Jason Chatfield: "I consider Richard Thompson to maybe be one of the best cartoonists that ever lived."

Jason Chatfield did a live drawing talk on one of his Substacks today.

I asked him to draw Mr. Danders - he pulled out Richard's Poor Almanac (9:15), and said, "I keep this book at arm's reach from my drawing board at all times... I consider Richard Thompson to maybe be one of the best cartoonists that ever lived. Up there with Ronald Searle, Sergio Aragones, Steadman, Scarfe... these guys who have their very distinct styles... This book - on days when I don't feel like being creative or drawing - I just flip through it and snap myself out of my funk. If you haven't heard of Richard Thompson, I'm jealous that you get to discover his work for the first time. If you have, I implore you to go back to it."

And then he drew Mr. Danders from memory.

"I really, really adore Richard Thompson."

See the whole video at:

Jason Chatfield

DMA#1: Draw Me Anything!

Process Junkie! Apr 3, 2025
https://www.process-junkie.com/p/dma1-draw-me-anything

PS. I subscribe to Jason's other Substack, New York Cartoons @ https://www.newyorkcartoons.com/

Compleating Cul de Sac 2nd ed (2022) ebook debuts for Giving Tuesday

 

Today is giving day throughout the country and we want to raise money for Team Cul de Sac today. To donate please Click This Link! As you know, Richard Thompson died of Parkinson's disease and his friends have worked to raise money for the Fox Foundation's efforts to defeat the disease.

We would also like to give back to you! We have just finished Compleating Cul de Sac 2022 edition. If you donate at least $10 using the link above, we will send you a PDF of the new book.  Remember Click This Link to donate and receive a gift pdf of the book. This offer will continue after Giving Tuesday. We hope to have the print version available by the first week of December

As we receive confirmation of your donation we will send the link to the Google drive file to you. Please remember this is a volunteer effort so these links will probably be sent in the evenings.

Your donation is tax-deductible and 88 cents of every dollar goes to Parkinson's research. To learn about how your donation will be matched today up to 4 million dollars,  please visit HERE! And share this post!

Coming soon! Compleating Cul de Sac, second expanded edition!

Coming soon! Compleating Cul de Sac, second expanded edition! 80 pages more than the 1st edition. It's the perfect Thanksgiving gift!

Building on the original 2016 edition (designed by Richard's friend Bono Mitchell), editor Mike Rhode and layout designer Barbara Sutliff added additional material done by Richard as dedicaces in his books, more interviews, and the CDS children's theater play, in addition to the over 80 original CDS strips he left out of The Complete Cul de Sac.

We've also included many of the drawings of the CDS characters done for and in remembrance of Richard, and charity ones that have raised money for the Fox Foundation's Parkinson's disease research (after the initial Team Cul de Sac book and auction project by Chris Sparks).

All money from the book will go to Team Cul de Sac for the Fox Foundation. The book will be available to order via print on demand before the holidays.

 

Dedicace for cartoonist Harold Buchholz

 

 

Team Cul de Sac fundraising drawing by Karl Kesel

Bono Mitchell's obituary and service

The service is tomorrow, October 17th. Details are in the obituary which suggests donations to Team Cul de Sac.

AUDREA MITCHELL OBITUARY

AUDREA Bono MITCHELL

Bono Mitchell, 75, of Arlington, VA passed away peacefully at her home on Sunday, October 2, 2022. She was a gifted artist, successful business owner in DC and Virginia, generous benefactor of the arts and mentor to many young artists and designers. She had a long and successful life as a magazine designer and graphic artist in the Washington, DC, and Arlington area. She graduated from George Washington University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Over the years she worked in the graphic design department at ABC News; graphic design at NAHB; art director of Bono Mitchell Graphics in DC and Arlington; Co-owner with Tom Specht, and Art Director of BonoTom Studio in Arlington. Bono retired in 2017 and enjoyed a life full of friends and family. She traveled widely, painting watercolor landscapes at every destination. She enjoyed weekends at her Chesapeake Bay house on Kent Island and couldn't wait to get back there to view the beautiful bay. Bono was preceded in death by her loving mother and father Autrey B. Mitchell and Margaret L. Mitchell of Stevensville Md, niece Audrey Simpson and brother-in-law Milton T. Calhoun. She is survived by her two loving sisters, Gaye Calhoun of Mclean Va and Sissie Simpson and husband Keggs Simpson of Ocean Isle, NC, nieces and nephews Melody Newton, Brett and his wife, Jennifer Calhoun, Tara Calhoun, Pete Calhoun, as well as a host of great nieces and nephews and other family members. In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to your favorite charity or to fundraiser.michaeljfox.org in behalf of her beloved friend Richard Thompson. Gravesite funeral is planned for Monday, October 17, 2022, 1 p.m. at the Remington Cemetery in Remington, VA.

