored to be a part of such a storied group of cartoonists, and to help out an amazingly awesome cartoonist.

See you all in the funny pages!