On the cul de sac, Alice rides her tricycle, Dill pushes a shopping cart, Beni watches, Petey trudges on the sidewalk carrying his backpack, Peter Otterloop leaves in his tiny car, and Madeline Otterloop arrives in her SUV.

Cul de SacRichard Thompson

Alice Otterloop

Alice tells her mother that in preschool today they learned about “stactic elastricity,” and is frustrated to find even her father thinks it’s cute.

Insanity plea

The kids could just be kids or they could all be crazy. Alice thinks she has mind control over bees, and the other kids agree. But how shopping carts get into the gully is as much a mystery as the terrible origin of the foreboding Uh-Oh baby.

Ernesto

Ernesto is ambitious, an earnest little professor. Ernesto may or may not be the president of the Future Adults of America but he can feel the power at his fingertips. Petey is convinced that Ernesto is imaginary.

Little Neuro

Petey spends all day on his back studying a single panel of Little Neuro. In a whole book, Little Neuro does nothing but clear his throat. In Petey’s graphic novel Toad Zombies, the tension is still building on page 100.