Published by The Washington Post on Oct. 13, 2022.

October 8th - coincidence, cartoonists, and mortality - reflections on Pekar and Thompson

 by Mike Rhode

October 8th is the birthday of the two cartoonists I'm most closely professionally associated with... and they've both passed away. Bah.

But I'm glad to have known both Richard Thompson (1957-2016) and Harvey Pekar (1939-2010), even if it was for too short a time.

I was reminded of this odd coincidence today when Amy Thompson returned Richard's copy of the book I'd edited about Pekar to me. Talk about regifting...

I met Harvey in 2005 when I was called in to substitute as an interviewer for him when he was the guest of honor at the Small Press Expo. We did 2 panels together (including Ed Piskor's first con appearance!). I offered up the interviews to Tom Inge for his Conversations with cartoonists series at University Press of Mississippi. Instead of passing them along to someone else, he had me do the book which appeared as Harvey Pekar: Conversations. I'm sure it's their lowest seller in the series, which would probably give Harvey some type of odd satisfaction, while also pissing him off. (By the way, Harvey picked that cover photo.)

 

Joel Pollack introduced me to Richard Thompson at the opening of the Cartoon America exhibit at the Library of Congress in November 2007. Richard lived in Arlington like I do, and we hit it off and began going to museum shows and book talks together. Eventually I got roped into driving him to comics cons as Cul de Sac became a fledgling hit. The driving was fine, but the leaving wasn't. Richard never met a deadline he couldn't run up against, so we were always leaving late for whatever con we were heading towards. As Richard got sicker from Parkinson's disease, a group of his friends including Chris Sparks, Bill Watterson, David Apatoff and Nick Galifianakis were working on a book tribute about him. I was eventually brought in as production editor as deadlines were blown as though Richard was doing the book himself. The Art of Richard Thompson, now sadly out of print, is a beautiful tribute to a master cartoonist by other masters and well worth bidding up high on e-bay.

One lesson to draw from this might be to not let me do a book about you. I can't argue with that. But rather I'd like you to think about these two cartoonists and their works. In some ways, they couldn't be more different. 

 

Richard was a cartoonist- word and pictures always went together for him, and he struggled to do one without the other, which is why Cul de Sac didn't survive him, even with Stacy Curtis doing excellent art, and it's why a strip written by Richard and drawn by Bill Watterson never made it past gestation.

Harvey, on the other hand, was a writer. He worked with whomever he could afford, beginning at the top with Robert Crumb due to their friendship. Harvey was a self-publisher of American Splendor for a long, long time, before some of the major publishers picked it up for a few issues before passing it back to him. Richard, as far as I can tell, always worked for a publisher, even if it was his high school yearbook, or a science fiction fanzine, until he settled into long time freelance relationships with the Washington Post and US News & World Report among others.

But what both Richard and Harvey had in common was stubbornness and a belief in their own work. Both kept plugging away, until a brass ring appeared - like Andrews McMeel's syndicating Cul de Sac, or the excellent American Splendor movie. Sometimes that stubbornness worked against them though - I saw New Yorker cover editor Francoise Mouly practically begging Richard to do a piece for her, but he never did. And he didn't start his strip when he was first asked by the Post, but waited about a decade before beginning it. Similarly, Harvey had a regular appearance on David Letterman, but he burned up that lifeline by criticizing Letterman's corporate owners that actually aired the show.

