Cartoonist Richard Thompson Dies of Parkinson's Disease

One of Thompson's best-known drawings

Proof came today that rare talent, personal graciousness, hard work, high standards, and an extraordinary sense of humor are no shield against Parkinson's Disease. Cartoonist Richard Thompson died this morning. Richard struck me as a genuinely humble man, both aware of his great gifts and unimpressed by them. He cut his own brilliant path. It was marked with restless artistry that was held together by his enormous talent, great charm and intelligence, and driven by his uncompromising high standards. 

I used to keep one of his drawings, a caricature of the late North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, up above my drawing board at work. Not as an incentive to equal or surpass it. That was clearly out of the question. I put it there to inspire me to do the best work I could do, to remind myself that creativity matters, and mainly because it was a beautiful and devastating drawing that was a joy to look at. 

Richard varied the look of his work with a love of experimentation few could match.

 When Richard was diagnosed with PD, his friend Chris Sparks formed Team Cul de Sac, the cartoonist's project against Parkinson's Disease. Chris had the idea of publishing a book of tribute drawings by other cartoonists in honor of Richard's daily comic strip, Cul de Sac. Richard, with typical generosity, invited the other artists to play with his characters, transforming them with their different styles, and imagining their own interpretations. The project made news when the reclusive Bill Watterson, one of Thompson's many cartoonist admirers, contributed a small oil of Petey, one of the main characters in the comic. It was the first artwork the public had seen from the Calvin and Hobbes creator since his retirement of his beloved strip many years before.

Watterson was not alone, he was joined by the likes of Pat Oliphant, Lynn Johnston, Jim Davis, and others, both well-known and obscure. Including the drawing below, I'm proud to say. The book, and an auction of the artwork brought in thousands of dollars for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Since its founding, Team Cul de Sac has raised over $200,000 dollars toward ending Parkinson's Disease.

Richard and I met once, and spent an afternoon talking about the things we had in common, a shared love of British master cartoonist Ronald Searle, a shared burden of Parkinson's Disease. I left his house thinking our paths would cross again, that he would be helped by brain surgery and have years of drawing ahead of him yet. Parkinson's had other plans. Richard, once a most prolific artist, seemed cut off from his muse by Parkinson's disease. The hoped-for benefits of the surgery didn't take. Despite admirable support from family and friends, his decline became steep and irreversible. He died at 58 years old. 

Parkinson's Disease was cruel to him, and cruel to those that loved him or admired his work. I was wrong about his chances with PD, but I am sure of this: His reckless line will remain a thing of beauty with few peers.

Holiday Hyenas at your heel? Here's a way to Restore More Than Your Seasonal Spirit.

 

As a public service, this blog will lift the holiday stress from your stooped shoulders, bringing merriment and cheer to your desperate and dark season.  Just throw away that list, no need to hunker in line outside the big box outlet in the small hours to fight to the last "Tickle-Me-Elmo".

No more!

There is a better way, a way in which you can do good as you do well by the dear ones on your list.

Here is how. Simply contact Mr. Chris Sparks and order multiple copies of the fabulous Team Cul de Sac tribute to cartoonist with Parkinson's Richard Thompson. For only $35.50, Chris, who organized the project, will inscribe the book for you with his name, hunt up a sturdy box, and mail the book to the address you specify. And what a book, featuring art from Bill Watterson, Gary Trudeau, Lynn Johnston and a heavenly host of heavy hitters from all corners of the cartooning cosmos. For every book you order Mr. Sparks will send $5.00 to the Michael J. Fox foundation. They will put it to the excellent use of humiliating, incapacitating, and finally destroying Parkinson's Disease, burying its shattered corpse under numerous tons of cement and setting wild hyenas loose to patrol the area to ensure that it never again sees the light of day. Now that's what I call the Christmas spirit!

Now you can cross two things off your to-do at once... end Parkinson's and finish your Christmas shopping at the same time! What are you waiting for? (Cue Joseph Spence, singing "Sandy Clor is Coming to Town")

A "Heart-on-His-Sleeve-Southerner" Does Serious Damage to my Cynical Side

 

Chris Sparks,  (Center), Cartoonist Richard Thompson (R) and me, at a Team Cul de Sac signing at Politics and Prose, a Bethesda bookstore in early July, 2012 

  

I've written before how my job as a political cartoonist pushed me dangerously close to misanthropy. Concentrating, as a cartoonist does for hours each day on incompetents, opportunists, meatheads, and malefactors left me with an opinion of my fellow man that was shading into the red zone of contempt.

Then I got sick and scared. Suddenly a new class of people came into focus. Among this previously invisible group were highly trained and skilled medical professionals, selfless caregivers, and fellow PD sufferers who cope with grace and courage.  And then there are those who, without preparation, suddenly burst into passionate flame as they are confronted with the consequences of Parkinson's disease for someone they care about.

Chris Sparks is a great example. The former comic book store owner from North Carolina is a lover of cartoons. At a comics convention, he met and befriended the singularly gifted cartoonist Richard Thompson. Not long after they struck up their friendship, Chris was devastated to learn that his pal was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

Like many people who learn that a friend is suffering, Chris could not sit quietly and watch someone he cares about be stolen away by sickness. Inspired by Michael J. Fox, he decided to raise money for Parkinson's research. Chris came up with an idea that bordered on madcap poetry. While the rest of the world works to overcome Parkinson's Disease with a commendable grim commitment, staging walks, running marathons, attending meetings and seminars, Chris chose art and humor as his tools.

