Comic Feature – Richard Thompson

Richard Church Thompson (October 8, 1957 – July 27, 2016) was an American illustrator and cartoonist best known for his syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to 150 worldwide and the illustrated poem “Make the Pie Higher”. He was given the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year for 2010.

Born in Baltimore on October 8, 1957. He was an avid reader from a young age and was particularly drawn to Winnie the Pooh and Dr. Seuss. Thompson continued his formal art education at Montgomery County Community College, although he dropped out prior to graduation, in 2004 the college would give him the Milton F. “Sonny” Clogg Alumni of the Year award.

In 1982, Thompson applied for a position at The Washington Post, which brought him to the attention of art director Francis Tanabe. Tanabe immediately hired him as a freelance artist, and the association would continue for nearly three decades. Thompson contributed regularly to both The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine and was the newspaper’s unofficial staff artist by 1985.

The weekly, watercolored incarnation of his comic Cul de Sac launched in The Washington Post Magazine on February 14, 2004. The strip focuses on a four-year-old girl, Alice Otterloop, and her daily life at preschool and at home. He also created the series Richard’s Poor Almanac is a cartoon series by Richard Thompson which ran in the Washington Post Style section from 1997 until his passing in 2016.

Upon learning that George W. Bush had opted not to invite an official poet to his inauguration ceremony in January 2001, Thompson composed his own poem from Bush malapropisms, and assembled them into a free-form verse entitled “Make the Pie Higher” The cartoon was widely circulated online over the next year, was set to music by multiple composers. SOURCES: WIKIPEDIA, COMPLEX, WASHINGTON POST

PHOTO CREDIT: DUSTIN FENSTERMACHER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

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