Cartoonist Richard Thompson meets local fans and supporters Photo by Vernon Miles.
Arlington — Nick Galifinakis and David Apatoff had a problem. They wanted to keep meeting at the home of fellow cartoonist Richard Thompson, creator of Washington Post comic Richard’s Poor Almanac and his nationally syndicated comic Cul de Sac, to chat and to pour over his work, but were afraid that Thompson would kick them out if they didn’t come up with a good reason to stay. This was the origin of “The Art of Richard Thompson.” Though likely apocryphal, the story is indicative of the reverence and humor with which the editors compiled the collection.
At an event at the Arlington Central Library on Saturday, Dec. 6, four of the book’s five editors spoke at a panel where they discussed cartooning and their experience with Thompson. Thompson himself was seated in the front row of the event, though with declining health he was unable to take questions directly from the audience.
Thompson announced in 2009 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, which in 2012 forced him to stop working on his comics.
“Richard and I were on National Public Radio together and we shared a cab afterwards,” said Michael Cavna, an editor at the Washington Post and the event moderator. “As we got in that cab, Richard went to do his seatbelt. The whole time, all the months, I’d never seen his drawing hand shake. Richard couldn’t do his seatbelt that day. Honestly, at that moment, I realized ‘oh no, Cul De Sac is going to end’.”
The event began with a short film about Thompson by GVI, a video-production company. The film focuses on Thompson’s work and the impact on the world of comic strips.
“Richard’s a longtime friend and neighbor,” said Andy Hemmendinger, president of GVI. “I was visiting him this spring and saw a draft of his new book with his self-portrait showing him as a newly hatched chick. It got me thinking about his view from inside of the egg, his endless hours staring at a blank sheet of paper, his self-imposed confinement in his basement studio and the constraints of Parkinson’s.”
Hemmendinger said it has always surprised him that Thompson was extremely well known within the comic strip community but not as much to the general public.
After the film, the book’s editors Galifinakis and Apatoff took the stage with Cavna. They were later joined by Mike Rhode and Chris Sparks, two of the book’s other editors. Bill Watterson, cartoonist most well-known for his comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, was the book’s fifth editor but was unable to attend the panel.
The four editors at the panel discussed the days spent at Thompson’s home pouring over his collection of artwork. According to Galifinakis, at the end of the “rough cut” stage of the project, they were still at 20,000 pages. The editors had to sort between what they considered great, brilliant, and genius.
For Apatoff, Thompson’s process was one of the most impressive aspects of his work. When going through his body of work, Apatoff said they’d find dozens of sketches and drafts for a single caricature, each with barely discernable differences.
“There’s no software, there’s no corporate funding involved,” said Apatoff. “What you have is one gentle guy who sits alone at his drawing board and uses very ancient tools.”
Eileen McGervey, founder and owner of One More Page Books in Arlington, said her first experience with Thompson was when she nervously approached him about doing a signing at her store.
“When I first got ready to open the bookstore, someone gave me Richard [Thompson]’s contact information,” said McGervey. “I hesitantly reached out to him about coming to our store and doing an event. To my surprise, he very graciously agreed, and that’s when I realized how very cool it was to own a bookstore.”
McGervey said that when Thompson came to her store, they had to move the furniture out onto the sidewalk to fit the customers into their store.
“When I think of Richard, I don’t think of Richard the artist,” said Galifinakis, looking right at Thompson sitting in the front row. “He’s the guy who was swinging on the pole on the subway with a big smile on his face when I asked him to stand with me at my wedding. He’s the guy who I was sitting in the waiting room with when [my] first child was about to be born.”