He decided to create a book in honor of Thompson. The content would be drawings donated by cartoonists featuing their interpretations of Thompson's characters from his celebrated strip, "Cul de Sac". Proceeds from the book and the sale of the artwork at auction would go to the Michael J Fox Foundation to fund PD research.

$45,000 dollars for research and two years later, the whole project looks like a seamless, almost inevitable success. But look inside and you'll see that the entire enterprise depended on the passion and indeed the chutzpah of one man. Cartoonists as a class are deeply centered on their work. To survive in the field, they must be. They do not welcome distraction from the pursuit of the craft they love, they tend to be loners, they don't follow instructions well, and they hate deadlines. This was the group that Chris Sparks boldly chose to bring together.

In fact, when he proposed the book idea to Universal Features, the syndicate that distributes Cul de Sac, Chris had only one cartoonist, Stephen Pastis, committed to the project. Sparks assured the powers that be that other big names from the biz would be on board, and because he is a convincing guy, not only the did powers that be buy in, but a great number of star cartoonists did in fact create work for the project.

Fortunately for Chris, he is not alone in his admiration for the work of Richard Thompson. Spill ink at a gathering of cartoonists and you are bound to stain quite a few Thompson fans. His elegant and carefree line is the sort of thing other cartoonists have no choice but to love. Smart, unassuming, and wry, Thompson the man is beloved as his artwork. Among those that came aboard the project were Pat Oliphant, Lynn Johnston,  Garry Trudeau, and "Calvin and Hobbes" creator Bill Watterson. Watterson gave the project a huge profile boost with his contribution, the first work that most have seen by him since he gave up his acclaimed strip over a decade ago.

Chris was riding the tiger by the time the Watterson painting showed up. Putting a book together is difficult enough with just one author. Multiply the contributors, and you multiply the paperwork, complicate the decisions you must make about how the work will be presented, and, most painful, decide who is in and who is out.

Then there was the auction to organize. I got several emails from Chris that left me with the impression that he was barely clinging to sanity. I was worried enough to check with Thompson about how Chris was taking the pressure. Richard wrote back that "I think he's a heart-on-his-sleeve Southerner who reacts with some emotion to every shift in the weather but is basically ebullient. My Mom was one, and I like that kind."

Reassured, I went back to anticipating the appearance of the book. When it finally came out, it was met with well-deserved praise. The handsome design by Chris and Jamie King, his partner at Sparking Design,  combined with excellent introductory pieces from Thompson, Sparks, and Michael Cavna of the Washington Post set up the collected artwork well. The pages burst with joyous drawing, high spirits, and palpable affection and respect for Thompson.

The success of the project is the result of the work of many hands, as Chris would be the first to insist. But the scope and ambition of effort is the mark of one person who rolled up his sleeves instead of shrugging his shoulders when a friend got sick. It's enough to make a would-be cynic re-think his lousy attitude, and that is a healing that is nearly as momentous as the cure for Parkinson's Disease we so fervently desire.

Team Cul de Sac: Laughing at Parkinson's Disease, Raising Money for the MJ Fox Foundation

It's finally time to turn hype into hope. I've been nattering on for a year now about the terrific Team Cul de Sac cartoonist's project to raise money to fight Parkinson's Disease. June is shaping up to be a Team Cul de Sac-apalooza. The effort, organized by Chris Sparks, has two fronts, a book, and an auction. The book, filled with tribute drawings to the cartoonist's cartoonist, Richard Thompson, is is due for release June 5th, and the on-line auction of the cartoons is now open!

Participating cartoonists include Bill Watterson, Pat Oliphant, G.B. Trudeau, Jim Davis and a bunch of other  top-flight talents. (immodesty compels me to admit that my contribution appears above, and you can bid on it right here) If you ever wanted to own work by your favorite cartoonist, if you ever thought it was time to give money to aid Parkinson's research, if you are delighted with the idea of taking on such a bitter, nasty foe and bringing it down with art and humor, now is your chance. What are you waiting for? (Cue "Chariots of Fire theme"...)

After 16 Years Incomunicado, "Calvin and Hobbes" Artist Bill Watterson Emerges to Help in the Effort to Stop Parkinson's Diseas

(ABOVE) Portrait of "Cul de Sac" character Petey Otterloop, by Bill Watterson

Here is one more reason to revere Bill Watterson, creator of "Calvin and Hobbes". The reclusive cartoonist has contributed the first piece of art that the general public has seen from him in 16 years to the Team Cul de Sac effort to help the MJ Fox foundation in its efforts to cure Parkinson's Disease.

You can learn more from a Washington Post blogger Michael Cavna Here, or check out the Team Cul de Sac blog here.

Many thanks to Bill Watterson, a guy who knows when and how to break a long silence!

Team Cul de Sac update: Cartoonists Begin Sending Artwork

Drawings from cartoonists are starting to come in to the cartoonist's campaign against Parkinson's Disease. The plan is to combine the drawings into a book to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The effort is led by the indefatigable Chris Sparks, who was motivated by the PD diagnosis of his friend, Richard Thompson. Thompson is the creator of Cul de Sac, one of the brightest lights in the recent history of newspaper comics. Contributing artists are invited to use the characters from the strip in their contributions for the book. At left is a picture of one of the leading characters, Alice, as drawn by Thompson. (You can see my donation here) Preview the recently contributed art at the Team Cul de Sac blog.