So ... they were artists and had what is sometimes offhandedly described as an artistic temperament. They could drive me crazy at time, but Harvey always would get in the phrase, "Let me know if I can do something for you... within reason," when we chatted, and Richard was always willing to hang out, or pass along a recommendation or gift a piece of art he'd drawn. I miss them both, even moreso as the days get shorter.

 

People say that as long as you're remembered, part of you is still alive (or something like that), but that's a bit of cold comfort. Still, reading either of them will warm you up and bring a bit of spark and joie de vivre into your life. And who doesn't need that in 2020?

PS - today another friend of mine recommends Richard's work via his Who's Out There? blog

Mike Peterson holds Richard Thompson up as Wallace the Brave influence

CSotD: Looking behind the curtains

 by Mike Peterson
August 23, 2020

http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2020/08/23/csotd-looking-behind-the-curtains/

Thompson art for National Geographic's New Everyday Science Explained

Thompson art for National Geographic's New Everyday Science Explained

https://richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/2019/10/thompson-art-for-national-geographics.html

A blog post about more of Richard's illustrations that haven't been seen since being published in 2003.

Cul de Sac comic strips and books auctioned to save bookstore

Several thousand dollars were raised today through auctions of Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac original art, books, and other works,to assist One More Page Bookstore in paying an unexpected large tax bill.

As the bookstore faced a Draconian tax increase, books Richard had signed before his death, along with 2 strips newly donated by Amy Thompson, sold to fans of the cartoonist, including one strip to local cartoonist Daniel Boris. A quick calculation is that Richard provided about $2600 in sales or 12.5% of the auction proceeds (but check the math before quoting me).

One More Page was dear to Richard, hosting him for their first booksigning (before the store had even opened), for his first Cul de Sac collection. After he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the store held fundraisers for Team Cul de Sac to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Richard passed away just barely over three years ago.

The store's auction site described the original art as such:

American illustrator and cartoonist Richard Thompson was best known for his syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac. Richard received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2010. We are huge fans of Richard's work and were thrilled when he agreed to do an event at OMP when we first opened. Over the years, he was a invaluable supporter, promoting OMP and signing countless books to be shipped to fans worldwide.

Richard's wife, Amy, generously donated this original artwork of a panel of Cul de Sac ("Trick or Treat" panel #111031), his strip which focused on a four-year-old girl, Alice Otterloop, and her daily life at preschool and at home. Cul de Sac was published in more than 70 newspapers by the fall of 2007 and was distributed nationally as both a daily and Sunday strip by Universal Press Syndicate.

Bill Watterson, created of Calvin and Hobbes, praised Thompson's work: 

"I thought the best newspaper comic strips were long gone, and I've never been happier to be wrong. Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac has it all—intelligence, gentle humor, a delightful way with words, and, most surprising of all, wonderful, wonderful drawings."

"Cul de Sac's whimsical take on the world and playful sense of language somehow gets funnier the more times you read it. Four-year-old Alice and her Blisshaven Preschool classmates will ring true to any parent. Doing projects in a cloud of glue and glitter, the little kids manage to reinterpret an otherwise incomprehensible world via their meandering, nonstop chatter. But I think my favorite character is Alice's older brother, Petey. A haunted, controlling milquetoast, he's surely one of the most neurotic kids to appear in comics. These children and their struggles are presented affectionately, and one of the things I like best about Cul de Sac is its natural warmth. Cul de Sac avoids both mawkishness and cynicism and instead finds genuine charm in its loopy appreciation of small events. Very few strips can hit this subtle note."

1996 article on Richard Thompson winning NCS awards

Rarely-seen Richard Thompson cartoon in upcoming Billy Ireland exhibit

by Mike Rhode

A never-before-seen piece of Richard Thompson's original artwork, rarely seen even in publication, is about to go on display in Columbus, Ohio.

Upcoming exhibitions at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library &Museum

DRAWING BLOOD: COMICS AND MEDICINE
&
FRONT LINE: EDITORIAL CARTOONISTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT

On display April 20, 2019 – October 20, 2019

DRAWING BLOOD: COMICS AND MEDICINE: This exhibit traces the history of comics’ obsession with medicine from the 18th century to today. The earliest cartoonists frequently satirized a medical practice dominated by bloodletting, purging, and other largely ineffective treatments. Over the next two centuries, modern medicine would go through remarkable transformations. Comics were there for the good and the bad, helping to rebrand the doctor from quack to hero, but also critiquing a medical system that often privileged profits over patients. Drawing Blood highlights the sometimes caustic eye of cartoonists as they consider doctors, patients, illness, and treatment in the rapidly changing world of medicine—one which continues to present new possibilities and new challenges. The exhibit features work by a wide array of creators, from pioneers of cartooning like James Gillray, William Hogarth, Thomas Nast, and Frederick Opper to contemporary greats like Richard Thompson, Carol Tyler, John Porcellino, Alison Bechdel, and Julia Wertz.

Curated by Professor Jared Gardner, OSU Department of English

I received the above notice the other day and have already pointed out that the second exhibit is co-curated by Ann Telnaes.  I also reached out to ask my friendly acquaintance Dr. Gardner what piece of Richard Thompson artwork he was including in the show. Curator Caitlin McGurk and the Billy Ireland did a very nice show of Richard's artwork a few years ago, and he donated material to them before he passed away, so I was curious what Jared had chosen.

The press release says you have a piece by Richard Thompson in it. Can you tell me what it is?

The piece by Richard is a loan from Kevin Wolf— it a small cartoon he did for an actuarial magazine he regularly did spot-illustration and cover work for over the years.

What spoke to you about the art? Were you previously a fan of Richard's?

I’ve long been a fan of Richard’s work, and getting to meet him briefly during his visit to the exhibition of his work at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was an incredible honor.


How did you select it for the exhibit, especially since it wasn't in the pieces he donated to the Billy Ireland?

Kevin Wolf, the owner of this particular piece, shares my interest in comics and medicine and is a regular attendee at the Graphic Medicine conference. He shared the cartoon with me, a really fun gag cartoon of a knight trying to figure out insurance policy options, and he generously offered to lend it for the show. It will be featured in a section dedicated to medicine and humor, a section that will also include an early doctor’s visit by Bill Watterson’s Calvin and an page from Mad Magazine poking fun at doctors.

I know the piece. As you note, it was done for Contingencies Magazine, art-directed by Richard's old friend Bono Mitchell. We considered it for The Art of Richard Thompson book but it didn't make the final cut. There was too much to choose from. Below is a scan we made for the book.

Anything else you'd like to add about the exhibit?

I guess the only other thing to add is that the exhibit begins in the 18th century with Hogarth and co. and ends with the modern “graphic medicine” movement that was kicked off with Justin Green’s Binky Brown and which is today a veritable flood of remarkable graphic memoirs and other comics about illness and healing.

published simultaneously on ComicsDC and Cul de Sac blogs)

Catching up with Chris Sparks on Team Cul de Sac, OR The story of the $11,000 Bill Watterson sketch

by Mike Rhode

Team Cul de Sac was formed by my friend Chris Sparks to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation's Team Fox charity for Parkinson's Disease research. Chris did this in response to our friend Richard Thompson's fight with and death due to the disease. Ten years ago this month Chris walked into a panel at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, and said "Who are you?" to Richard who was speaking about his comic strip Cul de Sac. It was something like love at first sight, at least on Chris' part, and when Richard was diagnosed, Chris turned his formidable attention to raising money for a cure (and you can donated at any time by clicking one of the links).


I talked with Chris after this year's Heroes Con put his fundraising at a new height when a sketch in a book by Bill Watterson sold for $11,000.

MR: How did Team Cul de Sac get started?

CS: I was fortunate enough to meet Richard Thompson (and Mike Rhode) at the 2008 Heroes Con, and then in 2009, Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson's. In 2010, I came up with the plan of making Team Cul de Sac through the Michael J. Fox Foundation's fund-raising arm, Team Fox. In 2011, we had the first Drink & Draw at Heroes Con for Team Cul de Sac (TCDS) and this was the eight anniversary of the Drink & Draw.

MR: The D&D started with cartoonists sitting around doing sketches and drinking beer, but it's gotten bigger than that, right?

CS: Mainly it's using blank coasters where they can sketch or 5x7" pieces of paper that they can draw on. We have it set up that it's between $5 and $50 for these little drawings. From there, we ask donations of larger pieces so we can auction them off for $200, 300, 500 at the larger Heroes Con art auction the following night. We've also had some live-painting events at a the D&D too.

MR: So when Richard was alive, he finally agreed to let people draw his characters to culminate in an auction and a book...

CS: The book is called Team Cul de Sac and that was released in June of 2012 after two years of wrangling cartoonists... like cats.

MR: And one of those was Bill Watterson who came out of retirement...

CS: Yes, Lee Salem asked big name cartoonists if they'd be interested, and he asked Garry Trudeau, Bill Watterson, Cathy Guisewite and Jim Davis. It was a big surprise when Bill donated an oil painting of Richard's Petey Otterloop.

MR: This past weekend's auction had another piece of art by Bill Watterson for TCDS, which I guess the third time he's done something for the charity?

Seth Peagler, who helps set up the Drink and Draw, Shelton Drum & Chris Sparks

CS: Well, it's more than that. Artwise, he did the painting, then three ghosted strips for Pearls Before Swine, then signed books for us to sell. He signed The Art of Richard Thompson, the catalog from his Ohio State University's Billy Ireland exhibit, and five softcover sets of the Complete Calvin & Hobbes as well as some posters.

This last donation was a sketch of Calvin and Hobbes in a wagon inscribed for Team Cul de Sac and that is one of maybe only two sketches that he's done for the public since retiring the strip. As he's said, "it's very rare." The drawing was 2 inches x 2 inches in a copy of The Complete Calvin & Hobbes.

We were trying to get more bidders involved so we did proxy bids to me until 8 pm on Saturday night (June 16th), and we also did an online aspect via Facebook. It was something that Heroes Con had never tried to do before so we were working the bugs out of that. We had the live auction on Saturday night at 9 pm. Heroes Con organizer Shelton Drum to help fund the show but made an exception for the auction of the Calvin piece. It went quite well. We had proxy bids up over $5000 before we started, and then as the bidding started we had two dueling bidders and it ended up selling for $11,000.

MR: And it sold to Tony Harris, the comic book artist?

CS: Yes, he and his son have a strong personal connection over reading C&H when his son was younger. When Tony saw the piece, he said, "That's going to be mine. We're going to go home with that." And he did. I'm very excited for Tony because he's a real fan of the strip and to me that makes it more special when a fan won it.

Shelton Drum, Tony Harris, and Mr. Harris' son

MR: You've mentioned in the past that you and Richard had sent a goal for TCDS fundraising of a quarter of a million dollars...

CS: The real truth of that is that I was swapping emails with Michael Cavna of The Washington Post when I first started the project and Richard and I had talked about how much money we could raise. I was very happy with $25,000 as a goal, but when I was writing back to Mr. Cavna, I put $250,000 and that's what he published. Richard and I had a good laugh about that. By mistake, I added one zero in an email I didn't check, and went from $25,000 to $250,000.

This weekend, before the D&D we had around $241,000. The D&D brought in about $5100 so we were about $4000 away. We broke the goal!

MR: So what's next for TCDS? Are you going to keep doing this every year, or do you think it's run its course?

CS: I don't think it's run its course for two reasons. Over the past ten years now, I've met so many people with Parkinson's and this is one event they really enjoy coming to. And the Heroes family has been such a part of this, and we have such a big draw now. It went from being in a little pizza place across from the convention center with five or six tables to now filling up the Westin Hotel ballroom with hundreds of people. It's a great camaraderie and it's great for fans at the show because it's a lot of art that they can afford, that's not $1,000 or $10,000 per piece. They have a good time and feel good about donating to a good cause. And one of the best parts about Team Fox is that every penny we raise goes to research. Very few charities can do that, and it's very important to me to know that the money's going to research.

Remembering Richard Thompson

Richard Thompson, the ace cartoonist from Arlington, passed away a year ago today from complications of Parkinson's disease. I still find myself thinking I need to stop in when I'm on his side of town. Take a look at some of his drawings and share a smile in his memory today.